Last weekend, 11 members of Manhattan High School’s forensics team competed at the state competition for the last time under the guidance of head coach Shawn Rafferty.

Junior Nathan McClendon placed second Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking and fifth in Original Oration.

“To be honest, I was a little disappointed because I got second in my main event instead of first and it was a tie and I lost the tiebreaker so I was really close to being state champion but then I wasn’t,” McClendon said.

The forensics team has been working all semester to prepare for the state competition.

“We’ve been competing since January so it as been a process all the way up to this point of them practicing and preparing,” Rafferty said. “Sometimes totally reconstructing their performances or their speeches so it has been a four month process up to this.”

This is Rafferty’s final year at MHS. He is moving to Tulsa, Okla. and will be the head coach of the debate and forensics team at a high school there.

“I don’t know if it’s really set in yet. With competing at state and stuff I haven’t really had a lot of time to think about it,” Rafferty said. “I’m probably just most concerned that they find somebody who can run this program effectively. That’s where my thoughts are right now.”