Eleven County Speech and Drama Competitors Qualify for State Tournament

Eighteen Northern Division Class B and C schools packed the house in Coyote Country this past Saturday, January 25, when Shelby High School hosted the Northern B/C Divisional Speech, Drama, and Debate Tournament. Speech events were held at the elementary school while drama and debate events were conducted at the high school.

After each round of competition, anxious competitors milled in the hallways waiting for results about who would advance. Those anxiety levels reached a peak during finals. Once all of the computer tabulation was complete, performers received news of their status. Eleven local youth will represent Blaine County at the State Class B-C Speech and Drama Tournament in Big Fork.

Among that number of state qualifiers, six of the talented performances came from Chinook High School students. The Sugarbeeters also added one more trophy to their collection with a second-place finish in drama sweepstakes at the Northern B/C Divisional meet.

The Sugarbeeters saw three duos performing in drama events: Gavin Lemro and Grace Ymzon, as well as Jase Pursley and Liam Edwards, in the Drama Humorous Duo category; and Lillyanna Munari and Olivia Standiford in Classical Theater. Pursley and Edwards placed second, Standiford and Munari placed third, and Ymzon and Lemro placed fourth.

The scores of these combined performances enabled the team to place second over-all in the Class C Drama Sweepstakes, missing first place by one point.

With 100% of her team advancing to state, Coach Bonnie Ortner expressed pride in her team's performance: "It has been a great season, and the kids have worked very hard," she said.

Another five of those going on to the state tournament this coming weekend are from the Dodson and Hays-Lodge Pole Co-op team. In addition to producing five state qualifiers, the team earned a third-place trophy in Class C Drama Sweepstakes. Paul Condon, who coaches the team, reported that Nature Bracelet and Randall Werk placed second in Classical Theater with their performance of "Excerpts from Adam and Eve" by Mark Twain and that Littleman Ironbear and Bill Quincy captured fifth in Dramatic Theater.

Although the team didn't place in the Speech Sweepstakes, Monique Gray took fifth in Memorized Public Address.

Condon related that he was "still a bit in shock, although happily" about his team's performance.

The third county school with competitors at the Northern B/C meet, Harlem High School increased its win tally by one when sophomore Stanley Spangelo finished in eighth place in Humorous Oral Interpretation with his piece entitled "Beauty Sleep" by Meghan Hakes. However, that placing did not qualify him for state. His teammate Dante Jackson, a junior from Harlem, did not qualify for finals with his piece "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allen Poe.

According to Harlem's Speech and Drama Coach Mary-Kate French, "Although our season is unfortunately done, the team had fun and did a great job representing the Harlem Wildcats."

Coach of the host school's Shelby Coyotes for the past four years, Jodi Aklestad described the magnitude of such an event: "It takes a whole village to put on a bigger meet such as Divisionals. We had 100-125 students, 50 judges, and just at 50 coaches and bus drivers, so we had a full house."

Aklestad went on to say, "We love Bonnie Ortner! On the coaching circuit, we call her our computer guru. The computer program she designed tabulates scores for rounds as well as for sweepstakes, and it is so much faster and more efficient than paper tabulation."

The State Class B-C Speech and Drama Tournament will be hosted by Bigfork High School this coming Friday-Saturday, January 31-February 1.