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Forensics Team Racks Up Points

Summit's Forensics Team won yet another competition.

The Summit Forensics Team won the first place trophy for the second time this year at the Ridge Invitational. The Summit students collectively won 59 points, 23 more points than the students who won second-place. It's just the latest success for a team that sometimes gets overlooked by other students.

Forensics is a competitive dramatic speaking and debate activity. It is a National Honor Society that has been in existence since 1926, said Anne Poyner, head coach of the Summit Forensics Team.

The areas forensics cover are: Duo, where two students must act out a piece without looking at each other or touching; Dramatic and Humorous Interpretation, where students memorize a 10-minute scene from a play or novel and typically perform multiple characters; Prose and Poetry Interpretation, where students read a published short story or poem from a binder; Original Oratory, where students deliver a 10-minute persuasive speech they wrote delivered from memory; Extemporaneous Speaking, where students research current events in the news, go to a tournament, draw three topics, choose one and have 30 minutes to prepare a seven-minute speech from memory with sources from newspaper clippings they carry around; and Debate, where students argue the pros and cons of current event topics.

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"Most of the (responsibility) is on the students; they have to want to do it and prepare the material," said John Kratch, sssistant coach. "Poyner and I are a sounding board: we organize them, hold them accountable for being prepared, give advice as necessary, look at results of the last competition and try to figure out what the valuable criticism is."

Various high schools in New Jersey host forensics tournaments and between 30 and 40 schools attend, with a total of three or four-hundred students. 

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Ridge was the largest competition Summit attended this year. The 50 members of the Summit Forensics Team competed in one or two events each and typically compete in about seven tournaments per year. 

"We had a record number of people come and that helped lead to our success," said Julian Gordon, forensics team president. "We had so many talented competitors, so we broke a lot of people to finals and that got us more points."

A number of students on the Forensics Team are also actively involved with the Drama Club and the school plays. Kratch said that forensics gives students more practice performing and speaking because the typical student performs in two or three plays a year, while those involved in forensics perform multiple times a month.

Gordon's goal as president has been to make the Forensics Team more widely known. Even the students involved have often had to put forensics on the back burner as they pursued acting.

"I wanted to be president so I could work forensics up to a level where it's more important than it has been in the past because I love it so much," Gordon said.  "I'm surprised students haven't been involved because of how good it looks for college and how it helps with life in general."

A National Forensics League District Tournament will be held this year in Summit on March 26 and 27, starting Friday at 5 p.m., and Saturday at 9 a.m.  This tournament will determine which top two students will enter the National Tournament in Kansas City.  Students from Summit have qualified for the National Tournament for the past five years, and are normally rated within the top three teams.

"The most important goal is that the students achieve their best: that they become better communicators, better performers, that they learn how to behave professionally with poise and confidence and grace," said Poyner.

For more information visit nflonline.org.

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