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A forensics first

I got my first taste Monday of the Marion High School forensics team. Well, actually my first taste of any forensics team.

While it was only three of the 30 or so members, the performances by Brett Billings, Michael Brookens, and Trevor Jones at the Marion Kiwanis Club meeting were outstanding.

For those who also aren't familiar, I like to call it "mini-acting."

Students perform solo or with a partner, depending on the category.

Some are funny, others are dramatic. Some performances are read, while others are acted out. There are poetry categories, as well as impromptu duet acting.

The students are judged based on their overall performance.

Maybe I was so impressed because it was the first time I witnessed forensics, and there is nothing else to compare it to.

I highly doubt it.

These students were good: they did old school, they did new school. I'm talking like Hamlet meets The Matrix.

These guys turned from normal high school students into their characters, and it was like we were looking at different people.

Same bodies, but the assortment of voices and faces during their skits were as different as Yankee and Red Sox fans.

It shouldn't have been too surprising considering this Warrior squad has been to six meets thus far and placed first at each one.

Take that Michael Phelps.

They will go for their seventh one this Saturday at Herington, and unfortunately for them, the crowd may only consist of judges.

That's just the way it works, sports teams draw the crowds, forensics teams draw grandparents watching on a taped VHS.

The Warriors have already qualified the max number of students, 16, for state, and will look to take no less than first place at the May competition.

If the other 27 team members are like Michael, Trevor, and Bret, (and I've heard they are) I don't expect anything else.

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