Five Coalers speak their way to state

Coal City High School competed in 14 events at the Illinois High School Association’s State Speech Sectional, and after a tough day of competition, five students advanced to the state finals in seven categories—setting a new school record.
Set to make the trip to the state contest at the Peoria Civic Center this weekend are seniors Cody Rogers and Dominic Curtis, juniors Zoe Smith and Riley Nevin and sophomore Dylan Ludes.
Ludes will be returning to the state finals for a second consecutive year in dramatic duet acting (DDA). This season he is paired with speech newcomer Riley Nevin, a junior.
The duo’s performance of “Scooter Thomas Makes It To The Top of the World,” earned them a second place finish at the sectional. They were the DDA champs coming out of the Morris Regional a week earlier and were also the Illinois Central Eight (ICE) Conference champions.
Nevin will be making his state speech debut as a double entry as his performance of “The Truth in Dreams,” earned him the sectional title. Nevin was also the regional and conference champion.
Curtis is also double entered in the state finals, having advanced in extemporaneous and impromptu speaking.
He was the sectional, regional and conference champion in extemporaneous speaking and finished the sectional in second place in impromptu. He was the regional and conference champion in that category.
Smith is also making another trip to state and this season she will be competing in poetry. Her piece “To This Day,” earned her a third place finish at the sectional. She was the regional and conference champion in the category.
The fifth Coaler advancing to the state tournament is Rogers, who will compete in prose and special occasion speaking (SOS).
The sectional champion in prose, Rogers was also the regional champion in the category. His performance of “Cybercrime: Teaching Old Dogs New Tricks,” earned him a third place finish at the sectional in SOS.
The two-day state tournament gets underway with preliminary rounds Friday afternoon and Saturday morning. The top speakers advance to the finals Saturday afternoon and the tournament concludes with an evening awards ceremony.
A week prior to the sectional, the Coalers claimed the Regional Championship during competition at Morris Community High School.
Along with the state qualifiers, the Coalers were represented at the sectional tournament by Eli Fritz who partnered with Smith in humorous duet acting, regional champion Luke Cairns in radio, Shana Kelly in original comedy, regional champion Madison Holcomb in original oratory and Natalie Durham who was the regional champion in informative speaking and also competed in oratorical declamation. The school’s performance in the round team also competed at the sectional tournament, having placed third at the regional.
Coal City heads into the state finals among the top 15 teams in the state, a ranking based on the number of students placing in the state series and advancing to the state finals.
There are no (enrollment based) classes in speech, so all schools compete at the same level.