The Haines High School Drama, Debate and Forensics team placed in a wide range of events at Wrangell last weekend.

“I don’t believe Haines has ever had a team with the potential to be as strong as this squad across the board,” said coach Gershon Cohen. “We always do really well in perhaps half a dozen events in any given year, but this team has a shot to be at the top in literally all 12 events at state.”

The Wrangell meet drew entrants from seven schools and was the second of the season.

“A number of Haines competitors in Wrangell were in their first meet because of running cross country earlier in the year and were still memorizing pieces on the ferry trip south,” Cohen said.

Junior Patrick Henderson placed first in original oration, followed by runner-up Eli White, a sophomore. Henderson earned an encore, command performance for his speech on “the power of the human spirit to motivate action,” Cohen said.

Sophomores Polly Bryant, Kai Sato-Franks and Isobel Smith were second in mime for “Arms Race.”

“The mime satirizes the futile evolution of weaponry from bones to nuclear arms, as Kai, to the frustration of Isobel and Polly, repeatedly finds the best use for his weapons is to scratch an itch in his back,” Cohen said.

The readers theater team of juniors Patrick and Royal Henderson, sophomore Zeke Frank, and freshmen Zayla Asquith-Heinz and Jennie Humphrey finished third, performing several scenes from the Monty Python movie, “The Meaning of Life.”

Royal Henderson was third in extemporaneous speaking, and junior Brennon Whitermore placed fifth. Other top 10 finishes included Frank, fifth in humorous interpretation; Asquith-Heinz and junior Tia Heywood, fifth in duo interpretation; Humphrey and senior Cassie Galasso, seventh in duo interpretation; and junior Margarette Jones, eighth in extemporaneous commentary.

Haines had three debate teams at Wrangell, and each completed six match-ups. The pair of Asquith-Heinz and Whitermore picked up four wins, while the Henderson twins and Frank and White tallied three wins apiece.

The DDF squad will head to Ketchikan in January and host the annual Haines meet that month.

“With the team’s pieces now chosen, cut and memorized, they can begin sharpening their timing and focusing on the blocking and delivery details necessary to produce winning efforts,” Cohen said.

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