The Homestead forensics students competed in their last meet before state at Brookfield East High School on Saturday, March 23. Two competitions took place at the same time: the Brookfield meet and the National Catholic Forensics League’s qualifier tournament (NCFL).

Six hard-working speakers on the team, juniors Morgan Klug, Shubhan Mathur, Elizabeth Foster, and Zack Zens, as well as seniors Thais Marques and Makayla Wright, qualified to compete in this year’s national tournament. Each speaker put hours of work into their pieces with the help of their coach, Mrs. Angelina Cicero. ‘Nationals’ is the last forensics competition of the season for Homestead students, a tournament where speakers from teams all around the nation compete.

This year, nationals will take place in Milwaukee on May 25-26. With the meet close to home, more Wisconsin schools will have the opportunity to attend the event.

“I’m excited to represent Wisconsin. It’ll be a really cool experience.” Klug said.

Both Klug and Mathur compete in Oratory, an individual category where competitors present a well-expressed, persuasive speech. This will be Klug’s first time attending nationals and Mathur’s second time.

“Nationals is a great experience. This year, I really want to work on my piece because it’s about a topic I’m really interested in,” Mathur said.

In the category Duo Interpretation of Literature, Marques and Wright in addition to Foster and Zens will be competing. For this category, partners compile and interpret a literary script, portraying a story via acting.

This is Foster’s and Zen’s first time working together in the duo category and first time heading to nationals. Working tirelessly for months, Foster has discovered “the opportunity to create powerful and moving art in Duo Interpretation. My partner and I cannot wait to give our art to the judges at the national level.” said Foster.

Duo Interpretation allows students to go beyond the realm of public speaking; competitors create pieces that inspire audiences. “Developing a piece to move people in ways that are truly deep has been an extremely gratifying experience,” Zens said.

For Wright and Marques, this is their second and final time competing at nationals.

“We have learned and grown as performers; this year’s nationals will finalize the experience,” said Wright and Marques, who have both been doing forensics since freshman year.

Even though the two are experienced seniors on the team, Wright believes, “forensics isn’t about age since everyone is part of the experience.”

As the forensics season comes to a close, speakers continue to prepare themselves for the state tournament and NCFL’s competition to come.