Wooster High School speech and debate team one of the top teams in the nation

  • By Sharon Haught
  • May 8, 2010
  • 505
                        
When head coach Ned Lauver walks into his classroom at Wooster High School (WHS) each morning he’s greeted with two reminders of the history and tradition of one of the top speech and debate teams in the nation. “I am very fortunate to be the head coach of a very storied program here at the high school and that’s something that I reflect on every time I walk into my room,” said Lauver, during the April 27 meeting of the Wooster City School District Board of Education. What he sees hanging on the wall are two very special plaques. The first is the Sharen Althoff Award, which is presented each year to the Akron District champions of the Ohio High School Speech League. According to Lauver, the award was renamed in 2007 in honor of longtime Wooster High School speech and debate team head coach Sharen Althoff, who passed away a few years ago. Although the award is technically a traveling trophy, “so far it hasn’t really traveled any further than the tournament that we take it to before we take it back to be engraved,” Lauver joked, noting “we are going on our third decade in a row of winning this tournament.” The second was presented to the team last year to commemorate their 58th appearance at the National Forensics League national tournament. “This year we will receive our award for attending that tournament for the 59th time out of the 70 years or so that tournament has run,” said Lauver, noting “that is a national record. No other school, public or private, in the country has more appearances at the national speech and debate tournament than Wooster High School. “We’re at the top of that heap now and that’s something that we take very seriously - win the Akron District, qualify students to nationals and get your students to be the very best they can be for the future,” said Lauver. This award is particularly meaningful for Lauver “because this really reflects the fact that WHS is part of a system, that the head coach in speech and debate is a caretaker of a program that’s been there for 80 years. It’s not about us. We’re just keeping the chair warm.” Lauver reflected on the loss of Althoff and the fear that many had that with her passing the team would simply disintegrate. It was this year’s senior class, which was the last class to begin their speech and debate careers with Althoff, that refused to allow that to happen. “That’s a very special class to me,” said Lauver. “When I came on the job…the kids could have totally gone in their own direction. They could have said…we know what we’re doing, we’re going to do our own thing. Or they could have quit, they could have left the team.” Instead “they welcomed us with open arms. They coached each other. They really helped each other through some very difficult times,” said Lauver. “They were able to keep that program going in the face of some real adversity.” Two of those seniors – Kellen Reusser and Mara Weber – will be competing at nationals. Two more – Chelsea Zhu and Ted Guttman – have been named as alternates to nationals. Reusser, Weber, Zhu and Guttman, along with fellow senior Erin Vaeth, have also been named Academic All Americans.


Loading next article...

End of content

No more pages to load