Forensics & Debate

On Nov. 5, the Forensics & Debate team (also known as the Speech team) traveled to Midlothian High School for their first competition of the season. The team had a great start to the season with the duo team of Alex Logan and Kate Moncure, as well as Anthony Cruz, scoring all perfect ratings. Here are the overall results:

1st place- Alex Logan/Kate Moncure (Duo Interp), Anthony Cruz (HI), Hollyn Pleasants (Storytelling)

2nd place- Nikola Bajs (Impromptu), Alex Pellicane (Extemp)

3rd place- Madison Leigh Stafford (Storytelling), Corban Van Ornum (Poetry), Cameron Taylor (HI)

4th place- Haley Smith (Extemp)

5th place- Julianne Bryant (OO)

6th place- Lily Dobrin (Poetry), Jordyn Palmer (HI), Hailey Donald (DI)

“Out of 19 competitors, we had six brand new students competing for the first time,” said long-time Coach Craig Edgerton, who took the team to a first place win at States last year. He added that “14 out of 19 students placed in top six. We had a lot of students observing or were unable to compete, so it will be exciting to see what the future holds.”

Football

The varsity football team made their last journey of the season on Nov. 4 to take on the Orange County Hornets. They fought long and hard, but in the end, fell short when the game ended with a disappointing score of 43-0.

It was a bittersweet way to end the season, despite the tough loss. “No matter the record, I’ll always be proud to be a Fluco,” said senior Anthony Madison. Tears were shed after the game, but not because of the score. The atmosphere after the game was heavy with nostalgia especially for the seniors who were walking away from their last game. “With the majority of the team being seniors and we know it’s our last year, we wanted to bring in the underclassmen into the family that the football team is,” said senior Jordan Melton.

As for the coaches, they are already reviewing the lessons of the season and looking ahead ot next year. “We have definitely gotten stronger, buying into the coach’s philosophy and hitting the weight room more. We aren’t 100% there yet, but still, better. I’m also looking forward to coaching the JV team and being able to deal with their level of aggression next season,” said Coach Mitchell Pace.

Scholastic Bowl

On Nov. 9, the Scholastic Bowl team competed against Albemarle and Western Albemarle in their third competition of the season. Although they went into the match with a sense of optimism, they lost both of their games, losing to Albemarle by a score of 220-190, and to Western by a score of 220-205. “Western is always tough for us, but we generally thought we would do better than we did. I think we were just off our game from being up from watching the election,” said Senior Sam Conti.

As with the other “brain sports” at the school, the team meets twice a week to gear up for matches. “To prepare before a game we take quizzes, play trivia, and talk about different historical figures,” said Senior Harrison Lee, who is considered by most team members to be their best player. “We try to keep up-to-date on events and have a broad base of things and not specialize too much, said Conti. Their next competition will be on Nov. 16 against Albemarle and Powhatan.