FHS speech team advances all eight groups to state

FAIRFIELD – Fairfield High School’s large group speech team is sending all eight of its acts to the state competition after they received Division 1 ratings at districts.

The Trojans’ large group speech team competed in the Iowa High School Speech Association's Large Group Speech Contest held at Keota High School on Saturday, Jan. 20. All eight groups earned Division I ratings and are advancing to the state competition to be held at Pleasant Valley High School on Saturday, Feb 3.

The eight groups include three group improvisations, two ensemble acting groups, a musical theatre, group mime, and a radio broadcast.

Fairfield residents will get the chance to see all of these acts on stage during the speech team’s “FHS Night of Theatre” at 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 26 in the FHS Auditorium. The club is accepting free-will donations, which will go toward the cost of entry fees and royalties the club must pay.

FHS speech coach Fred Hucke announced that he will retire at the end of this school year after having spent 31 years teaching in the district, all while leading the speech team. He said he’s proud of the All-State banners that his students won, such as the Choral Reading group that received a Critic’s Choice Award at All-State, and later the Group Mime that got a Critic’s Choice Award, too, but those accolades are not what he’s going to remember most.

“My best moments of coaching have nothing to do with that big success,” he said. “My best moments are when there’s a kid who finally gets the line right, or a kid who joins speech and feels a little more confident, someone who feels more connected to their school. That’s so much more important to me, because speech kids are the most accepting people.”

Hucke said that there have been many times when he’s exhausted at the end of the school day, and the speech kids turn his mood completely around.

“These kids come in with so much energy, and they want to do something,” he said. “They want what I know. I just wish school could be like that all the time. They want to be here and do cool stuff. You remember why you do this when you see those kids.”

The Union had a chance to speak to some members of the large group speech team to learn about the acts they’re in and what they enjoy most about being on the team.

SHAYLA PALMER

Shayla Palmer is a junior who is out for speech for the first time. She wasn’t initially planning to be on the team, but she changed her mind when she learned her friend Harmony Bailey was going out.

“I know plenty of people on the speech team, but I was never interested in it before,” Palmer said. “I’m glad I joined, and I plan to do it next year.”

Palmer, along with Harmony Bailey and Arissa Pohren, are members of the radio broadcast team. In this category, the students must produce a radio segment lasting about 5-6 minutes on any subject, as long as the material is true. This group chose to do a segment on the early 2000s alternative rock bands My Chemical Romance, Paramore and Gorillaz.

“We were trying to think of a mutual interest, and the bands that we thought of all ended up being early 2000s alternative rock bands,” Palmer said.

The group played their radio program for the judge during the district contest, and the judge liked it.

“He loved what we talked about and how informed we were,” Palmer said.

Palmer said the group plans to re-record the segment with some changes recommended by the judge before the state contest on Feb. 3.

ARISSA POHREN

Arissa Pohren is a freshman in her first year on the speech team, though she does have experience acting in middle school theatrical productions. Pohren said she had fun as a member of the radio broadcast group, and that she enjoyed getting to research the band My Chemical Romance, which was her contribution to the broadcast.

“The most fun thing about speech is meeting new people, and the actual speech competition,” she said. “The most challenging part for me is that when we record, I get nervous and mess up, so we have to re-record it. But I think this has made me a better speaker.”

EVIE MESSER

Evie Messer is a senior who has been on the speech team all four years. She did musical theatre and short film her freshman year, and for her sophomore year she was a late addition to the mime team that would go on to make All-State. She agonizes over which groups she’s going to join because she wants to do them all.

“Once I do something, I want to do it again,” Messer said. “I loved mime, so I did it the next year, too. I did short film for two years, but there are so many things I want to do and I can only pick two. I keep coming back to musical theatre, and this year I wanted to try group improv. I did solo improv before, so I decided to try group improv and I’ve loved it.”

Improv is the most difficult act to prepare for because, while the students can practice improvising, they won’t know exactly what they’ll perform until just minutes before they must begin their routine. At contest, the group draws three slips of paper, each one describing a theme or situation they must act out. The group picks one of the three to perform, and then they have just two minutes to discuss how each of them will act it out.

Messer said that, at the district competition in Keota, her group was given a prompt of teaching someone how to skateboard. She said it went really well, which felt good because the rehearsals leading up to districts were up and down.

“We tended to really hit or really miss, and our misses taught us that we work well together when we have a goal,” Messer said. “Once we found what each of us is good at, it helped us come up with our game plan. I’m good at switching between characters really fast and making them distinct.”

For musical theatre, Messer’s group performed portions of three songs totaling 10 minutes from the musical “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.” Assistant speech coach Noel Wotherspoon presented the students with a couple of choices for musical theatre, this one and “Spamalot.” Messer said the group liked the songs better in “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” and chose that.

Messer said that participation in the speech team took a hit during COVID and has been slow to recover, but she feels like the group is finally gaining momentum once gain.

“We’re forming that snowball and rolling it down the hill,” she said. “Students are finding out that they can do this while in sports or other activities. I’m in band, choir and Esports, so my schedule is crazy.”

Messer said her favorite part of being on the speech team is getting to hang out with her friends for 90 minutes after school.

“We mess around, but we also get stuff done,” she said. “It’s so much fun. The memories are definitely going to stick with me.”

BROCK CURTIS

Senior Brock Curtis has been on the speech team for two years after previously spending his winters on the wrestling team. Curtis enjoys the performing arts as much as sports, and earlier this school year was honored for his outstanding performance in choir by being named an alternate to All-State.

Curtis is in musical theatre and group improv, and he enjoyed the unique challenges the two categories present. For musical theatre, he enjoys the choreography and dancing, something he doesn’t get to do in choir.

All of the coaches, including head coach Fred Hucke and assistants Noel Wotherspoon and Sam Garles, played a role in shaping the music or choreography for “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

“All of the coaches took care of us and made this very manageable,” he said.

For his group improv, Curtis said his group struggled at first because they tried to incorporate so many ideas into their act, but their coaches reminded them that they’re at their best when they stick to a small handful of ideas.

“We were thinking that we had to add a lot of things and keep track of them, and the coaches taught us to keep it simple and recall things you’ve already said,” Curtis said. “If you keep adding, the audience will get confused and the jokes won’t pan out.”

Curtis said not all improv acts are funny, but they tend to be.

“Comedy is the wit of the soul,” Curtis said. “That’s the improv way. We think of how we can make a joke, or add comedy to an absurd thing.”

ELLA HOLDERBAUM

Ella Holderbaum is a junior in her third year on the speech team. She joined the speech team as a freshman after doing the fall play, and in her first year she tried choral reading and short film. However, she said those categories didn’t “stick” with her, and tried something different her sophomore year, ensemble acting and musical theatre.

“I enjoyed both of those, so I am doing them again this year,” she said.

Holderbaum is a member of Vox Choir, so she gets plenty of opportunities to sing, but she also likes to dance and act, which she gets to do on the speech team.

For ensemble acting, Holderbaum performs a piece with Connor Hawkins called “Reflex Action,” which is a comedic play doing a send-up of all the theatre cliches.

“Our coach Noel Wotherspoon suggested it, and Connor and I liked the script so we went with it,” Holderbaum said. “I like ensemble acting because it is just authentic acting. We get the script, read the lines, workshop how we move our characters and what we’re doing in the moment.”

Holderbaum said she’s planning to go out for speech team her senior year, and will likely stick with her favorite categories of ensemble acting and musical theatre.

“The most rewarding part of the speech team is competing to improve yourself and your own score,” she said. “It’s rewarding to know you’re getting better, as opposed to beating another team.”

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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