Drama, Debate and Forensics improve in home meet

Wrangell High’s drama, debate and forensics team drew mixed results at the season’s lone home meet.

Kyla Teat and Kaylauna Churchill placed third and delivered a command performance pantomime titled “Doctor’s Office,” the highest honor awarded to Wolves debaters over the course of the two-day event. Ben Florschutz earned another third place in extemporaneous commentary, a category in which presenters have a limited amount of time to research and present on a topic.

Florschutz also placed fifth in the category of original oratory, during which speakers write their own speeches without a time limit said debate coach Stephen Prysunka.

Other performers, like the debate team of Molly Prysunka and Amos Comstock, boosted their rankings and improved over performances in previous meets, said debate coach Stephen Prysunka.

“Overall, we had some improvement in some areas and we slipped in other areas,” he said. “Overall, we did very well considering the schools we were up against.”

While the Wolves may have been slightly out-performed in the final results, performers and debaters spent hours practicing, and — after the elder Prysunka scheduled a trip to Hawaii for the same week, two members of the team – seniors Tyler Eagle and Mathew Covalt spent about 28 hours over Friday and Saturday helping to coordinate the meet as their senior project. Eagle and Covalt are among the team’s high performers, but when the situation called for it, it was an easy decision to step up, Covalt said.

“We had already qualified in the last two meets for finals,” he said. “We kind of felt a stronger pull to do it as a senior project than we did to do it as a debate. We kind of thought it was a nice way to give back to a program we’ve been a part of for four years.”

In the end, the meet was a success, in part because of a supporting cast of adults and judges, particularly the traveling judge Matt Olsen, Covalt added.

The team draws a variety of personalities, ranging from people like Nicholas Cole, who said he joined primarily because he doesn’t like sports, to Tabatha Hommel, who joined the team primarily out of a happy circumstance.

“I walked in here to come ask a friend a question, and I got sucked in,” she said. “I’m not even kidding. I was gonna come ask them about school and then they were like ‘Join us!’ and I was like ‘Okay!’”

“It kind of sounds like an evil cult,” Florschutz joked.

Once students are in the club, they face the daunting task of matching their performance category to their personality. The younger Prysunka said she chose debate because it was a good fit.

“Are you more theatrical?” she said. “Are you a more amusing person? Do you like presenting points to a person in a speech? It’s more about your personal style.”

“I chose debate, I thought it would be a good skill, I tried it and I really liked it,” she added.

Debaters said they would take something with them from the program, even if some of them, like Covalt, roll their eyes at the notion of elected office.

“I think it’s always something I’ll pursue later in life,” he said. “Being aware, more than anything, is something I think I’ll take from it.”

Drama, Debate and Forensics continues their season Dec. 6 and 7 at the Ketchikan High School.