NHS boys to participate in speech festival

Three Newton Senior High School students are set to compete at the All-State Speech Festival this weekend.

Tim Stammeyer, Jordan Shimon and Brady Van Sickle started practicing last December for the state speech competition. They went to districts in Grinnell on Jan. 21, where they competed against students from 20 other schools.

According to the boys’ speech coach Cara Schwarz, they competed in the radio broadcast portion of the contest. They had to present three articles of news, current to the past three months, a segment on sports and weather, and a commercial, all within six minutes.

The boys received a 1 rating, the best possible rating, from the judges, which qualified them for state contest.

At the state contest Feb. 4 in Cedar Rapids, they received 1 ratings from all three judges. In addition to the 1 ratings, the performance must be deemed outstanding in order to qualify for the All-State Festival.

The boys will travel to Iowa State University in Ames where they are scheduled to perform their radio broadcast at the Scheman Building at 1:50 p.m. Saturday.