About IHSSA

The Iowa High School Speech Association serves 487 member schools and 40,000 students! The Iowa Interscholastic Speech Association was organized in November of 1943 due to a desire in many people to enlarge and expand the outstanding work in the Iowa High School Declamatory Association. As time goes on, this organization is able to add other types of speech activities that have an increasing need to be recognized. Visible work of the Association can be seen through their series of contests, but its fundamental philosophy is built on the belief that no form of activity holds more importance than that of learning to speak effectively.

Contest Speech is a very popular activity here at the high school. Any student in grades 9-12 at Urbandale is welcome to join the speech team. There are two seasons: Large Group and Individual Events. Large group rehearses from November to February and Individual Events rehearses from February through March. Students are not required to participate in both Large Group and Individual Events. There is a place for everybody thanks to such a wide variety of categories for both seasons.

For more information about the Urbandale High School speech team, please contact sponsor Shaun Knapp at knapps@urbandaleschools.com

Students interested in large group speech events will be asked to audition so that they can be placed by our expert coaching staff into events that best display their individual strengths.

Students interested in individual events will be able to sign up for categories of their interest based on a predetermined coaching schedule. Teams are limited to 42 entries for district contest . We do NOT limit student involvement in individual events; however, some students will NOT perform at contest due to limits in each category. For example, we allow more than 3 students to rehearse storytelling and hone skill, but we are only able to have 3 students perform at contest. Individual “teams” will determine who represents us in their event.

 More Information can be found here on the by clicking the pages below