The Andover High School Forensics Team continued its dominance in statewide competition and captured the Class B state championship this season. It's the team's the third consecutive state title and fifth in six years, coach Danielle Harsh said.

"It takes a lot of time and preparation to compete against students from so many other districts and this certainly makes it all worth it," she said.

The team of 52 had 22 total entries in the state finals and earned first place in four different events during the competition May 6 and 7 at Oakland University. The competition is administered by the Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association and is comprised of individual events ranging from public speaking and drama to debate and literary interpretation.

The Andover team has a distinguished history that includes 17 state championships, Harsh said.

Members of the team say they expect to win and are very protective of their titles.

"Once you win it's kind of like an addiction, you just want to keep improving more and more," said senior co-captain Colleen Sords. She was a member of the team that took second place in 2008 and felt that as a captain her role was to mentor the younger students.

"It instilled a lot of motivation in us that that was never going to happen again," Sords said.

Aside from their success, the students take away a valuable skills that will help them in further academics or their careers. Team members spend hours researching and dissecting their material and are fully aware of the heated competition.

"The process of taking something rough, whether it's literature or a concept, and creating something new is really important," said Harsh, who competed in forensics as a student at Dexter High School. "The ownership of that learning process that they each discover is so valuable."

Harsh said she typically has more applicants than spots available on the team, which technically had 74 members before cuts needed to be made for state tournaments.

This year's team performance was punctuated by a first-time theatrical performance of the Laramie Project. The critically acclaimed play depicts people's reactions to the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1998. Shepard, 21, was severely beaten and left to die while bound to a fence in rural Laramie. He died six days later. Two men were convicted of murder and kidnapping in 2004 in a case considered a hate crime that was motivated by homophobia.

"It was a very brave choice and so for them to reach first place was incredible," said Harsh, who also relies on three assistant coaches.

This year, the team received further acknowledgement for their performance when they were asked to address the Diversity Council at Detroit Country Day School upon their return from the competition, Harsh said.

"It's never happened before and it was really exciting to be asked to open up the conversation about such an important societal issue," she said.

The team and graduating seniors, in particular, were honored at the annual team banquet at the Glen Oaks Country Club on May 17.

"They always do such a great job representing the program and the entire district," district spokeswoman Betsy Erikson Brown said.

How they finished