Checotah FFA student Jade McPeak recently became the state runner up, placing 2nd in the 8th, 9th, & 10th Grade General Agriculture Division at the State Speech Contest in Stillwater at Oklahoma State University.

Jade’s mother, Emmy McPeak, remembers her daughter’s disappointment from last year’s competition.

“Last year Jade didn’t finish Top 5 in either category that she qualified in,” Emmy said. “Oklahoma FFA speech is very tough. So her dad and I told her if she ever placed Top 5 she could quit speeches and join the high school golf team that she’s talked about. Even though I think she is a good speaker I never expected her to be Top 5 but here she is runner up in the state! So we asked her, ‘Are you ready for golf?’ To which she replied, ‘No, I already have a new speech written that I’m pretty excited about!’ An interesting fact is that both our 1st and 2nd place winners are both from the northeast area and from McIntosh County originally. Both are daughters of former agriculture teachers too. “Another interesting fact is the last time Checotah FFA had someone place at state speech contest my husband, Jason McPeak, was the ag teacher and that student was Zachary Ilbery, Jade’s ag teacher today.”

In high school Ilbery placed 2nd in extemporaneous speech, where students are given a topic and have 20 minutes to prepare and give that speech.

Ilbery stated after jade placed 2nd place, “This sure makes this late night worth it!”