Submitted Photo: Julia Schmitz

Accents perform a song at the Center Grove High School competition this past weekend. The Accents swept the competition and will be traveling to Ohio this upcoming Saturday for another competition.

Accents will compete in their second competition of the season on Feb. 23 at Olentangy High School in Lewis Center, Ohio. Their performance time will be at 11:30 a.m.

Accent and senior Julia Schmitz said, “I am really excited for this upcoming competition because it is our first travel one, like out of the state. We get to sleep over and have roommates and (they) make it more of a big event and really exciting. We also get to see different choirs since we will be out of Indiana, so it gives us a great opportunity to see different kinds of groups and different types of show choir.”

According to director of choirs Kathrine Kouns, the competition will consist of unisex and mixed-group performances throughout the day, a preliminary ceremony in the evening and performances of the top five or six finalists later in the evening. She said she has judged this competition in past years but has never taken a choir group to the competition before.

“The reason why we chose (this competition) is there are a lot of really great groups going. Fairfield (High School) from Ohio will be there. Loveland (High School) will be there. Marysville (High School) will be there. Quite a few other schools that really are just top-notch and know what they are doing (will be there),” Kouns said.

Kouns said in preparation for this competition, she and the girls will get very nitpicky. She said they had a very great performance at Center Grove High School in terms of their musicality and choreography, yet the Accents still need to improve on facial expression, stamina and little details.

“We just want to make sure that we are making our show even better and have fun in that process. The judges always give us notes to work on, so working on those very minor details and just making it a really really good show (will be our priority),” Schmitz said.

Overall, Kouns said her biggest goal for the competition is stamina because the Accents will be leaving CHS around 5 a.m. for a three-hour road trip to Ohio and then competing all day until potentially 10 p.m.

“Honestly, the more you rehearse the more stamina you get. I kind of just got tired after the last song because we were on (the stage) for like 20 minutes so it’s a very long time. But the more I (practice) the more stamina I’ll have and the easier it will be,” Schmitz said.