On Monday, February 24th from 6:00pm to 8:00pm, CAM Individual Speech held an Individual Events Showcase. Like the Large Group Showcase held a few months ago, the event was established to give students a chance to receive feedback on their pieces before districts. In total, 40 kids were able to perform, and six judges came to critique. After their performances, the students were able to receive comments about their pieces to make them better-prepared for districts. Every event in Individual was represented at the Showcase: Public Address, Literary Program, Review, After Dinner, Original Oratory, Solo Musical Theatre, Radio News, Expository Address, Prose, Poetry, Storytelling, Improv Acting, Acting, and Spontaneous Speaking with several students in each category. Coach Thomas says, “Showcase is a great opportunity to get feedback for the students before we go to districts.” Good job to all those who performed and good luck at districts on Saturday, the 29th at Panora!

On Saturday, February 8th, the students who made it to State Large Group Speech (receiving a I-rating at districts), traveled to Waukee High School for their Large Group contest. In total, eight teams qualified: Short Film (Modern Day Cowboy), Choral Reading (Hey Kids, What’s On TV?), Reader’s Theatre (The Eleventh), Musical Theatre (Fiddler on the Roof), Improv (Emily Lee, Alaina Abild, Wyatt Gettler, Eyon Steffensen), Improv (Carson Cary, Peter McAfee, Gavyn Jessen, and Gabe Rouse), TV News, and Freshman Radio Broadcasting, over half of the groups who went to districts. All of the teams did very well, but only two teams received overall I-ratings. The Reader’s Theatre (The Eleventh), received a 1-1-3 rating, earning an overall one, and the Short Film (Modern Day Cowboy) received a 1-1-1 rating, earning an overall one. Good job to all of the teams that went, and hopefully the two receiving I-ratings will move on to All-State. Good luck to those groups and good luck to everyone participating in Individual Speech!

On Saturday, January 25th, the Large Group Speech students travelled to Creston High School for the District Contest. In total, 15 teams went in several different categories, such as Improv, Radio Broadcasting, TV News, Musical Theatre, and Choral Reading. In total, 8 teams received I ratings, meaning they will advance to state. Those teams were: Short film (Modern Day Cowboy), Choral reading (Hey Kids, What’s On TV?), Reader’s theatre (The Eleventh), Musical Theatre (Fiddler on the Roof), Improv (Emily Lee, Alaina Abild, Wyatt Gettler, Eyon Steffensen), Improv (Carson Cary, Peter McAfee, Gavyn Jessen, and Gabe Rouse), TV News, and Freshman Radio Broadcasting. These teams will be competing at State Large Group at Waukee High School on February 8th and will hopefully move on to All-State. Good job to all the students who participated and good luck to them at state! Be sure to come and support CAM Large Group!

All of the high school speech students have been working hard to perfect their pieces, practicing amongst each other and the coaches. The students had their first opportunity of the year to show off their hard work and dedication at CAM High School’s first large group showcase. Unfortunately, the showcase had been postponed from Saturday, the 18th to Sunday, the 19th, so some students were not able to join, but those who went got an opportunity for their pieces to be judged by Carol Dorsey and Julie Plowman, experienced judges. Speech coach, Mrs. Thomas, says, “The showcase went very well this year and I feel like it was a great opportunity for students to get to perfect their pieces and to know more about speech in general and what it is like. The students seemed to like it, too, and I feel like they will be better prepared for districts next Saturday!” Good job to all of the students at the showcase and good luck next Saturday at Large Group Districts!

On Saturday, January 18th, the CAM Speech Department will be hosting their first Showcase night from 6:30-8:15 at the high school for large group events. During this, the students’ pieces will be judged so they can have a chance to get feedback on their events before District Large Group. Mrs. Thomas, one of the speech coaches, says, “I’m so excited for our showcase and for our students to get a chance to hear what a judge thinks of their piece. And it’s a good chance for parents to see their kids perform as well!” Be sure to come support the CAM Speech Department and the students as they perform their pieces! Good luck to the students at the showcase and at districts!

On Friday, December 13th and Saturday, December 14th, three CAM debate teams travelled to Dowling Catholic for the two-day Dowling Catholic Paradigm debate tournament. In total, 89 teams went to the tournament from 14 different states, so the debaters faced a larger, harder variety of opponents. The team of Kaylee Hardin and Lexie Ehrman unfortunately did not win any rounds. The team of Gabe Rouse and Natasha Erickson fought hard but unfortunately did not win any rounds either. The team of Logan Lawrence and Paige Jensen won two out of five rounds and had a couple close ones. Good job to all those who went and good luck next Saturday at Lincoln!

On Saturday, December 7th, the debaters travelled to Johnston for their invitational tournament. Three teams were able to go, but unfortunately, two members fell ill, having to drop out. This left the teams of: Emily Lee and Essie Riker in Varsity Public Forum and Alex Petersen and Ali Namanny in Novice Public Forum. Alex and Ali won one out of five rounds. Unfortunately, Emily and Essie won zero out of four rounds. Thirteen teams competed in the varsity tournament from Ames, Dowling Catholic, Okoboji, Southeast Polk, Ankeny Centennial, and Lincoln. In the novice division, 18 teams competed. Good job to both teams and good luck next Saturday at the Dowling Catholic Tournament!

On Tuesday, November 26th, the speech pie fundraiser ended as the students finished making the pies and handing them out. Altogether, over 400 pies were sold by the students and coaches, and more pies were made for selling at concessions throughout the season. Thanks to everyone who supports the department and also to the coaches and students who helped sell and bake the pies!

On Saturday, November 9th, the debaters traveled to Roosevelt High School in Des Moines for a tournament with the new topic; Resolved: The benefits of the United States government’s use of offensive cyber operations outweigh the harms. In the varsity division, Logan Lawrence and Emily Lee won two out of five debates. In the novice division, Carson Cary and Natasha Erickson won two out of five rounds, Esther Riker and Jeremy Kopp won one, and Ali Namanny and Shelby Rodenberg won one. Faith Nath and Paige Jensen won four rounds, advancing to the semifinals. After winning their semifinal round, they advanced to the finals but unfortunately fell short, placing second in the novice tournament overall and ending the day with a 5-2 record. Good job to all of the debaters and good luck in your next tournament!

On Saturday, October 19th, CAM hosted its very first novice debate tournament. Schools new to debate or with new members were welcome to come to get a taste of debate in a casual tournament. Two schools came to debate and two came to watch the round between Emily Lee and Logan Lawrence against an Okoboji Varsity team and were able to ask the debaters questions about the round and about debate in general. A few debaters also came in order to learn how to judge a round and gain experience in judging. After the rounds were over, the schools met in the library to discuss how the tournament went, ask questions, and to learn how to build a case. Good job to everyone who went on Saturday and good luck to all of the debaters in the future!

On Saturday, September 28th, the CAM debate team traveled to Indianola for the Simpson Storm Debate Tournament. Two teams competed in the competition: Natasha Erickson and her partner Faith Nath, and Logan Lawrence and his partner Jeremy Kopp. Essie Riker, Kaylee Hardin, Cece Hensley, Alex Petersen, and Emily Lee also went to observe the event. Natasha Erickson and Faith Nath won one out of five debates but did not advance. Logan Lawrence and Jeremy Kopp won four out of five debates and advanced to the onto finals, but unfortunately did not pull through that round. Everyone who attended learned a lot about debate and will be very well-prepared for the next tournament.

The CAM speech department had their annual banquet on Sunday, April 14th. Many awards were given including the Debate Spark Plug Award given to Faith Nath, the Outstanding Debater was awarded to Logan Lawrence, and the Speech Spark Plug Award was earned by Paige Jensen. The Kevin Burke Award, which is an award given to a senior who has supported the younger speech students and helped them succeed, was awarded to Walker McDermott. Mitchell Williamson and Walker also received the coveted John Burke Scholarship, which comes in the form of scholarship money for college tuition. Beverly Johnson was awarded the CAM Hall of Fame Award for her years as a speech coach and how much she has helped the program succeed. Tami Stephenson was given the Volunteer Award for all of her help making the speech pies in November for the team’s fundraiser. The Alumni Award was given to Kathy Blazek for listening to CAM Speech students practice and helping out any way she could throughout the season.

The CAM Speech Department took 32 events from 24 students to the state contest on Saturday, March 9th in Nevada. The team came home with ten students receiving an overall “1” rating from 15 events. Six of the students received “straight 1’s” from all three judges. The speech team is waiting on the announcement of All-State qualifiers on Saturday afternoon since the Northwest district was not able to have their contest.

The CAM Debate team traveled to Des Moines the morning of January 4th and stayed overnight to participate in CAM’s first debate contest in over 20 years. The topic for this debate was, “Should the United States federal government prioritize reducing the federal debt over promoting economic growth?” There were 14 students who competed. Each team, which consisted of two people, had the opportunity to take part in five debates. Emily Lee and Logan Lawrence won two out of five, Alexis Ehrman and Natasha Erickson also won two out of five. Abby Follmann and Madyson McKee won one debate while Josie Williamson and Faith Nath won one as well. The team of Madison Holtz and Grace Hensley participated as well. The individual debaters, Cavan Murphy and Jeremy Kopp competed as well.

On Friday, January 4th, the newly rekindled debate team went to the State Debate competition in Des Moines. This was the first contest the debate team participated in since it had been reintroduced to CAM High School by coaches, Manda Thomas and Kirk Kelloway. Two of the debate teams went 2-3, three teams went 1-4, and one team went 0-5. They also had two Lincoln Douglas guys go 0-5. The coaches were very proud of how the students did in their first ever debate competition. As for speech, the large group season is fast approaching with competitions coming up this week. Individual speakers are finalizing their pieces and beginning practice in the next couple of weeks to prepare for competitions in the end of February.

On Saturday, February 2nd, the CAM Large Group speech teams went to the state speech contest at Valley High School in Des Moines. The teams were two freshman improvs and one reader’s theater. They all received straight 2’s but gained valuable experience speaking at the state level and learning from the contest. The next event on the speech agenda is the Individual Conference Speech Contest held at the CAM High School on Saturday, February 9th.