“God no” senior Shahid Ahmed said when asked if he was expecting to get as far as he did in the National Forensic League’s National Tournament this summer. “I was proud that I made it that far. I thought that I was a good speaker and debater but when you get up to that level, where you’re among the best of the best in the nation, it’s kind of humbling. “
Ahmed made it into the quarter-rounds of Foreign Extemporaneous speaking at the national tournament. While he didn’t advance from there, he was one of the top 30 in the nation for this event as well as one of the many students that were successful in competition this summer.
HOSA, Drill team, softball, cheerleading, yearbook and the speech team were only some of the major organizations where students worked overtime to achieve their accomplishments.
Ask any teacher and they will agree a true wildcat’s work is never done. Our students have proven that through and through this summer as Cheer and Drill Team –The Planoette’s, swept through the All American Camps and won awards left and right. Though there were many great schools out there and many great competitors who attended these camps, none (that we can find) have matched our in achievements, both individually and as a team.
Cheerleading came back from camp with the Traditions award and 5 All American winners. The Tradition Award, for those of us not in the cheer world, is a prestigious award given to the school with the best traditions to show to other schools. As we all know, our school traditions are the heart of this school’s great success.
“It’s a great experience, and a lot of fun.” Junior Candace Gregor said, Gregor was one of the All American winners. With competition such as Plano West, and Plano East attending, there was a great amount of competive-edge stirring in the air. Yet, there was still no doubt in Cheer sponsor Shaw’s mind that they would succeed in anything they set their minds to.
“They are great schools,” Shaw said, “but our traditions run deep in these Wildcat veins.”
These successes didn’t come easy though. Many of the organizations worked hard to prepare for the competitions.
“We feel like we had a very successful trip,” speech coach Cheryl Potts said. “We obviously prepared all year long for it but then we spent a week and a half right before the tournament making sure we had all the necessary research and practicing with other schools in the area and doing lots of practice speeches.”
The Planoette’s outdid themselves in preparation for the All American Drill and Dance Camp, coming away with 3 awards and 2 star dancers in Officer Camp, 32 individual awards given in Line Camp, and 6 awards in Team Awards, two of which being the Outstanding Home Routine Award, and All American Team of the Week Award. With so many rewards, you have to acknowledge the perseverance and great dedication these incredible dancers have put into their art.
“You learn a new dance and routine on Friday and you have to know it by Sunday. It’s very challenging, but very rewarding.” Senior Chelsey Woodruff said when asked how someone can win an All American Award. Chelsey herself is a winner of the All American Dancers, All American Dance Company, and Outstanding Performer Awards for Plano Senior.
As much success as our organizations had over the summer, there’s always room for more. Many of the organizations will continue to do what they did to achieve their success this year in hopes of yielding the same results next year.
“We pretty much do the same thing,” said Potts. “A lot of what determines our success depends on the work ethic during the year and so if the seniors don’t get senioritis too early and the juniors work real hard, then they’re going to have a really good chance to do well at nationals just like our previous teams.”