Holding training sessions for the Summit High School Forensics Team isn't unusual. But bringing in the best-of-the-best for more intensive training is.

Anne Poyner, the Forensics Team coach at Summit High School, brings in specialists each year to hold sessions with the kids in order to improve their speaking and debating abilities. But last week, with aid from a Summit Educational Foundation grant, students were able to undergo intensive training under the instruction of some of the country's best professionals without having to break the bank.

"I thought it would motivate kids if they didn't have to pay a fee, and it did," said Poyner of the three workshops she organized for her students. The first of which began this past summer.

Forensics teams prepare students for competition involving both individual events such as dramatic interpretation, original oratory, and prose and poetry reading, as well as group debate.

During the week of October 25, forensics team consultants from the nationally renowned company The Perfect Performance were flown to New Jersey from Lincoln, Nebraska in order to work with students to refine their speaking and debate skills and prepare them for an upcoming competition which would take place that weekend.

Matt and Toni Heimes, a husband and wife duo who head their own high school forensics team at Lincoln Southwest High in Nebraska, have been coaching for 18 years. This past week, they took time from their school's fall break to visit Summit High and work with nearly 50 students to perfect their abilities.

"A lot of it is fine tuning, making sure they're cut to the right time limit, and have solid introductions written and memorized, and just the basic blocking and characteristic work. We give them tips on those, new ideas," said Matt Heimes, who spent 30 to 45 minutes periods observing student speaking performances and providing constructive criticism.

Meanwhile, in a distant room down the hall, Toni Heimes met with a group of students to hone their debate skills and familiarize themselves with the topic they would soon be arguing at the approaching competition: NATO Presence Improves the Lives of Afghanistan Citizens.

"I worked with the debaters as a group and we talked about the topic and we talked about their approach to the topic and some things they still needed to find out and some research they still needed to do," said the Nebraskan debate coach.

Toni Heimes said the next step would be to do full practice rounds with the students and discuss their performances as they went through the rounds.

Demond Wilson, president and founder of The Perfect Performance, had also stopped in to give the kids pointers early in the week.

Poyner, who has been coaching the forensics team at Summit High School for 9 years, applied for the SEF $10,000 grant in the spring of 2010.

She said that the goal of the workshops was to get the kids to perfect and polish their pieces and that bringing in an outside professional really motivates team members to work and to focus.

According to Matt Heimes, he and his wife both noted improvement in the students with whom they had previously worked during the summer.

"So much about forensics is really about what they are willing to do outside on their own. It's not like a play where you always rehearse as a full unit. There's so much individual work," he said.

When asked how the Summit Forensics Team members stacked up against others with whom the Heimes have worked, they agreed that Summit's kids are just like any other aspiring high school students who are working hard to sharpen their techniques and performances.

Toni Heimes noted that the Summit students are fortunate to have many opportunities to work closely with their coach and teammates, and to be involved in performance throughout the year in plays and musicals. As a result, they can be constantly improving their craft.

"The vicinity, the closeness to New York City, to be able to see the best of the best, certainly helps," added Matt Heimes.

With the looming competition just days away, the Heimes offered their opinions on the students' preparedness for the weekend's events.

"I think they're going to be ready," said Toni Heimes. "They know what they need to do to get ready. They've been given the opportunities."

Poyner also believes in her team, a belief which was the likely impetus behind her efforts to secure grant money for the workshops.

"I think (forensics team) is such an important activity because the kids not only have to be able to speak well, they have to be able to think," said the high school team's coach. "My forensicators are never afraid at an interview. They are never afraid when they have to give a class presentation."

She went on to say that the skills learned through the speech and debate team prove valuable on the SATs, in essay-writing, real-world discussions, and numerous other social, academic, and professional situations.

And the training appears to have paid off. At the competition on Oct. 30 several students finished in the final rounds:

• Varsity Public Forum Debate: fourth place, Eric Hermann and Matt Wong
• Humorous Interpretation: fifth place, Katt Claypoole; fourth place, Will Kaplan; first place, Allan Guerrero
• Duo Interpretation: fifth place, Katt Claypoole and Elizabeth Akudugu; second place, Erin Fitzpatrick and Sam Goodstein
• Dramatic Interpretation: third place, Nora Boylan; first place, Elizabeth Akudugu