Ending the season with an appearance at the Illinois High School Association’s state meet, this year’s Manual High School speech team had its most successful season in at least fifteen years. The five members of the speech team—led by their head coach, West Peorian Karen Adkins-Dutro, and assistant coach, Jennifer Hatch—include Team Captain Jordan Brown and Alicia Williams (both seniors), Justus Johnson (junior), and Grace Figgers (sophomore). (Photo left to right: Williams, Johnson, Figgers, Brown).
Certainly, the highlight of the season was the advancement of two team members to the IHSA state meet—for one duet team and for one individual event. Jordan Brown and Alisha Williams earned their spot on the state team with their dramatic duet acting (DDA) event entitled “Domestic Violence.” Most importantly, Jordan and Alisha were IHSA regional tournament champions in DDA. Jordan was a double state qualifier, having qualified in DDA as well as in the poetry reading (POE) event. He was also an IHSA regional tournament champion in POE.
Throughout the season, the duet (Jordan and Alisha) earned first and second places in that DDA event. Another season success included Jordan’s nomination (and ultimate win) by judges at the Richwoods tournament to receive a $300 scholarship to speech camp at Illinois State University.
Novice Justus Johnson had a remarkable debut season, earning her share of first, second, and third places in poetry. Most impressive was her performance at the Mid-State Six Conference meet where Justus surpassed all others in her event to snatch up the title of poetry conference tournament champion.
Grace Figgers, ever the comedienne, made everyone laugh during her fourth place IHSA conference finish in humorous interpretation (HI). Grace also broke into finals at the IHSA regional meet, finishing eighth in HI.
During this season, the team has won three team trophies for small schools division, including first place at Metamora, third place at Richwoods, and fifth place at Eureka.
All speech students who receive first place at a regular season speech tournament are invited to perform at the SCOTIE Tournament of Champions, held at Illinois State University. The goal of this meet is to earn a superior rating and a SCOTIE keychain/pin. Jordan, Alisha, and Justus earned a spot on the SCOTIE team, and each of these three students received a superior rating and a SCOTIE key chain/pin for his/her performance.
