BHS nabs pair of state titles in speech and drama

Bigfork High School’s Wall of Fame is about to get a little bit bigger now that three students won first place at the state speech and drama meet in Butte last weekend.

“We met and exceeded all of our hopes at state this year,” said Bigfork’s head speech and drama coach Charlie Appleby. “All year I told them that they were competing in the toughest division, going up against the best kids in the state. It paid off.”

Jerry Gaiser and Jacob Sefcak, who have been divisional champions for the last two years, are now state champions in Humorous Duo. 

“There is a rivalry between all the people from last year,” explained Gaiser. “It was nice to beat the people that we have been losing to or tying with.”

Their coach was happy with their win as well.

“Jerry and Jacob had tremendous competition, but managed to get first place from each of the three finals judges,” Appleby said. “These two saved their best round for last. This has been two years coming, and the moment we found out they had won, our assistant coach, Shannon Appleby, actually broke into happy tears for them.”

The pair placed third last year, and opted to select a new piece for this year and took a new approach with it as well.

“We decided that we had to conform to the stereotypical speech piece,” Gaiser said. “We didn’t like having to conform, but it’s what we had to do to win. We had to play the game and please the judges.”

Kayla Carlson is now the state champion in Memorized Public Address.

“I was really nervous at the awards because I knew that if I didn’t do better than last year I’d be really disappointed with myself,” Carlson said. “So I was really happy when I found out that I won. I’ve been working really hard to get my picture on the wall.”

Her coach is overwhelmed with pride as well.

“Her dedication to school and extra-curricular activities is remarkable,” Appleby said. “Proud doesn’t even start to explain how we feel. All of her coaches and teachers were pulling for her, and anyone who knows her knows she truly deserves the title, ‘state champion.’”

Carlson, who placed third last year in the event said that it was her experience that helped her succeed.

“I was able to do a longer and more difficult speech,” Carlson said. “Last year I did a seven-and-a-half minute speech and this year’s was almost 10 minutes. I practiced a lot this season too; about four days a week.”

Becca Denning took home second place in the Humorous Solo event.

“I was really proud because there was really tough competition,” Becca Denning said. “There are three of us that go back and forth, so I was happy to take second. I was up against two boys that are really good.”

Last year Denning competed in Humorous Oral Interpretation and placed fifth.

“I really like Humorous Solo better than Humorous Oral Interpretation because you can be yourself and there aren’t as many restrictions,” Denning said.

Fourth place finishers from Bigfork were Caitlann O’Dell for Expository and Brandon Western and Tanner Eshom for Humorous Duo. Felix Peppert took eighth in Original Oratory.

Overall, Bigfork’s drama team took third place overall and the speech team placed eighth.

“Nineteen out of 20 of our kids went to semi-finals,” Denning said. “Everyone worked really hard and I’m really proud of them. Everyone had a lot of fun too, and that’s what is really important.”