On Oct. 30, the Doane Forensics team traveled to the University of Nebraska-Omaha (UNO) for their annual Halloween Swing. For 15 years, Doane and UNO have co-hosted this tournament on the last weekend of October.
This year, the tournament fell on Halloween weekend, and the theme was dynamic duos. Students partnered up and dressed up as their favorite and most iconic duos.
Senior Jordynn Jerby and junior Channer Koeppe paired up as the Queen of Hearts and Mad Hatter from “Alice in Wonderland”. Though Koeppe didn’t compete during this tournament, she hosted activities and did various activities like “decorating the entire hallway, and hosting games like musical chairs” and “Put the Rat on the Hat,” Koeppe said.
They also decorated the halls with labels like “Best Best Friend Duo,” “Best Romantic Duo,” “Best Food Duo,” etc., where people could write their own answers.
“I believe someone put “UNO + Doane” under “Best Best Friend Duo,” Koeppe said.
Freshmen Lillian Blank and Noah Baeder dressed up as Rapunzel and Flynn.
“I really enjoyed dressing up on the second day with my partner; I was Rapunzel, and he was Flynn. We had to do a decent amount of work, but we still found a way to have fun with it,” Blank said.
Blank competed in the Program of Oral Interpretation.
“The speech was about how we need to stop shaming women’s interests, no matter what they are, and I did this from the lens of romance books and labeling all of them as smut,” Blank said.
Though she didn’t place, she shared that she still enjoyed the event.
“I still feel like I did well with it and I had fun. It was tough competition, so I’m honestly okay with not medaling,” Blank said.
Juniors Lillian Korbel and Brianna Wright dressed up as the duo, Mordecai and Twilight Sparkle. Korbel shared that her piece was about OCD.
“The portrayal of OCD in media is very wrong, so I took a piece from a documentary from a man with OCD, and I performed it like that.”
“I felt more encouraged and inspired…my personal motto is be better than you were yesterday, especially for speech,” Korbel said.
Given that this will be their last tournament together, as the Doane forensics team will be cut due to the Doane Forward initiative, this inspired students to work especially hard.
“Sometimes people hold back in order to save it for later, but if this is your last year you gotta give it your all. I felt that from a lot of our teammates, and I definitely saw that for myself,” Korbel said.
Korbel placed third in Dramatic Interpretation during Halloween Swing and earlier got second at a tournament at Concordia University, which qualified her for nationals this April.
Blank also said that forensics has felt like a support system.
“Probably my favorite thing about being in Forensics is my teammates and coaches. We always have a fun time but still get things done, and they are like my best friends and sometimes even a second family,” Blank said.
Koppe shared that at the end of the tournament she handed out beaded ladybugs as a thank you.
“I really enjoyed Halloween Swing both years I attended, and I am very upset at having to leave it behind due to Doane Forward,” Koeppe said. “I don’t think I would be as confident or collected as I am now without my friends on the Forensics team or my coaches, Nathaniel Wilson and Jennifer Torres.”
