ROHS Speech

03/31/2026

Such a special day at Iowa IE All State Speech!🤍

We got to celebrate Madi Parker at UNI on March 30th and watch her perform her original poetry piece “The Backpack.” Her message about the things women are taught to carry was so powerful and deeply impactful.

She represented Red Oak so beautifully. Her professional critic even asked to use her piece in a university class which is just so cool! 🤩 We are beyond proud of her, her heart, and all the work she’s put in this season. So grateful we got to celebrate her this weekend 👏

03/10/2026

Tonight is the night! Come and help support these fabulous students and their hard work! 🧡🎭

Join us for an Evening With the Stars! ✨
Come celebrate our Red Oak High School Large Group and Individual Speech State Qualifiers as they showcase their incredible talents before competition!

📅 Tuesday, March 10
⏰ 6:00 PM
📍 ROHS Choir Room
💛 Free Will Donation

Let’s pack the room and send these students off to state feeling supported and celebrated!

03/04/2026

Join us for an Evening With the Stars! ✨
Come celebrate our Red Oak High School Large Group and Individual Speech State Qualifiers as they showcase their incredible talents before competition!

📅 Tuesday, March 10
⏰ 6:00 PM
📍 ROHS Choir Room
💛 Free Will Donation

Let’s pack the room and send these students off to state feeling supported and celebrated!

02/28/2026

So proud of our amazing students today at the Individual District Speech Competition hosted by East Union Community School District!

Red Oak was represented by 4 talented students competing in 7 total events — and they absolutely shined!

✨ Results from the day:
• Madi Parker – Division I in Solo Musical Theatre & Division I in Prose
• Mariella Richard’s Hernandez – Division I in Prose & Division I in Storytelling
• Gabby Smith – Division I in Solo Musical Theatre & Division I in Prose
• Gabe Kingery – Division II in Radio News Broadcasting

Every single student performed beautifully, represented Red Oak with professionalism and heart, and showcased the countless hours of preparation they’ve put in. The dedication they’ve shown — while also being fully committed to the musical, which opened Thursday — speaks volumes about their work ethic and passion.

The coaches are beyond proud of their determination, growth, and the way they continue to raise the bar. What a day to be a Tiger! 🐯✨

01/26/2026

Proud of the hard work these boys put in to represent our school so well at district speech contest. Congratulations! 🎉🧡🎭

Red Oak took 1 group improv to Mount Ayr for Large Group District Speech contest.
Gabe Kingery and Will Po***ck did a fantastic job and will be headed to the State contest on Saturday, Feb 7 at West Des Moines Valley.
Photo: Provided

04/06/2025

This past week, ROHS Speech took two of our performers, Mariella and Madi, to the Iowa IE Speech Festival in Cedar Falls! We began our Monday morning with the celebratory opening ceremony and then performed in front of two expert critics. Throughout the day, we also got to experience many other amazing performers from around the state. What a wonderful opportunity it was for these two girls, and what a great way to end our 2024-2025 speech season! 🎭🐅

03/18/2025

We are thrilled to announce that Red Oak has TWO performers at the Individual All-State Festival, which will take place at UNI on March 31!

Please join us in congratulating Madi Parker for being nominated in Solo Musical Theatre and Mariella Richards-Hernandez for being nominated in Prose!

We are extremely proud of them, as All-State is the highest honor for Individual Speech! Great job girls!!

🎭🐅

03/15/2025

‼️UPDATED: All ratings are in‼️

Individual State Speech today at Ames Highschool! We brought 4 preformers and 6 events in total. All 4 students preformed so well and finished the season strong! Please help us congratulate them on all of their hard work this season! 🧡

Paige - poetry - overall 1
Madi - solo musical theatre - straight 1s
Gabby - storytelling - straight 1
Gabby - poetry - overall 2
Mariella - prose - straight 1’s
Madi - prose - straight 1’s

03/01/2025

Today our students competed in the District Individual Speech contest at Council Bluffs Thomas Jefferson. We were a small team, but we performed incredibly strong! We sent six events, and all six of those events qualified for the State Individual Speech contest that will be held at Ames High School on Saturday, March 15.

Performing today and qualifying for state were:

Madi Parker - prose and solo musical
Gabby Smith - poetry and storytelling
Mariella Richards-Hernandez - prose
Paige Pruett - poetry

We will be hosting an Evening with the Stars this coming week, either Thursday or Friday evening (date to be determined). The students will perform all six events that evening. We will make another post when the date and time have been set, so stay tuned!

Both coaches are so incredibly proud of these kids! They are juggling the musical Into the Woods this weekend as well! Please join us in congratulating these performers on a job well-done!

04/03/2024

Speech Banquet 2024!! Let’s celebrate this fantastic year of talent with a potluck, a good ol’ fashioned slide show, and some awards!

04/01/2024

Last Monday, Madi Parker was celebrated as an Outstanding Performer at Individual All State. She performed her Literary Program entitled Monday’s Not Coming.

Here are a few pictures from the trip!

03/12/2024

We got the news that Madi Parker is being honored at Individual All State on March 25th, at UNI in Cedar Falls. This is a huge honor and means she is an outstanding performer. She made it in her category of Literary Program.

Literary Program mixes poetry and prose pieces. This year Madi created her own program using one of her favorite books Monday’s Not Coming and poetry about grief. It follows the story of Claudia who comes back from summer break to find her best friend, Monday, has disappeared and nobody knows where she is. The program takes us through a few key moments of the novel and through the stages of grief. Madi put a lot of work into creating this program and we are so proud and pleased for her!