A Day at Large Group State Speech Competition

North Scott’s Speech Team spends the majority of their Saturdays between February and March busy with competitions. Here, students will complete and display the work they have been creating for the past three months. 

Come with me to see what a talent-filled day looks like for North Scott at the 2025 Large Group State Speech competition! 

5:45 am: Our mornings start very early on competition days. We wake up before the sun has come out and arrive at the high school looking a little less than awake. Once attendance is taken and we have all of our speechies, it’s time to load the buses and head to Cedar Rapids Washington High School. We spend the majority of our bus ride line-bashing different pieces (one-act, choral reading, ensemble acting, etc.) and catching the last bit of sleep we can before getting to the school. 

7:30 am: We arrive at Cedar Rapids Washington High School because it is a GREAT day for speech in Iowa. During this time we find a spot in “home base” (the main gym) where we will keep our things throughout the day. While people bustle about the school and other teams are busy loading their own stuff in, we take this time to find all of our competition centers and take a good look at where everything is. 

Since we bring so many groups, there is a plethora of performances to go and watch throughout the day. When we are not getting ready, rehearsing, or performing, we spend our time watching our teammates’ events or even supporting other schools. I love getting to see so many different groups perform at competition, especially from different teams; I could sit in a musical theatre room for hours. 

11:00 am: After Emma made us rehearse outside in the freezing cold, it was time for me to compete in my first event, Ensemble Acting. Our ensemble piece, Wicked (A Broadway Abridged Script), basically just makes fun of one of Broadway’s biggest musicals and is very silly and fun. At State competitions, we perform in front of three judges, as opposed to just one at Districts, and our group got an overall "one" rating from each judge.

2:20 pm: It's time for my second performance of the day! We spend some time as a group running over Choral lines in the practice gym and stressing out as our time to prepare comes to a close. The speech techies and other teammates help load in our set while we stand in the hallway—in our beautiful grippy socks—anxiously ready to perform. With The Timekeeper being a much deeper and emotional piece, I love getting to see the expressions of those watching us perform during this event. This performance also got an all one rating. 

Speech coach, Mykah Peterson, ready to run the music for musical theatre group, Mamma Mia!, from the top of a table since rooms can get very packed.

Without the stress of an impending performance, I get to spend the rest of the day watching other people perform and telling everyone how great of a job they did. One of the highlights of my day was seeing a Wicked Musical Theatre performance from another school that was astonishing. It is so cool to see how different people envision and choreograph pieces, and this group really utilized the ensemble members well to set the scene perfectly. This, combined with their incredibly talented voices, really pulled it all together to be one of my favorite performances.

4:20 pm: Since all of our groups are done performing, it is time for us to load out. It is tradition to leave with our iconic speech chant before we pile onto the buses. On our way back, we took the time to nap, and stop at the Coralville Mall for dinner. When we get back to the school, we have to unload all of our speech boxes from the Penske and the day is over (until All State results on Monday, of course).

We also left behind two people - Mrs. Hintze (our head coach) and Ms. Kintigh - at CR Washington so they can work as members of the All State Large Group Committee. Their committee work is to get All State ready, and means they work all weekend in Des Moines to tally all of the ratings, rankings, and more for All State.

Monday 5:00 pm: This is when All State results come out; this requires an overall ONE rating and at least two judges to give you an All State nomination. This can result in either a performing or non-performing achievement, which is determined through a ranking system. During this time, the IHSSA website is known to crash due to the incredibly heightened level of traffic it gets. This year we had five groups make All State, all non-performing. 

Groups included:

• The Wolves: One Act Play—Emma Zrostlik, Ryenne Lacher, Emme Plett, Charli Conner, Sophie Steiner, Emily Stutting, Bella Suarez, Brooklyn Lacher, Charlotte Madden, and Haidyn Koberg (Speech Techie)

• Group Improv—Jack McCarthy, Behren Radech, Nate Kramer, and Kaden Timmerman

• Wicked (A Broadway Abridged Script): Ensemble Acting—Grady Kirst, Kaitlyn Knepper, Adison Greer, Katelyn Peck, Jack McCarthy, and Emma Zrostlik

• ZZZZ: Radio—Collin Meinert and Taylor Crain

• The Brothers Grimm Spectaculathon: Ensemble Acting—Riley Plymale, Sophia Nelson, Ben Hill, and Madelyn LaPlante

While many students outside of the Speech community might not fully understand what we do, I hope this provides a small glimpse into what speech is like. Behind all of this there are auditions, rehearsals, and the District competition as well, and this time and effort is what gets us to this point and really pays off. Speech is such a close-knit community and we truly have so much fun performing with each other and supporting our team. There is no better way I would want to spend my Saturdays than at random high schools in Iowa with this amazing group of people.