Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé drama, debate and forensics co-coach James Marks sent a photo of his state-winning team to friends last weekend with this note, “In case anybody has any questions or is wondering about the power of diversity, equity and inclusion, here is my state-winning team, and it is really diverse with kids of a huge variety of cultural backgrounds and gender backgrounds and all we see as coaches is that kids are able to be the best versions of themselves in this activity. All of their strengths come out.”

Say what you will but it is beyond debate: the Crimson Bears DDF team won acclaim as the best orators in the state during last weekend’s ASAA DDF State Championships at Bettye Davis East High School in Anchorage.

Based on a variety of “sweepstakes” points earned through 16 individual and group events, JDHS earned a team second place in drama, second in debate and third in forensics, and their total tally scored them the team state championship for the overall combined sweepstakes. Eight of the events are drama and eight are forms of debate and different types of speeches. JDHS had three state champions, three runners-up and two fourth-place finishers.

“I think a lot of people don’t really understand what it is at all,” DDF senior co-captain Peyton Edmunds said. “People hear drama, debate and forensics and they think, ‘Oh, drama, debate and discovering dead bodies, that’s interesting.’ A lot of people don’t understand what we do. There are so many events we can compete in, like drama and speaking events. I think that is probably the biggest misconception.”

Edmunds said speeches are her favorite part of DDF.

She placed first in Informative Speech with a piece entitled “The Real Danger” and placed second in Original Oratory with a piece entitled “Put Down That Damn Phone!” — an informative speech on teen addiction to cell phones.

Of the informative speech concerning fake news she said, “I think the biggest thing is just looking at the news and reading the news. In my speech, I have a whole section on headlines and that is probably the biggest reason I wrote the speech is that I found this headline that was so misleading because it was characterizing a politician in a way that is just blatantly incorrect that I just thought, ‘How many people is this tricking?’”

JDHS’ Alivia Gomez and Elijah Goins placed first in Public Forum Debate. Their topic was “Resolved: The United States Should Accede to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

“When I watched the final, it was above my pay grade,” coach Marks said. “Because they were so phenomenal that I thought I would not be able to debate that well. They really were incredible.”

The team had to develop cases for both the affirmation and the litigation, so they had to argue both sides throughout the tournament — through five elimination rounds, quarterfinals, and the final.

“I was dragged into it by a friend,” Goins, now a senior, said of his start in DDF. “Instead of doing cross-country, I was dragged in and fell in love with it. The biggest thing that I love about drama, debate and forensics is probably the debate part of it. The reason for that is because debate is so relevant to everyday life. It takes so much critical thinking to be a good debater and you have to be able to look at both sides of the issue in the type of debate that we do. So it really trains your mind to think in a broader fashion and really try to find the truth in a lot of things. So that’s the thing that really draws me to this activity.”

He noted his love of debate is used when out with friends or at home.

“My parents love it sometimes,” he said. “And despise it other times.”

JDHS’ Freddy Thorsteinsen and Dane Hubert placed first in Pantomime.

“Any time in debate you are going against the best of the best from around the state,” coach Marks said. “They had a fantastic pantomime and actually their mime was two mimes having a mime-off. It was quite amusing and we will be showing that at our showcase tomorrow night.”

JDHS’ Dori Germain and Casey Knapp placed second in Improvisational Duet Acting. The actors picked a location, a situation and characters and had 30 minutes to prepare a scene including memorizing and improvisational planning.

“I learned about this activity through my sister who had a friend who did it,” Knapp, a senior co-captain, said. “So kind of all over the place with that but I just heard that they had debating and they told me, ‘Hey, you’d be good at arguing.’ So I joined, thinking, ‘Why not?’ As I started to actually do these events, especially drama, which I had no intention of doing to begin with, I just had so much fun and I learned a lot…that my ability to think on my feet, especially when it comes to speeches, has helped me so much whenever I am given a class project that I need to come up with on the fly. That has come in handy quite a few times. But honestly, the first day I came to DDF we just did a fun little exercise and I was hooked.”

JDHS’ Cadence Ward and Maddie Bass placed second in Duo Acting, performing a condensed version of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The students took the whole book and cut it down to a 12-minute performance.

Ward and Luke Strong placed fourth in Duet Acting doing a piece from “The Devil Wears Prada.”

Knapp, Germain, Goins, Germain, Thorsteinsen, Noah Coleman and Lincoln Razor placed fourth in Readers Theater with a piece entitled “Everything You Wanted to Know about the Scarlet Letter in 12 Minutes or Less.”

The DDF team is a culture that is based on acceptance.

“The first thing to do is just step in the door,” Edmunds said. “There is no really other way to go about it. The best way to get involved is just show up to a practice. People here are really welcoming. You’re not going to find a more, when it comes to personalities, diverse community. There are some really good, bizarre, incredible people in this activity so if you join you are going to be accepted.”

Added Goins, “I think probably the biggest thing for people that are interested is to remember that there are some people on the team that, yes, have been doing this for years and are very good at it, but there are also tons of people that have been doing this for barely any time at all so you can step in to the door, not having done any form of public speaking or acting or debating and get really good at it. So comparing yourself to other people should not be the barrier to entry.”

Said Knapp, “And it looks really really good on a resume. It also is really really good at bringing out life skills and, finally, it never hurts to try.”

The state championship team — which is co-coached by Corinne Marks — will host a dinner and showcase from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the JDHS commons. The event will feature five to six drama and speaking showcases, a silent auction and food. Tickets at the door at $20. Doors open at 5 p.m.

• Contact Klas Stolpe at klas.stolpe@juneauempire.com