Two Adel-DeSoto-Minburn High School students from the Large Group Speech Team, and have advanced to the state contest, illustrate struggles presented during the district’s competition.

Junior Alayna Freeman and Senior Chloe Clarke both qualified for two events each for the Iowa High School Speech Association State Large Group Contest at Ankeny Centennial on Saturday. Despite qualifying, Freeman tells Raccoon Valley Radio the challenges she faced in districts.

“One of our teammates was sick for improv, so we kind of had to go without our usual ‘characters,’…and then our core reading piece, some of us just felt really unsure, again, because we had so many snow days.”

Clarke explains her struggles were more internal.

“I think the worst part is the nerves, cause you don’t necessarily know what’s going to happen. Like you can practice as many times as you can, and you get in there, and you can like totally bomb it.”

Clarke qualified for both Varsity’s Reader Theatre and Varsity Ensemble Acting, while Freeman will be going for Varsity Choral Reading and Varsity Improv. Check out the full list of qualifiers below.