Daily Sitka Sentinel

Edgecumbe, Sitka DDF Teams Top Players

By KLAS STOLPE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    If ever an appreciation for teens talking back to others, or at others, or just to themselves, can be more enjoyable than last weekend’s Drama, Debate, and Forensics Tournament at Mt. Edgecumbe High School then the world is going to be all right.
    Nearly 100 DDF students from the Haines Glacier Bards, Ketchikan, Mt. Edgecumbe, Sitka DDF, and Juneau’s Thunder Mountain competed in front of their peers, teachers and community members in the two-day event, competing in 12 speaking, acting and debating categories.
    “This huge event takes a lot of planning, but when students arrive on campus with their dramatic energy and excitement for the tournament, all the planning is worth it,” MEHS coach Marcia Drake said. “DDF is an event that gives students a creative outlet as well as skills in developing person-to- person communication.”
    The best bridge bards from Sitka and Mt. Edgecumbe gathered some of the top honors.
    Sitka senior Joe Pate topped the individual points compilation for Public Forum Debate, and Mt. Edgecumbe junior Jesse Hanson and Sitka senior Ella Lubin placed second. Hanson also won Extemporaneous Speaking.
    Pate and Lubin also topped the Team Public Forum Debate.
    “I was honestly surprised that Joe and I made it to the final debate,” Lubin said. “Walking out of the round, I didn’t feel confident that we had won, so was pretty excited to hear the results. As always, the whole team was extremely supportive of each other and other teams. Overall I’m really proud to be a part of the Sitka DDF team.”
    The topic of the meet was on single-use plastics, the resolution was “A tax is the best way to reduce SUP in the state of Alaska.”
    In a normal regional meet there are six debate rounds and one final debate at the end. Lubin and Pate debated the topic seven times. Each debate starts with the flip of a coin to determine who defends which side. They ended up debating the negation which argued a tax is not best to reduce SUP.
    “My tip for any speaker is be confident,” said Lubin, who began DDF as a sophomore, said. “I often fake confidence in what I am saying to make my speech more believable. In the end, it is all about how you portray your message – be it a side to a debate or a character in a play – to your audience.”
    They also competed together in Readers Theater with Sitka senior Oliva Wilcox (who also won Humorous Interpretation) and in Duo Interpretation, where performers are not allowed to look at each other or touch.
    “We showcase creativity without props and limited time, showing interesting transitions, distinct characters, and an understandable and cohesive storyline,” Lubin said. “It takes a copious amount of preparation from DDF team members to compete, but it also takes countless hours from DDF coaches. I feel so lucky that Sitka High has two coaches who are willing to spend so much time and effort on ensuring that we are as successful as possible. I was late to the game with DDF... and definitely regret it. I did not join the team until my sophomore year; however I’ve always loved arguing. Every time we delve into a new debate topic, I am always amazed at how much I learn about the world. Debate teaches me more about current issues in its 5-month season than I learn during the whole school year. On the drama side, I am constantly redefining my limits. Although I don’t participate in extremely heartfelt or dramatic pieces, I like to challenge myself by performing the material in front of me in the most convincing way possible.”
    Pate first participated in a tournament in 7th grade English class.
    “It was here that I first found that I thrived at the podium,” he said. “Soon after I was introduced to the high school DDF program. My brother was an active member of the team which gave me comfort knowing that I would have a friend there, but what I found was that I didn’t need my brother because DDF was such a warm and welcoming environment. The activity room is always full of uproarious laughter and grinning faces. It is a haven for many students who find that they have a passion for acting or speaking. DDF gave me, and has given many other students, a home.”
    He discovered as a freshman he wasn’t very gifted when it came to acting.
    “I found this surprising because previous to my involvement in DDF my brother had taken a state title in humorous interpretation,” he said. “However, under the wings of my fellow teammates and the great direction of my current acting coach, Christian Litten, I have seen a dramatic difference in my acting abilities. Most importantly though, my still-developing acting and debating skills have given me profound advantages for later in life. DDF has provided me with an arsenal of speaking and writing skills that I know are essential for my future success.”
    Pate said he hopes people know how much time and effort it takes to prepare a successful DDF piece.
    “A lot of the burden falls especially on our coaches who manage almost 30 kids and the variety of pieces that they compete in,” he said.  “Our coaches spend late nights scouring the internet for well-written scripts and editing debate documents, and this is addition to their day jobs and activities. They are amazing, incredible individuals and I want to thank them for it. There is also a lot of preparation on the side of the competitors. I will often find that the amount of work for school I have pales into comparison to the stack of DDF work I have.”
    MEHS sophomore Esther Burdick won Original Oratory with a topic of comprehensive sex education, which aims to give students the knowledge, skills, and values to make appropriate and healthy choices in their sexual lives.
    “I was talking to one of my really good friends about a sex education unit coming up in my health and wellness class that semester, and we decided, at 11 o’clock at night, to email my teacher about what curriculum and standards she would be using for us,” Burdick said. “She emailed me back the next morning illustrating all of the incredible things she had planned out, which really made me think about what sex ed is like at other schools. This led me to look up some quick statistics, during which I found out that only 13 states require sex education information to be medically accurate and 18 states require that instruction on the importance of engaging in sexual activity only within marriage be provided. Mostly, I just wanted to bring light to the issue and to urge change in a positive direction.”
    Burdick stated that DDF takes time and effort and speeches are particularly challenging.
    “Since not only are you memorizing upwards of an 8-minute piece, you have to write your speech, which, as I learned is nothing like writing an essay,” she said. “Initially I wrote my piece as if I were going to turn it in for a grade until I realized it could have more opinion and I could have more fun with it.”
    Brudick said she first found interest in drama in 6th grade in a production of “Annie” at Young Performers Theater.
    “I found that speaking really interested me,” she said. “I suppose the fact that there is so much to fight for and how successfully speaking can impact people really interests me as well. I’m mostly surprised that I even did an oration in the first place, it was something that had interested me last year, but I didn’t think I was going to have the guts to do it. The thing that surprised me most is definitely the fact that I almost completely switched from drama pieces to speaking pieces in just the span of a year. I never thought that speaking would end up being my “thing” but I already have a topic for an oration for next year. I think my most helpful hint is to just have fun with it. Sometimes the writing and researching is a lot, but it’s so worth it in the end.”
    Sitka  senior Abigail Fitzgibbon placed first in Solo Acting with a monologue in which she plays a teenage boy who almost gets arrested for stealing garden gnomes.
    “It’s a really loud, silly, funny piece, and I chose it because I thought it would be fun to watch and to perform,” she said.

Sitka High School senior Abigail Fitzgibbon gives a command performance at the recent drama, debate and forensics meet at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. (Sentinel Photo)

    Fitzgibbon also placed second in Original Oratory with a speech about how Americans need to stop making such a big deal about English grammar.
    “It’s ironic, because I’m pretty widely known as a grammar snob,” she said. “One of my nicknames is “human spellcheck,” but once I started researching linguistics, I realized that a lot of grammar rules are meaningless, and that reducing alternative ways of speaking to “bad English” directly harms marginalized groups. It’s a very complex topic. My speech barely scratches the surface.”
    Fitzgibbon is another YPT member and started DDF as a freshman.
    “I’ve been surprised by how much better people like my performances when I stop trying so hard to be likable,” she said. “When I started DDF, I only picked generic pieces that I thought no one could possibly object to, and I wore skirts to every competition, even though that made me uncomfortable. As a result, my performances were uninspired and awkward, and my judges’ scores reflected that.”
    As an upperclassman she grew bolder and started picking quirkier, more unusual pieces, as well as wearing blazers and ties to competitions.
    “Immediately, I started enjoying myself more and scoring a lot better,” she said. “My advice for public speakers would be: no matter what, act confident and keep going. Odds are the people listening to your speech know less about the topic than you do, so even if you mess something up, they won’t know unless you make it obvious. In DDF, speakers with mediocre speeches and compelling delivery will beat speakers with good speeches and hesitant delivery 9 times out of 10. This advice also applies to theater, music, dance, etc; performance is the one area of life where you should never admit to your mistakes.”
    All agreed a DDF meet is physically and mentally draining.
    “The stress of performing and competing and being judged on what you present can impact your body in very ‘unfun’ ways,” Lubin said. “I think it’s difficult for anyone to imagine how exhausting it is to really go deep into playing a different character several times in a day, as well as debating in succession.”
    Debaters have to prepare a case for each side of the current resolution. That requires an extraordinary amount of research online, interviews with experts, and time spent bouncing infant arguments off team members to test the contention’s integrity.
    “On top of that, we have school work and other aspects of life,” Lubin said. “At times it feels extremely overwhelming, but it pays off in the debate rounds when you’re able to rebut your opponents points because of your detailed research.”
   
   
   
   
     
    MEHS DDF TOURNAMENT RESULTS
    PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE, INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS:
    1st Joe Pate SIT 175.00; 2nd Jesse Hanson MEHS 173.00; 2nd Ella Lubin SIT 173.00; 4th Jared Valentine KTN 172.00; 5th Henry Clark KTN 170.00; 5th Chris Brown KTN 170.00; 5th Keenan Miller TMHS 170.00; 5th Jacob King KTN 170.00; 9th Michaela Goodman TMHS 169.00; 9th Hahlen Benken-Barkhau SIT 169.00; 11th Jackson Kaye KTN 168.00; 11th Ayanna Goodman TMHS 168.00; 13th Alyssa Henshaw SIT 167.50; 14th Alex Wehe TMHS 167.00; 14th Dametre Martin KTN 167.00; 16th Darby Osborne SIT 166.00; 16th Adonis Buzard TMHS 166.00; 16th Tava Guillory SIT 166.00; 19th Brendan Roof KTN 165.00; 19th Malin Marius SIT 165.00; 19th Yuli Nuri SIT 165.00; 19th Seth Chernick KTN 165.00; 19th Erin Shea KTN 165.00; 24th Anja Brooks-Schmidt SIT 164.00; 24th Carter Thomas KTN 164.00; 24th Abbigail Gaugler KTN 164.00; 27th Braxton Zink KTN 163.00; 27th Asa Dow SIT 163.00; 27th Muriel Reid MEHS 163.00; 27th Michael Wesley Pearson TMHS 163.00; 27th Hamd Akmal TMHS 163.00; 32nd Dorothy Kuterbach TMHS 162.00; 32nd Mina Brooks-Schmidt SIT 162.00; 34th Nicole West KTN 161.50; 35th Fiona Raasch MEHS 161.00; 35th Stephanie Eakin MEHS 161.00; 35th Anne Coss KTN 161.00; 38th Caribeth Gundran SIT 160.00; 38th Rebecca Warren and Addie Poulson SIT 160.00; 38th Tristan Dahl KTN 160.00; 38th Savannah Nieshe KTN 160.00; 42nd Lucas Erickson TMHS 159.00; 42nd Roderick Huntington MEHS 159.00; 44th Wilson Kimber MEHS 158.00; 44th Soren Marius SHS 158.00; 46th Lucas Chernick KTN 153.00; 47th Ethan Thomas KTN 152.00; 47th Brighton Murray TMHS 152.00.
    PUBLIC FORUM DEBATE, TEAM SPEAKERS:
    1st Joe Pate and Ella Lubin SIT 6-0 348.00; 2nd Henry Clark and Seth Chernick KTN 6-0 335.00; 3rd Jared Valentine and Chris Brown KTN 5-1 342.00; 4th Savannah Nieshe and Jackson Kaye KTN 5-1 328.00; 5th Adonis Buzard and Keenan Miller TMHS 4-2 336.00; 6th Hahlen Benken-Barkhau and Tava Guillory SIT 4-2 335.00; 7th Mina Brooks-Schmidt and Darby Osborne SIT 4-2 328.00; 8th Dametre Martin and Jacob King KTN 3-3 337.00; 9th Roderick Huntington and Jesse Hanson MEHS 3-3 332.00; 10th Dorothy Kuterbach and Michaela Goodman TMHS 3-3 331.00; 11th Brendan Roof and Erin Shea KTN 3-3 330.00; 11th Hamd Akmal and Alex Wehe TMHS 3-3 330.00; 13th Carter Thomas and Abbigail Gaugler KTN 3-3 328.00; 14th Rebecca Warren, Addie Poulson, and Anja Brooks-Schmidt SIT 3-3 324.00; 14th Stephanie Eakin and Muriel Reid MEHS 3-3 324.00; 16th Caribeth Gundran and Asa Dow SIT 3-3 323.00; 17th Yuli Nuri and Malin Marius SIT 2-4 330.00; 18th Soren Marius and Alyssa Henshaw SIT 2-4 325.50; 19th Nicole West and Anne Coss KTN 2-4 322.50; 20th Michael Wesley Pearson and Lucas Erickson TMHS 2-4 322.00; 21st Braxton Zink and Tristan Dahl KTN 1-5 323.00; 22nd Brighton Murray and Ayanna Goodman TMHS 1-5 320.00; 23rd Wilson Kimber and Fiona Raasch MEHS 1-5 319.00; 24th Ethan Thomas and Lucas Chernick KTN 0-6 305.00.
    DRAMATIC INTERPRETATION:
    1st Callum Marks, TMHS; 2nd Shayla Loveland MEHS; 3rd Stephanie Eakin MEHS; 4th Eli Williamson, HNS; 5th Dean Franklin, TMHS; 6th Malin Marius, SIT.
    DUET ACTING:
    1st Morgan Blackgoat and Briannah Letter, TMHS; 2nd Olivia Bolin and Alex Wehe, TMHS; 3rd Callum Marks and Michaela Goodman, TMHS; 4th Hannah Boron and Stella Ordonez, HNS; 5th Max White and Tanna Dixon, HNS; 6th Savannah Lacey and Kayla Sheakley, SIT; 7th Dorothy Kuterbach and Adonis Buzard, TMHS.
    DUO INTERPETATION:
    1st Dorothy Kuterbach and Elizabeth Price, TMHS; 2nd Alex Wehe and Callum Marks, TMHS; 3rd Briannah Letter and Keenan Miller, TMHS; 4th Ella Lubin and Joe Pate, SIT; 5th Stephanie Eakin and Muriel Reid, MEHS; 6th Michael Wesley Pearson and Olivia Bolin, TMHS.
    EXTEMP COMMENTARY:
    1st Jared Valentine, KTN; 2nd Savannah Nieshe, KTN; 3rd Henry Clark, KTN; 4th Tristan Dahl, KTN; 5th Nicole West, KTN.
    EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING (Place, Name, School):
    1st Jesse Hanson, MEHS; 2nd Keenan Miller, TMHS; 3rd Hahlen Benken-Barkhau, SIT; 4th Carter Thomas, KTN; 5th Chris Brown, KTN; 6th Hamd Akmal, TMHS.
    HUMOROUS INTERPRETATION):
    1st Olivia Wilcox, SIT; 2nd Morgan Blackgoat, TMHS; 3rd Seth Chernick, KTN; 4th Briannah Letter, TMHS; 5th Ethan Thomas, KTN; 6th Zander Kotlarov, TMHS.
    INFORMATIVE SPEAKING:
    1st Abbigail Gaugler, KTN; 2nd Hannah Boron, HNS; 3rd Chris Brown, KTN; 4th Jared Valentine, KTN; 5th Darby Osborne, SIT; 6th Tamara Zankiz, SIT.
    ORIGINAL ORATORY:
    1st Esther Burdick, MEHS; 2nd Abigail Fitzgibbon, SIT; 3rd Anja Brooks-Schmidt, SIT; 4th Carter Thomas, KTN; 5th Addie Poulson, SIT; 6th Jacob King, KTN.
    PANTOMIME:
    1st Rock’em Sock’em Christmas, SIT; 2nd Tanna Dixon, Stella Ordonez, HNS.
    READERS THEATER (Place, Name, School):
    1st Michaela Goodman, Olivia Bolin, Morgan Blackgoat, Elizabeth Price, TMHS; 2nd Monty Python, KTN; 3rd Shakespeare, SIT; 4th Stayed Home Sick, SIT; 5th Revolting Rhymes, SIT; 6th Dean Franklin, Alex Wehe, Briannah Letter, Callum Marks, TMHS.
    SOLO ACTING:
    1st Abigail Fitzgibbon, SIT; 2nd Olivia Bolin, TMHS; 3rd Stella Ordonez, HNS; 4th Hannah Boron, HNS; 5th Zia Allen, SIT.