Cherokee County Students Bring Home State Titles at GHSA Literary Championships

Students from Sequoyah, Etowah, and Cherokee high schools brought home individual state championships and a region team title across writing, speaking, and performance categories

Students from three Cherokee County School District high schools claimed top honors at the Georgia High School Association State Literary Championships, with competitors from Sequoyah, Etowah, and Cherokee high schools winning individual state titles and first-place regional finishes across a wide range of writing, speaking, and performance events.

The GHSA Literary Competition is one of the broadest academic contests in Georgia, encompassing argumentative and personal essay writing, literary analysis, public speaking, comedic and dramatic interpretation, and vocal performance. The stakes are real before students even reach the state stage — every competitor must first win at the regional level, meaning each finalist has already outperformed peers from across their corner of the state.

Sequoyah High School in Canton delivered the most sweeping performance of any Cherokee County program. Junior Adrian Perez Arciniegas captured the 5A state championship in Boys Solo, having also swept the regional competition with first-place finishes in that event and in Humorous Interpretation. Sequoyah's full team, coached by choral program director Josh Markham, claimed the region championship outright. Additional individual regional champions from Sequoyah included sophomore Matthew Agler in International Extemporaneous Speaking, junior Alfred Chen in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, senior Maddie DeLoach in Literary Analysis Essay, and seniors Angelina Miller and Parker Ingram in Duo Interpretation. The full region championship roster also included Braylee Bryant, Landon Davidson, Adley Geyerman, James Markham, Justin Moore, Sebastian Murillo, Derik Pedro-Espinoza, Olivia Smith, and Lana Ward.

Across the county line in Woodstock, Etowah High School added two state-level honors of its own. Senior Avery Cheatham won the 6A state championship in Argumentative Essay — one of the competition's most demanding written events — after also taking first place at regions in the same category. Etowah competes in Class 6A, one of the largest and most competitive classifications in Georgia high school academics and athletics. The team is coached by choral program director William J. Hall. Two other Etowah seniors also finished atop their regional fields: Skylee Poirrier in Personal Essay and Mihini Senanayake in Literary Analysis Essay.

At Cherokee High School, also in Canton, senior Jeremy Hett won the regional title in Comedic Interpretation. The program is directed by theatre program director Dr. Jodi Burns.

Taken together, the results paint a picture of academic fine arts programs operating at a high level across the Cherokee County School District — from the choral halls at Sequoyah and Etowah to the theatre program at Cherokee. The wins span disciplines that demand very different skills: the precision of literary analysis, the quick thinking of extemporaneous speaking, the stagecraft of interpretive performance, and the sustained craft of personal essay writing. That breadth, across three schools and two GHSA classifications, is what makes this showing stand out.