MFL MarMac has record-breaking large group speech season

By Audrey Posten | Times-Register

Nine MFL MarMac events representing 35 students have advanced to the All-State Large Group Speech Festival. This is the most All-State events and students the school has ever had, and it ranks as the fifth highest number of students from a single school across the entire state this year. 

Coach Cheri Moser described herself as proud, but shocked, at the results. With no separate classes based on enrollment, MFL MarMac continually battles large powerhouses Dubuque and Decorah at the state contest. Another top school, Waterloo West, was at their state competition too.

“Our competition is really hard,” Moser said. 

But MFL MarMac’s state results were exceptional. Every event received a straight 1 rating, with the exception of one event that received an overall 1 rating, where two judges awarded a 1 and one judge awarded a 2.  

“When we got the ballots from judges, a lot of them read like ‘All-State’ ballots.  So we were definitely excited,” Moser shared. 

With its selections, MFL MarMac is one of 113 schools across the state sending events to All-State—85 of which are sending only one to three events. It’s the smallest school represented in the top 20. 

MFL MarMac’s All-State events include:

TV News – Behind the Headlines: Journey in Faith with students Anthony Bunting, Mariah Moser, Cora Keehner, Taryn Moser, Macy McGeough, Julia Grau, Jerica Wille, Brodyn Blietz, Carsten Pester, Kiarra Young, Hailey Bouzek and Brooke Donlon and coached by Cheri Moser.

Group Mime – Tipping Point with students Mariah Moser, Macy McGeough, Jerica Wille, Julia Grau and Taryn Moser and coached by Cheri Moser.

Group Mime – Nightmare Within with students Madison Eilers, Madison O’Connell and Allie Ames and coached by Diane Fisk.

Musical Theatre – High School Musical with students Brodyn Blietz and Cora Keehner and coached by Diane Fisk.

Radio – Roadtrip Radio with students Kiarra Young, Layla Landt, Mattie Hallberg, Lily Johnson, Kennedy Bachman, Blake Schutte, Emma Driscoll and Lauryn Sandstrom and coached by Cheri Moser.

Ninth Grade Radio – Radio Pompeii with students Oliver Ludvik, Trace Moser, Jude Onken and Parker Muras and coached by Cheri Moser.

Ninth Grade Radio – Harvester Morning with students Jonathan Whitney, Kinsley Young and Avery Kugel and coached by Cheri Moser.

Ninth Grade Short Film – Toast with students Jonathan Whitney (actor) and Ryder Dull (editor) and coached by Cheri Moser).

Ninth Grade Short Film – The Group Project with students Grace Swatek, Makenzie Corlett, Emma Grau, Olive Meyer and Blair Winter and coached by Cheri Moser.

The High School Musical, Roadtrip Radio and The Group Project events are non-performing, meaning they receive the All-State honor but will not be shown or performed during the festival, which will be held in Ames this weekend.

The number of All-State events was supported by a large number of speech participants this year, with 61 students competing in 21 large group events. Many participants are underclassmen, allowing Cheri Moser to create a freshman team.

“That allows you to do more events, because you can only do three of each event,” she explained.

Moser credited the continued interest to upperclassmen who encourage others to join. 

“I love when the upperclassmen have a good time and see how fun it can be, and then they talk to other students and hopefully encourage them,” she said.

It also helps that many events can be pre-recorded without requiring a live performance—something that intimidates some students or doesn’t fit their busy schedules.

That’s what attracted senior Anthony Bunting, who participated in speech for the first time this year.

“I hadn’t done it before because I wasn’t a big public speaker. I don’t think I could stand up in front of people and speak. That’s not a skill I have,” he said. “But I didn’t realize speech could be so broad and it could be pre-recorded. It turned out to be really fun for me and I kind of wish I did it all four years.”

Bunting was part of the TV news event Behind the Headlines: Journey in Faith, which detailed the Archdiocese of Dubuque’s plans to close churches. It was a departure from MFL MarMac’s typically humorous TV news pieces. 

“It’s a group of 12 kids and 10 of them are Catholics, so it’s all very personal,” Moser explained. “Normally in TV news, the kids tell the news stories and then play the people being interviewed, but with this we got to interview the kids. It tells the story of two of our students and how they’re being impacted by all of this. It’s a very emotional piece and it’s very real. Along with those emotional pieces, we had really strong reporting. Anthony was our main anchor, and then Mariah Moser and Cora Keehner were our main reporters. One of the judges said, ‘I feel like I’m watching a “

“I believe it did really well because it was real. Those were genuine responses,” Bunting noted.

Mariah Moser agreed, even though she was admittedly skeptical at first. 

“I wasn’t sure if it would do as well, but I thought we had a good chance just because our editing was amazing and we did some really cool shots with drones. I think that definitely set us apart,” she said.

Mariah Moser is a senior, and this TV news event, along with the group mime Tipping Point, marks the fourth year she’s made it to All-State in large group speech. She’s taken six events to All-State in large group across her whole high school career—a rare feat. 

“Mariah Moser will serve as our school representative at All-State and will walk across the stage at the Stephens Auditorium to receive our school awards. She will also be recognized at the festival for being a four-year large group All-Stater,” Cheri Moser said. “In addition to her performance work, Mariah has taken on a leadership role this season, assisting with several short films and helping with organization and team coordination throughout the year. I could not have done this season without her.”

For Tipping Point, Mariah Moser both choreographed and acted in the event. It’s the third time she’s participated in the category.

“Macy McGeough is the main character and she is a mime, and I’m kind of annoyed by her. As we go through different scenes, she’s following me, and in the end she actually kills me. It’s like a horror mime. It’s pretty funny, though. There’s like some humor in there,” she detailed.

Mariah Moser is proud of being nominated all four years. She works hard in and outside practice.

“Each year seems to be better than the last,” she said.

“And this program has grown so much,” she added. “When I first joined, there were maybe 40 kids on the team. This year, there’s almost 70 kids. It’s really impressive that, as such a small school, we have such large student body participation.”

Freshman Jonathan Whitney was one of the newcomers to the team, and earned two nominations for Harvester Morning radio and a short film entitled Toast. After participating in school theater, he was excited to give speech a try.

“I had done acting previously, and I wanted to give off my talents to the school,” he stated.

Perhaps Whitney’s most impressive performance was the humorous short film, where he portrayed all the characters. Complete with different accents for each person.

“In Toast, it’s about me, like I have a piece of toast that I always eat for breakfast, but it’s stolen by either my brother or my mom—also played by me. There’s also a neighbor detective who tries to solve the case of the missing toast,” Whitney explained.

“[Jonathan] did all the acting in it, so it really is a one-person short film,” Cheri Moser said. She and freshman Ryder Doll wrote the script with Whitney, then she and Dull shot the film and Dull edited it.

“Jonathan does a great job of putting himself out there and not being afraid to be a big character. It’s more than what you normally get sometimes,” Cheri Moser said. “Then Ryder took it all and edited it beautifully with comedic timing. I think it’s really cool because it’s a group of these two freshman boys.”

Moser coaches the team with assistants Diane Fisk and Erika Lenth. They are proud of the students and grateful for the school’s support in allowing these opportunities.

“I’m also very grateful to the Friends of the Arts for their financial support, as they pay the registration for all our competitions,” she added.

Amid the success for large group speech, MFL MarMac is already working on individual speech as well. The Upper Iowa Conference contest will be held at MFL MarMac High School at 4:15 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 23. Twenty-seven students are competing in 48 events this year, and the public is invited to attend.