020711 WHS Speech and Debate team heads in state championships
By Sharon Haught
February 1, 2011
452
Virtually every Saturday morning for the past five months, the 60 members of the Wooster High School Speech and Debate Team have set their alarm clocks to ring well before the sun comes up.
Thats what it takes to don tournament dress of suits and ties, heels and skirts and still make it to the high school before the busses depart at 6:00a.m. to whisk them off to tournaments around the state.
And they wouldnt have it any other way.
Since school resumed after Christmas break, the team has competed in a pair of key tournaments leading up to the Ohio High School Speech League state championship tournament on March 3 in Toledo.
January 23 saw over 900 competitors from as far away as Dayton, Toledo and Youngstown descend on Wooster for the annual Sharen Althoff Rotary Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament.
Widely viewed as a highly competitive tournament that attracts the top speech and debaters in the state, Woosters tournament is one of the oldest and most prestigious in Ohio and the largest Ohio tournament, eclipsing even the State tournament in terms of size.
Despite weather conditions which forced three schools to cancel, nearly 1500 competitors, coaches and judges from 37 different schools competed over two days in three different venues around the city.
People come to Wooster expecting tough competition, said Wooster High School Speech and Debate head coach Ned Lauver.
They got just that.
The competition was so fierce and the scoring so tight that just 12 points separated the first through fourth place finishers.
Wooster placed fourth, less than four points away from second place finisher and reigning state champion Massillon Jackson High School and counted a tournament champion amongst its ranks in Michael Pinkham, who placed first in the Lincoln/Douglas Debate category.
A week later the team was on the road again to the Ohio High School Speech League Akron District Championships at Medina Highland High School on January 30.
The Akron District championship trophy is named the Sharen Althoff Award. Our students know that it is their job to do whatever they can to keep that trophy here at home, said Lauver of the award named for the late Sharen Althoff, who coached the Wooster team for many years.
The team certainly did what they were asked to do.
For the 31st straight year, the Wooster team was named District Champions, beating runner up Stow-Monroe Falls by nearly 65 points.
We are in the midst of a historic streak. You never know when something like that will come to an end, but it wont end in 201 thanks to the desire and heart of our student competitors, said Lauver.
Elizabeth Kleinhenz (United States Extemporaneous Speaking), Allie Schwartz (Original Oratory), Rebecca Pittard (Oratorical Interpretation) and Chris Graves and Charles Wright (Due Interpretation) also took home district championships in their individual events.
While taking the district championship was a significant accomplishment, the district tournament also provided the competitors with the opportunity to qualify for the state tournament. In all 30 members of the team qualified to compete at the state tournament and three more will serve as alternates should a qualifying competitor be unable to take part in the state tournament.
Heres a list of the state qualifiers and alternates to the Ohio High School Speech League state finals in March. Three additional competitors in the Student Congress category to be selected by the teams coaches in March will join these students at the state tournament.
Policy Debate
Maggie Eby and Chelsea Zhu
Kristy Kalikasingh and Austen Yorko
Jonathan Velasquez and Joseph Gorman
Public Forum Debate
Kyla Hemphill and Thomas Fitz Gibbon
Devlin Gatz and Charlie Reynolds
Lincoln/Douglas Debate
Michael Pinkham
Daniel Cebul
United States Extemporaneous Speaking
Megan Gant
Elizabeth Kleinhenz
International Extemporaneous Speaking
Lizzy Kalikasingh
Vicki Anderson
Original Oratory
Matthew Sparr
Allie Schwartz
1st Alternate: Sarah Lyons
Oratorical Interpretation
Rebecca Pittard
Paul Williams
Dramatic Interpretation
Kayla Villegas
Humorous Interpretation
Stefan Fraga
Noah Spector
Prose/Poetry Reading
Sonja Dittmann
Martina Fraga
Hannah Doan
2nd Alternate: Laura Shoenfelt
Duo Interpretation
Chris Graves and Charles Wright
Emily Alltop and Dylan House
Impromptu Speaking
1st Alternate: Jessica Welty
