Roeper Forensics Wraps Up Another Successful Season!

The Roeper Forensics Team had a very busy and successful year. To kick off the season, ten of our first and second quarter middle school students competed in two online tournaments in late January and early February. Finalists at these tournaments included: Meira Gable, 1st in declamation; Xavier Kanai, 3rd in poetry original interpretation; Hope Carmona, 4th in poetry; and Dallas Tolbert, 6th in poetry. Semifinalists were: Lilly Brinn, Soha Dey, Leyla Guven, and Jayden Hertzberg in prose; and Bryce Broughton and Neel Grover in storytelling.

Beginning in late January, Roeper’s four high school team members each participated in two or more all-day Saturday invitational tournaments. Early competitions were held online, with February seeing the exciting return to in-person competitions! At event students performed their piece up to five times, competing against students from schools across the state.

The high school season culminated on April 30th with the Class B/C/D Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association (MIFA) State Tournament. All four team members qualified to attend, and three placed in the top 12 in the state, with the fourth missing the semifinals cut by only one place. Two of these became state finalists, placing in the top six in the state in their respective categories: Ruby McKeever was 4th in dramatic interpretation, and Signe Smith, 5th in poetry. Vaughn Roycraft placed 7th overall in prose, and Phillip Rabinovich was 13th in informative.

Rounding out the competition season, Roeper’s third and fourth quarter middle school forensics students competed in the online MIFA Spring States Middle School tournament on May 7th. Middle school state finalists included Dallas Tolbert, 3rd place, and Meira Gable, 5th place in poetry, and Bryce Broughton named 1st place state champion in impromptu 5/6. Team members Cosmo Steffke in prose, Charlie Baird in storytelling, Neel Grover in impromptu, Xavier Kanai in original interpretation, and Leyla Guven in dramatic interpretation, all had fantastic performances that earned positive comments from their judges.

At Roeper Forensics Night, on Friday, May 13, we celebrated Dan Jacobs induction into the Michigan Speech Coaches, Inc. Hall of Fame with a special surprise pre-glow reception, after which 15 team members and current forensics students performed their pieces live in the theater. The event was livestreamed on the Roeper Forensics YouTube channel, and the recording remains available for viewing at ROEPER FORENSICS YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

Congratulations to all of our incredible forensicators! We look forward to working with all of you again next year. The Roeper Forensics Team always welcomes new students to participate, either by signing up for the elective or working with coaches afterschool as an extracurricular. If you are interested or would like more information, please email Dan Jacobs or Laura Moore.

Please send any other photos of the team together or in action to Carolyn Borman!