All for Forensics
March 22, 2018
By HANNAH SIEGEL
The Mirror reporter
Forensics is a speaking competition where students learn how to speak publically about a variety of topics, issues and random pieces of information.
This year’s season has been successful, all the students who competed in the sub-district competition headed onto the district competition. Which was held Saturday, March 17. They now head to the state competition in Madison, Friday, April 20 and Saturday, April 21.
The students competing at state are Saralyn Carcy and Stephanie Vang in farrago; Reid Larson in impromptu; Elaina Knapp and Emma Pech in play acting; Jocelyn He in poetry; Kenzie Swinford and Kaia Houtman in prose; and finally, Jacqueline Wisinski is competing in extemporaneous.
The season started off with 40 to 50 student in the informational meeting, according to Anna Tempus, Stevens Point Area Senior High (SPASH) Forensics coach. Now there are 25 students competing in both individual or group events.
Tempus stated that this year’s team is extremely hard working and dedicated. She said she walked into their first meeting and nobody was sitting around wasting time, everybody used every second of our meeting time efficiently and asked for feedback. I’m very proud of the fact that everybody was onboard and ready. That makes a world of a difference in a team,” Tempus stated. “I couldn’t be happier with this year’s team and results. No matter how we do at District and at state, I’m proud of the work they’ve been willing to put in and the time they’ve taken to hone their craft.”
“The cool thing with forensics is that you are not in competition with other students, you are in competition with yourself, so at these competitions, all you have to do is improve your scores. I like this because it makes the team tighter because they aren’t competing against each other. This also makes the event down in Madison a friendlier atmosphere rather than hostile because we aren’t waring against each other were working together,” Tempus stated.
Tempus further said she is very excited to see the students advancing because it is not an easy thing to do. She is also interested to see how the students will do but have the “utmost confidence in everybody who’s speaking.”
This is Tempus’s first year coaching forensics. She is excited and learning tons not just from other coaches but from her students.
“I had never done forensics before so I’m kind of sitting on the shoulders of giants. I’m working with the students, people in the district and the District 5 Forensics Team. They are all helping me out to get settled here,” Tempus said.
Tempus’s assistant coach Jill Donahue has also helped. “Jill has been a wonderful resource and fantastic coach. She has made a huge difference to me as a first-time coach,” Tempus said.
Donahue has forensics experience from coaching at her previous school district.
Here in Wisconsin, we have two different areas of forensics. Wisconsin High School Forensics Association (WHSFA) is the current league SPASH participates in. This is non-competitive, however, there is a competitive side, the Wisconsin Forensics Coaches Association (WFCA) where students compete against other students and schools.
“I talked earlier about how I appreciate that we participate in a non-competitive environment, due to the fact that it’s a friendly atmosphere. In the future, however, I would love to see us in some of those competitions to see how we would do in a different environment along with the WHSFA because I believe it is a valuable way to do forensics.”
Dylan Konicek • Apr 4, 2018 at 12:57 PM
Awesome article! I never realized how big forensics was until I read this. It would have been great to see a picture though
Alina Burmistrova • Apr 4, 2018 at 12:52 PM
I think this competition could help students in the future life, it is really useful skill, even during studying at university. Article is really good and full of opinions.
Alyssa Schroeckenthaler • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:42 PM
Great article! It was cool to read about the Forensics team since it does not get talked about a lot. I liked how you got the teachers’ comments. I also would have liked to see a quote from people who are on the team too.
Kara • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:39 PM
This story was very informative and really taught me about what forensics is and what they do! Good job on quotes from the coach! Also, I really liked how you added the dates of their next competitions.
Hannah Gibbons • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:36 PM
I thought this article was very well written and a great length. The length of the quotes was nice and long and was very informational. I enjoyed reading about the Forensics accomplishments, because we never hear much about them. I’m impressed by how many students were able to make it to state, that’s awesome.
Tony Ludwig • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:35 PM
I think forensics is all too often underappreciated. This article was well put together and I think it gave some necessary attention to the team.
Kacey Koch • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:35 PM
I learned so much more about Forensics that I didn’t know before while reading this article! Would’ve loved to see a photo.
Dylan Trigg • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:34 PM
This is really good. I can’t really think of anything to make it better. Maybe you could get a picture.
Kacey Koch • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:34 PM
I learned so much more about Forensics that I didn’t know while reading this article! Would’ve loved to see a picture.
Manuel Lupercio • Apr 2, 2018 at 12:25 PM
Nice article! Was really informative. Only suggestion i have is you couldve explained the events that the students were partaking in rather than just listing them but it is still a great article