On Friday, March 8th, a group of Heritage students and teachers traveled down to the Carrollton Cultural Arts Center to participate in the Georgia Literary Competition, a state-wide contest where students compete against each other in various fields. Among the students who attended, nine students placed 1st in their respective categories and were Region Champions! These students advanced to State and continued to move upward in the ranks.
Each team had a coach who helped to prepare the students. The coaches included Mrs. Chrissy Dillard (Extemporaneous Speaking), Mrs. Jennifer Hamilton (Music Events), Mrs. Grayson Gray (Interpretation Events), and Mr. Garrett Peace (Essays).
Our Region Champions were Natalie Ferry in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Peyton Reece in Dramatic Interpretation, Camryn McCormick, Julia Petteys, and Caleigh Jackson in Girls’ Trio, and finally Maddox Weaver, Keller Watson, Ryan Dowis, Cadin Minjarez in Boys’ Quartet.
The regional competitions began at 9:15 and were spread out throughout the day until about 3:00 when the event ended. According to Mrs. Gray, this experience was fun but it had a heavyweight atmosphere. “It’s got a pretty serious tone,” she said. “Everybody takes it pretty seriously, but then afterwards it’s fun to meet the other competitors and coaches.”
Ferry, second time Region Champion and previous State Champion, also recounted that outside of her presentation, she sat in the lobby with the other coaches and students, where some other competitors nervously prepared for their event and attempted to soothe their nerves. “You can hang out in the lobby, which is usually what I do because I can’t shut up before my competition,” she said. “I’m just nervous and I talk a lot when I’m nervous.” Ferry also said that they did not find out who won all at once. “We were all continuously checking the score sheet to see if someone won.”
After the wins at Regionals, our Heritage team prepared to go to State and went to compete on March 23rd. At State we placed in two categories: Girls’ Trio and Boys’ Quartet. The girls placed 4th in Class 4A and the boys placed 2nd!
Minjarez, a member of the Boys Quartet, shared how it felt to place 2nd in the State after their win at Regionals. “I was really surprised and I was really proud of the crew. I felt that it was a really good year for that.” Despite the fact that they could have placed higher, he was satisfied with how they did and proud of himself and the rest of the boys. The competitors and coaches all encourage more students to try out for and participate in the Georgia Literary Competition, and cannot wait to see how the competitions will go next year.
