Belleville High School Forensics Team Earns Excellence in Speech Award

The Wisconsin High School Forensic Association held its 120th annual State Speech Festival on the campus of UW-Madison, hosting 4,571 students from 344 high schools across the state of Wisconsin, as well as La Crescent, Minnesota.
Judges rate each student or performing group, and the top five percent of point-earning schools are recognized with Excellence in Speech Awards, with the school and teacher each presented with a plaque. Belleville, along with Coach Susette Alsteens, earned the honor this year.
The Belleville High School Forensics team was awarded the State Excellence Award.  Out of 344 high schools participating at the State meet on April 17-18th, Belleville earned enough points as a team to be put on the top 5% List.  Eighteen out of 344 schools were given this award. This is the first time Belleville has received this award and the first time that Susette Alsteens, as a coach of forensics for over 20 years, has received this award. Belleville received 10 Gold medals (25 out of 25), 10 Silver medals (23-24 out of 25) and three Bronze medals.
“Students in our academic sport practice long hours to hone their skills and meet the expectations upon which they will be judged,” said WHSFA Executive Director Adam Jacobi. “These schools represent consistent performance across a variety of contest events at our festival, and should be lauded for their performance.”
<strong>About the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association</strong>
Since 1895, the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association (WHSFA) has provided programming for middle and high school students in theatre, debate, and public speaking activities.
Each year, our nonprofit organization serves about 10,000 Wisconsin students from 375-400 high schools, and 150-200 middle schools in the longest-running high school speech contests in the nation. Our aim is to empower students to enhance their skills in presentation through interscholastic assessment. For more information, visit www.whsfa.org.