Speech Students Forced To 'Improv' When Unable To Travel Home

District speech meets involved a lot more “improv” than usual this year as teams struggled to make it back home as flood conditions worsened during the course of their competitions.

Neligh-Oakdale, Elkhorn Valley and OC speech teams traveled to Hartington and Elgin Public and Pope John headed to Bancroft. Only Orchard and Clearwater students made it back home that night.

As the teams left early Wednesday morning for their district competitions, concerns started to arise.

“I had a pretty good idea on the way there that it wasn’t good because there was a little bit of water over the road east of Osmond already,” Ron Beacom of Neligh-Oakdale said. “Guys in Nebraska Department of Roads trucks were there watching it.”

Elgin Public Coach Jessie Reestman said their district meet got off to a slow start.

“The morning began with a speech coach meeting and we found out a couple teams were still en route because they already had to be rerouted,” Reestman said. “At that point, the state was called and we were informed the districts must continue.”

She said the delay pushed the competition’s start time back almost two hours.

Beacom, who was filling in for N-O’s speech coach Celia VanFleet, said he was in touch with administrators back in Neligh soon after their arrival in Hartington and learned Neligh-Oakdale was planning an early dismissal.  

“About an hour later, I talked with Mr. Dempsey and he didn’t think there was going to be any way for us into town at that point, unless we we there in an hour,” he said. “We were more than an hour away and we were not even started on the second round yet, so I knew that we were probably, timewise, going to be in trouble in terms of the water.”

As soon their chances of getting home “looked grim,” Elgin Public Coach Stacy Shumake-Henn said Supt. Dan Polk booked rooms for them in West Point.

“He was on top of things all day,” she said. “He even sent us a text message, reminding us to keep the kids focused, do what we were there to do and things would be taken care of.”

Reestman said Supt. Polk made hotel arrangements for Elgin Public and Pope John.

“But we also had parents and grandparents, and all rooms were full, so using rollaway beds, we all got into rooms,” she said.

Beacom said he and others in Hartington, including Elkhorn Valley speech coach Wes Prater, discussed options once they were told they wouldn’t make it past Battle Creek.

“We were all non-stop visitors to 511 Nebraska,” he said. “Then we became more and more scared because it looked like everybody was going to be stuck right there in Hartington. It was starting to look like we weren’t going to be able to get out of town.”

Beacom and Prater tried getting a hotel room in Norfolk, but “there were no rooms to be had,” Beacom said. They eventually ended up with rooms in Wayne. He said a couple restaurants gave them discounted meals during their stay and the Wayne Community Center allowed them to use their facility.

“Most of our kids hung out in their little game room area where they have a couple pool tables, a shuffleboard table, a ping pong table, air hockey, foosball,” Beacom said. “It was a nice break, an opportunity to just get out of the hotel, to stay busy.”

The one Neligh-Oakdale van and two Elkhorn Valley vans departed together and everyone arrived home on Friday morning.

Elgin Public and Pope John decided to stick together in West Point.

“Since the Pope John team had driven a van, we told them to join us on the bus,” Shumake-Henn said. “They remained with us throughout the ordeal.”

She said West Point was “so welcoming” during their stay.

“As soon as we arrived, the fire department saw our bus and immediately checked in with us to make sure we were okay,” Shumake-Henn said. “The people at Horizon Inn and Suites were very accommodating. I felt bad when we pulled into McDonalds at 10 p.m. (after the speech meet) with a busload of kids, after they’d already mopped for the night and were getting ready to close, but they were so kind about it.”

The next morning, they were greeted by Shawn Koch of ASC Lockers, who brought them packages of beef sticks, Guardian Angels Central Catholic students served chili, Chris Kreikemeier from the Nielsen Community Center brought pizza and T shirts and two West Point teachers brought in board games to entertain the students.

Shumake-Henn said their “Elgin connections” also took good care of them.

“On Thursday, Kari (Jake) Schindler’s mother, Carol Vanseggern, called to see what we needed,” she said. “She and some friends put together and delivered a bunch of snacks, water and pop.”

Pope John Coach Peggy Payne contacted Fr. Steve Emmanuel, a former Pope John teacher who is now at GACC, and he opened up the gym so “the kids could go burn off some energy,” Shumake-Henn said.

On Friday morning, Reestman said they woke to fresh donuts delivered by Elgin native Tyson Dinslage, son of Brian and Kathy Dinslage.

“I’m sure there are several people we are forgetting, but the kindness was just overwhelming,” Shumake-Henn said. “Every time we turned around, we had everything we needed. That helps in such an unsure situation.”

The coaches said St. Edward and North Bend students were also stranded in West Point.

“The kids made some friends and definitely made some memories,” Shumake-Henn said.

When they were finally able to find a safe route home, they called the St. Edward team.

“They gathered their kids and supplies and followed,” Reestman said. “Unfortunately, our poor North Bend friends would not be able to leave, for they had nowhere to return. It was hard to wave goodbye to them knowing we could go home and they couldn’t.”

Schumake-Henn said their experience is one they will always remember.

“There were so many good people in that town who stepped up when we needed them,” she said. It was amazing. Even now, there are Facebook messages everywhere from that town praising our speech teams for being such great kids during our stay in West Point, but the people of West Point are the real heroes.”