MHS show choir wins ‘People’s Choice’ at Saturday contest

The Mitchell High School Friend de Coup show choir is wrapping up the final month of competition in style.

The group won the “People’s Choice” award and placed third overall at Saturday’s “Swinging on the River” show choir competition in Hastings, Minn. At that show, Friend de Coup competed against 19 other show choirs from the Midwest, said director Chris Miller.

Judges for the “People’s Choice” event were selected from Hastings community members as well as former show choir members from that community and their parents. Miller said the secret judges were supplied with ballots and placed throughout the audience. They selected Mitchell as the group that they believed provided the overall best show.

“To know your show resonated well with the people sure makes the kids feel really good about what we did,” said Miller.

Friend de Coup’s next competitions will be Feb. 27 at Bishop Heelan High School, Sioux City, Iowa; March 6 at Lewis Central High School, Council Bluffs, Iowa; March 13 at the FAME National Show Choir Competition at Universal Studios, Orlando, Fla.; and March 20 in Mitchell, where Friend de Coup will host the Corn Palace Classic.

Miller said his 70-student group has 50 singer/dancers; 16 band members and four support staff, and all are excited about the upcoming trip. The show choir flies out to Orlando on March 10 and returns March 14.

In Orlando, Friend de Coup will face national competition.

A runoff will narrow competition to the best four groups and those groups will face off March 13 in the finals at Hard Rock Live. The last time the MHS group faced national competition was 2000 in Branson, Mo., said Miller.

“We had to do some major fundraising to get this done, but we found out Thursday that with the great support of the community that we reached our goal,” said Miller.

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