Blake Dolezal shows his approval for the virtual speech meet. Students got into the prop closet and had some fun in between rounds of North Platte’s online meet. Dolezal is one member of the OID group that placed second Saturday, which also includes Sophia Perez, Meghan Bishop, Triston Hite and Jeb Kohl.
PC Speech takes first in novice sweepstakes
Saturday, Perkins County’s speech team competed in their first virtual meet of the season, North Platte’s Blue and Gold meet.
Coach Penny Hite said the Blue and Gold meet is a difficult competition, as they see some of their tougher competitors such as North Platte high school and Gothenburg.
“Competition was fierce,” she noted.
Because there weren’t any judges at the school, parents and spectators were allowed to watch the students perform, and according to Hite, there was an audience there to root for the team.
“It was wonderful,” she said. “It has been a very different season, but the kids are handling it beautifully,” she said.
Hite added that students had commented that they had a lot more fun than they thought they would.
“There were a few technical glitches initially, but we were able to maintain our internet connections and our MacBooks did run, for the most part, very smoothly,” she said.
25 schools participated in the virtual meet, and Perkins County saw 23 of it’s students delivering speeches Saturday.
To participate in a virtual speech meet, each student joins a “virtual classroom” on their computer, and when the judge calls on them, they perform live in front of their camera.
Each group is in their own classroom, and it is just the students and a judge.
At the end of the day, students gathered in Hite’s classroom where they all attended the awards ceremony (virtually). Awards will be mailed out this week.
The novice team, which is comprised of first year speech members, placed first overall.
The next meet for Perkins County will be at Ogallala on Saturday, February 20. Spectators will not be allowed and masks are required.
Results
• Persuasive: Selah Richter-Martinez, 1st (Novice); Meghan Bishop, 3rd (Championship); Gavin Smith, 10th (Championship)
• Informative: Kaitlin Meyer, 3rd (Novice); Rylee Huff, 11th (Championship)
• Duet: Ella Uehling and Kailee Potts, 3rd (Novice); Jeb Kohl and Meghan Bishop, 4th (Championship)
• Oral Interpretation of Drama: Sophia Perez, Meghan Bishop, Triston Hite, Blake Dolezal and Jeb Kohl, 2nd (Championship)