Local Competitors Advance to State Speech and Drama Tournament
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Competitors from both Chinook and Hays/Lodge Pole Schools joined thirteen other schools for the Northern B/C Divisional Speech and Drama Tournament hosted by Choteau High School on January 22. While each team came away with winners, Hays/Lodge Pole took first place in the Northern Division, winning the Class C drama sweepstakes crown. Furthermore, the top six finishers in each of the fourteen meet categories advanced to the state tournament at Huntley Project High School on January 28-29.
Repeating their win from last year, Haley Cichosz and Jayla Haakanson from Hays/Lodge Pole captured first place in Dramatic Theater. Their teammates, Donavan Chandler and Alexia Walls placed third in Humorous Theater. Those performances resulted in the school's winning the Class C Sweepstakes prize in drama.
"Unfortunately, our mime got Covid the week before divisional competition. She would have qualified for State also," Paul Condon, Head Coach for the Hays/Lodge Pole team predicted.
Sugarbeeters who placed at the Divisional Tournament and advanced to state competition on Friday and Saturday are senior Liam Edwards, a four year team member who earned first in Memorized Public Address; junior Lillyanna Munari, who secured fifth in solo humorous acting; sophomore Listat Pope, a first year competitor who won first in solo dramatic acting; and freshman Julia Briere, another first year team member, achieved fifth place in humorous oral interpretation.
Although competitors and coaches who attended the Divisional Tournament at Choteau were not required to wear masks, out of respect for the wishes of some community volunteers, they were asked to avoid shaking hands or moving inside anyone's personal space whenever possible. After each round of competition, rooms were sanitized in an effort to mitigate the spread of any germs, as well.
The Choteau team's theme for the meet was "we are a rainbow of possibilities," and they expressed pleasure at seeing all the colors in the audience during the presentation of awards.
Choteau High School Speech and Drama Coach Cody Marney reported that at the State qualifying meet, 75 competitors from 15 schools competed with 45 local judges helping throughout the day.
The coach for Chinook, Tammy Edwards also teaches first grade at Meadowlark Elementary School. She took on the position as Head Speech and Drama Coach after learning last fall that the team's existence was at risk for the 2021-2022 season since no one had applied for the vacant coaching position.
"I didn't want to see the students lose this opportunity, so I decided to offer to coach. I do not feel like I am very qualified since I was on the drama team for only two seasons in high school. However, I decided an inexperienced coach is better than no coach at all, so here I am," Edwards said.
Edwards admits that her decision to keep the team alive was partly personal.
Her son Liam had been in Speech and Drama for the first three years of his high school career, and she wanted to see him compete another year.
"I only have four students on the team, so we're a small group, but we have one representative from each class in the high school. Two are competing in Speech and two in Drama," Edwards added.
The small team attended meets in Chester, Malta, and Fort Benton. They missed two scheduled events, one in Shelby because Edwards was ill and another when Simms cancelled their contest.
Because no assistant coach was hired, when Edwards discovered she had contracted the corona virus, Fay Friede, who works as a counsellor for the Chinook School District, stepped in to take the team to the divisional meet.
About her year as the school's coach, Edwards stated: "My goal for the season was to learn about the program and to help the performers improve. They have shown a lot of growth, and I am very proud of them."
