The District Large Group Speech Competition is Saturday, and area students and coaches are ready to bring their events before the judges. Washington, Mid-Prairie, and Highland students will travel to Wapello High School for the competition, while Keota will travel to Ottumwa. Mid-Prairie speech team coach Dave Helmuth says speech contest may not be what you think it is. “There’s a misconception about speech contest, that it’s just people giving boring speeches. But really there’s a lot of different fun categories for any student to be in. It’s basically doing small plays, so it’s a lot more fun than it sounds.”

One relatively new category the Mid-Prairie team is trying for the first time is short film. Helmuth explains, students create five-minute short films or documentaries, and the coaches aren’t allowed to touch them, apart from some guidance. The students write, direct, film, and edit the movies themselves. He says it was challenging for the students, but once everything came together they found it a lot of fun. For those that receive I ratings at the district contest, they will move on to the state competition on February 4th at Cedar Rapids Washington High School. Other area schools taking part in this weekend’s competition include Columbus, Lone Tree, Mt. Pleasant, and Winfield-Mt. Union traveling to Wapello, and Sigourney and Fairfield traveling to Ottumwa.