De Soto High School hosted a Forensics tournament on March 19. 13 different schools participated in the meet.

Students on the Forensics team could not participate in the event because it was hosted by DHS, although members of the team still attended to help with various jobs including hospitality and tabulation jobs.

Sophomores Abigail Stutzman and Keirstyn Mascareno are a part of the team and helped with the meet.

“Some people ran ballots from the tabulation room and then back to rooms to the judges. There are people who sit in the hospitality room and make sure all of the judges have food all day,” Stutzman said.

Mascareno also helped with the meet but had a different job.

“I worked in the tabulation room. We received ballots and then wrote down the score, ranking and points that all total up. There were sheets and you wrote the information down on and would then give the ballots back to the judges,” Mascareno said.

Before the actual event happened, many things went into planning it.

“In addition to sending out invitations to the different schools, which Mr. Hagg does, we have to ask teachers if we can use their rooms. We then plan for all the hospitality stuff, which I did for this tournament,” Stutzman said.

Anyone can judge Forensics tournaments as long as they meet the requirements of being 18 years old. According to Mascareno, teachers from DHS judged the meet too.

“Anyone can judge. Parents could … my mom judged. I know a few teachers came in and helped, but you can only judge if you’re out of high school,” Mascareno said.

There are also downsides to hosting these tournaments. Many odd rooms such as the turf and laundry room were used. According to Stutzman  phase 3 construction will benefit the Forensics program in big ways.

“There were 48 to 50 rooms for the tournament in use, so almost all of the rooms in the school were taken,” Stutzman said. “[Phase 3] will give us more rooms and there will be a lot less stress. We won’t have to use any of the science rooms next year, which I know is definitely an area of conflict this year.”