Forensic Season Wraps Up at State
It has been a long and victorious road for our 2016 forensic team. We started the season with five novice participants (Cassidy Boese, Brant Cotta, Haden Craig, Christian Kiser, & Amelia Kollmeyer) who had never competed in a forensic tournament before. Right off the bat we saw our fresh-faced team show strong in finals, gaining medals at almost every meet. Foreign exchange student, Camilla Tabasso, joined the team midseason and added an Italian flair.
Post season competition would continue to see our talents soar to strong standings. Regionals were held on April 16th in Clearwater with all of the members competing. The style of completion changed for regionals, as our competitors gained a rating instead of ranking. The ratings for one through four, with a one being the best of talent. The ratings earned were as follows: Cassidy 1 for poetry, Brant 1 for serious solo & 2 for original oration, Christian 2 for informative speech, Amelia 1 for poetry and 1 for prose, and Camilla 2 for poetry. All competitors receiving a 1 at regionals qualified for State Festival which would follow the same rating format.
On April 30th, sleepy-eyed high schoolers loaded the suburban at 4:45 a.m. to head to Salina to compete in State Champs and State Festival. Cassidy Boese went to State Festival at Kansas Wesleyan University and received a 2 rating for an interpretation of the poem “Somebody Should’ve Taught Him” about the effects of drinking and driving.
Brant Cotta and Amelia Kollmeyer competed at State Champs which was hosted at Salina Central High School. Brant qualified with his serious solo act “Bein’ Crazy” about a schizophrenic patient in a psych ward. Amelia qualified with two pieces, the poem “Somebody Should’ve Taught Him” and a prose piece titled “I’ll be Looking for you Ace” about a girl losing her brother due to a car accident. The format of the meet was similar to the previous invitationals. The two freshman performed in three preliminary rounds. After the tabulation of scores, Brant was one of the top 12 that broke into a semifinal round. From there, Brant made it into the top 6 final round where he would medal as the 6th best serious solo act in the state. It was a marvelous end to a dazzling season.
I couldn’t be more proud of the dedication and effort that this forensics team put in. Of course all the efforts wouldn’t haven’t been possible without the love and support of the parents. Finally, a special thanks to Dr. McPherron and Mr. Dewlen for filling in during my maternity leave and making sure that the team was able to complete their season.