The 2012-13 school year has been very successful for De Soto High School academic teams. Scholars Bowl, Forensics, Newspaper and Yearbookhave all competed and succeeded at their state competition.
The Scholar’s Bowl team returned as 4A State Champions on Feb. 9, for the third consecutive year. This year, the team had a record of 27-1, and they didn’t place in only one tournament all season.
The members of the varsity team included seniors Blake Bradford, Amanda DeBrabander, Ashton Neylon, Lauren Mabe, Christian Sweeney and junior William Walker.
The Forensics team competed at State on May 4 and returned with its first medalist, junior Ethan Ridings, in five years. The tournament typically falls on the weekend of Prom, which has held the team back for the last several years.
Ridings placed sixth out of 74 competitors in the event “Oral Interpretation of Poetry.” Sophomore Patrick Cunningham placed 11th out of 45 Impromptu competitors.
“I’m really, really, really proud of them. They spent a lot of time, a lot of hours working hard,” Forensics coach Erin Purifoy said.
In addition, 11 journalism students attended the Kansas Scholastic Press Association State competition on May 4.
Senior Sophia Templin was awarded the KSPA class 3A/4A student journalist of the year, junior Erin Sullivan placed first in Student Life Photography and junior Michael Buffkin placed first in Video News. Junior Rebekah Burgweger placed third in Editorial news writing.
The other students who competed were seniors Tyler Bell and Cheyenne England, juniors Kaylee Asher, Ben Patton, Shelby Philbrook and sophomore Kelsea Burns.
Journalism adviser Michael Sullivan was overall happy with the results of the competition.
“Any time you place in the top five (as a school) of the state, that’s always a good accomplishment. We may not have placed as many people as we have in the past, but this is the first time we’ve had two individual champions,” Sullivan said. “I think that that is a very significant goal that everyone should be proud of.”
The DHS academic teams have accomplished a lot this year. With a lot of hard work and practice, they were able to go to compete and have something to show for it.
