Coalers will speak at state

Coal City High School is sending two students to the Illinois High School Association state speech meet this weekend.

The Coalers will be represented by senior Izzy Kostbade and freshman Jacob Cimino who advanced to the state tournament based on their performances at the sectional meet hosted last weekend at Morris Community High School.

Kostbade will be returning for her third state appearance in humorous interpretation [HI]. Her presentation of “The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee,” earned her a second place finish at the sectional tournament and a place on the state tournament roster.
Her category requires participants to perform a humorous piece from a published work without the use of a script or props and within an eight minute time frame.

Cimino advances to the state tournament based on his third place finish at the sectional in extemporaneous speaking.
In this category, one of 15 in the state series, students present a speech on a topic that is provided to them. The student has 30 minutes to prepare the speech and seven minutes to deliver it.

There are two preliminary rounds in the state tournament and the scores from those presentations determine who moves on to the finals.
The state tournament gets underway Friday at the Peoria Civic Center. Kostbade’s first round is set for 3 p.m. Friday and her second round will begin at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday.

Cimino is the fifth speaker in the first round set for Friday afternoon, so he should speak at 2:20 p.m. The second preliminary round finds him as the final speaker in the 11 a.m. bracket with a speaking time of 11:50 a.m.

Those who make it to the final round will speak Saturday afternoon and the winners announced at a ceremony that evening.
Unlike other IHSA sanctioned activities, speech does not have classifications so all competitors—no matter school size or geographic location—are on the same playing field. The Coalers are ranked among the top 50 teams in the state.

As a team, the Coalers placed fourth at the Morris Sectional.

The top three medal winners in each category at the sectional advance to the state tournament.

Four other members of the team placed at the sectional with the humorous duet acting team of juniors Chessa Kuhel and Kevin McConnell earning a fourth place finish.

Melody Kinder, a sophomore, placed fourth in oratory and Kuhel also took home a fourth place medal in prose.
Corinna Barkley, a sophomore, finished in fifth place in special occasion speaking and Kostbade earned a fifth place finish in poetry.

Additional members of the sectional team were Madison Wilson, Amelia Fritz, Logan Hausman, Kayla Connelly, Sam Vota, Bradley Burla and Grey Vanek.