The awards included:
• Second place, duo interpretation: Patrick Schneider and Dylan Carter;
• Third place, solo acting: Jazz Maltz and Melissa Lettis;
• Third place, Lincoln-Douglas debate: Kristen Tonga;
• Fourth place, public forum debate: Kelsey Waldorf and Patrick Schneider; and
• Fourth place, humorous interpretation: Kristen Tonga.
Other finalists from the Homer team included:
• Extemporaneous commentary: Michael Pate and Ithica Sorenson; and
• Readers theater: Emerson Quarton and Jazz Maltz.
Fourteen members of Homer’s team participated in the tournament. Also competing for awards were 10 other teams from Anchorage, Eagle River and Nikiski high schools, according to Daniel Westerburg, the local DDF team’s adviser.
“The size of the group has changed dramatically,” Westerburg said of changes he’s seen since the team first formed. “We had six to eight kids the first year and now we have 38 on the team. Of course, we can’t take everybody (to tournaments), so we’ve been sort of doing a rotation to get kids up to the first three or four meets.”
The team includes students in all four years of high school.
“This year we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores and they’re really enthusiastic. They’re not afraid of anything. It’s been real fun to work with them,” Westerburg said.
He explains the growing interest in the DDF team as a reflection of the need for students to have a variety of activities.
“There’s a lot of kids that like athletics, but a lot of kids that don’t get into athletics. We’re filling that void,” Westerburg said. “We also have kids that do both. And some have gone through the Pier One Youth Theatre program as youngsters, but once they get into high school, there’s not an artistic outlet for them, not a lot of theater stuff for teenagers.”
The team also has two new coaches this year — Paul Jones and Mercedes Harness.
“They’re two young folks, both of them drama grads from college that have gone through the Pier One system and have taught youth theater with Pier One,” Westerburg said. “They have lots of energy and the kids love them.”
Students invest several hours each week in their involvement with DDF. There are two two-hour practices and the opportunity to attend two special interest study halls at school each week, time needed to memorize lines and prepare for events and hours of reading.
The next tournament will be at Dimond High in Anchorage in November. A tournament will be held in Homer in January.
McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com.
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