The Manhattan High forensics team recently navigated a whirlwind of logistics and competition, transitioning from the chaotic role of hosting a home tournament to competing at a high level at the Olathe invitational.
Hosting a home meet requires a massive shift in perspective, as students move from the stage to the “war room.” For junior Haley Hughes who served as the “underlord” of the tournament, the weekend was a lesson in high-stakes administration.
“Behind the scenes [there] is a lot of moving parts, especially with a team our size,” Hughes said. “You have to make sure [the] tabroom and judges table stays in sync while being completely aware of everything going on during the tournament from coach status to judging.”
The most notorious challenge of the home meet was the “Mystery Event,” which tasks visiting competitors with giving speeches on completely random topics, unknown by competitors beforehand. The event provided both the weekend’s biggest headache and its best entertainment.
“The hardest part of hosting was our mystery event having some difficulties,” Hughes said. “We had to switch around the round plans so that we could accommodate the lack of rooms available and I had to scramble to print and cut out a new mystery song for round 2.”
Junior Billy Koeppe worked the judges’ table and felt the pressure of keeping the schedule on track.
“The hardest part of hosting is probably just making sure things run smoothly,” Koeppe said.
Koeppe also recalled a frantic moment where a judge couldn’t access a locked room, requiring him to run back and forth four times before heading to his own rehearsal.
“We didn’t have enough Mystery ballots so we had to print a whole bunch of those and it wasn’t working for a while,” Koeppe said.
Despite the stress, the team found plenty of room for “unhinged” humor and camaraderie.
“I think my favorite moment was junior Dylan Spencer and senior Cameron Williams lying to a bunch of the mystery kids on one of the events because that’s what it called for, and one of the competitors spent an hour working on a flag for his fake country, when in reality he didn’t even need it,” Hughes said.
Koeppe echoed the sentiment about community, adding, “It’s important to host because it allows us to do our part for all the forensics students. We always go to schools for their tournaments so it’s nice to do the same for them.”
The team’s hard work behind the scenes translated into momentum on the road at the Olathe meet on March 7. Competing in one of the largest pools of the season, Manhattan secured a fifth-place finish in the overall sweepstakes. Senior Ayla Price noted several standout performances that defined the weekend.
“I think the biggest highlights include senior Wyatt Adams and junior Natalia Buffington’s duo getting fifth and one of our novices, freshman Katalina Martinez breaking to semifinals in informative speaking out of a pool of 81,” Price said.
Hughes also experienced her own personal success, placing third out of nearly 90 entries in Informative Speaking with a speech on bees.
“I loved getting to see some of my favorite teammates go into the finals room and absolutely crush it,” Hughes said. “With this being the biggest tournament that we should see in [our] season, I think we definitely performed well and I’m so proud of everyone who broke to semis or finals.”
