On Saturday, Feb. 29, the Liberty speech team attended the districts speech competition at Wapello Jr/Sr High School. Students who receive a D1 rating at this competition then move onto the state competition. This year, nine of the twelve members qualified for state.

Lauren Siems, senior, participated in the prose interpretation category.

“I read from Dork Diaries by Rachel Renée Russell, and I related it to how we’ve all been in middle school, we’ve all been cringy, we just gotta move past it, laugh about it,” said Siems.

Aria Gonzalez, junior and new student at Liberty, participated in both poetry and improvisation.

“They don’t have debate [at Liberty], and so [speech] is kinda like the next best thing,” said Gonzalez. “And I thought it would be cool, and I wanted to be involved in something. Also, I thought it might help with anxiety and stuff.”

This year’s state competition is being held at Grinnell Community Senior High School on March 14. From there, a judge’s nomination is required to move onto the All-State competition at the University of Iowa.

The speech team is also holding a speech showcase at Cafe Muse on March 6 at 7:30 p.m..

Read more about the Liberty speech team’s coaches and goals here.