Culbertson Speech And Drama Wraps Up Challenging Season
After a strange and unusual season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Class BC virtual state speech, drama and debate tournament, virtually hosted by Huntley Project, was held Jan. 28-30. Culbertson had six state qualifiers competing over the weekend. Of the six, five qualified for semi-finals and four went on to finals and are state finalists.
Placing were: Zach Miller, second place in memorized public address; Colby Olson, fifth in dramatic solo; Trevor Green, sixth in informative and Eric Chilson, who placed eighth in informative. Also earning sweepstakes points was Joseph McCarty. Nyreece Halvorson competed in humorous oral interpretation.
The team placed third in both Class C drama sweepstakes and Class C speech sweepstakes, so two trophies from the Montana High School Association will be arriving in the near future.
Competing virtually was a challenge for competitors, coaches and judges. Students quickly discovered that competing alone in a room to a camera was an unnerving experience. They also discovered how much they have relied on audience feedback during their performances. Due to this situation, many students across the state dropped out of the competition. Some schools lost their entire teams during this season. I would estimate that competitor numbers across the state were down by at least half this year.
The team would like to express their appreciation to Mike Olson for his expertise and support in dealing with the technology necessary for their success. When venturing into the unknown territory of virtual competition, we were uncertain as to how to provide the best video and audio feeds possible so our team wouldn’t have to deal with bad audio or visual quality. Olson was able to provide the equipment that we needed so our students had very few issues throughout the season.
Appreciation goes to everyone who supported the team this past season, especially the following judges who willingly gave up their weekends throughout the season: Mike Olson, Russell Pfiefer, Paula Dehner, Carla Azure, Michaela Cathey, Wendy Becker, Alee Lockman, Phyllis Owens, Shelby Manning, Gretchen Wagner, Amy Berwick, Keri Hauenstein and Leila Seyfert. Without the generosity of their time spent judging, our team would not have been able to compete.
