Silver Lake twins Allie and Drake Sexton find niche in forensics and debate

Without them even realizing it, Allie and Drake Sexton had a seed planted when they were young that would blossom at some point.

"Our dad, for the kids books he would read to us, he would do all the voice of the different characters," Drake said.

It was simply second-nature for Scott Sexton to spin a tale that way for his children, having an extensive background in forensics and debate during his prep days. In fact, one of Scott's favorite performances that he relayed to his children was a dramatic poetry reading of Green Eggs and Ham.

As his children got older and into school activities, he encouraged them to follow the same path.

"He was like, 'You guys should try this stuff, I think you would enjoy it,'" Allie said. "So we gave it a shot."

Not only did the Sexton twins get hooked, it's become their passion. Well, one of their passions as both are involved in numerous activities at Silver Lake High School.

The 15-year-old sophomores not only compete in debate and forensics, they also are involved in scholar's bowl, theater, musicals (Allie), band (Drake) and Stuco  (Drake). In addition to their activities, the Sextons – Capitol Federal TrueBlue® Students of the Week -- each carry a 4.0 GPA and is ranked at the top of their class.

And while they've flourished in all of their academic and activity endeavors, the twins have really found their niche in debate and forensics. They enjoyed successful freshman seasons during the 2020-21 school year.

As a freshman last year, Allie was a double qualifier for the Kansas State High School Activities Association's Class 3A State Forensics tournament in Humorous Interpretation and Extemporaneous Speaking. She recorded straight 1s, going undefeated, at the Blue Valley North Tournament during the regular season and was a Class 3-2-1A regional champion and third-place state finisher in Four-Speaker Debate.

Drake, meanwhile, qualified for state in both Humorous Interpretation and Extemporaneous Speaking, placing 13^th and seventh at the state competition in those events, respectively. He also was Mid-East league runner-up in Extemporaneous Speaking and joined Allie on the regional champion and third-place Four-Speaker Debate team.

That initial high school success carried over into the summer as well.

Allie was a qualifier for the National Speech and Debate Association's national tournament in Humorous Interpretation and placed fourth in Senate at the Flint Hills NSDA Congress National Qualifier. Her HI performance was "Camp Sunshine," a piece about a girl attending a religious camp and the ensuing hijinks with roommates, camp counselor and physical education teacher – Allie portraying each character during her performance.

"It's fun to play the different characters because you get to have all these different personalities instead of being in a play where you just get to play one character," Allie said.

Drake, meanwhile, placed eighth in House at the Flint Hill NSDA Congress National Qualifier but was also a member of the Flint Hills Yellow team that placed in the top 50 at the NSDA World Schools Tournament – the only Kansas World Schools team to advance to the breakout rounds.

"They were both in my Intro to Communications class (in junior high) so I had an idea of what they were capable of doing," said Michelle Taylor, Director of Speech and Debate at Silver Lake. "I did not expect what I got from them last year. They definitely stepped up and surpassed the expectations that I had for them."

The Sextons credited much of their love for their activities to several summers during their youth attending the Helen Hocker Theater Camp.

"It was just a great way to spend your summer," Drake said.

For Drake, the acclimation to life on the stage – be it acting or debating – was simply a natural.

"I've been extroverted since I was born," he said. "I'm the bigger people person for sure."

For Allie, it was a little different.

"When we first did it, we weren't really sure how it was going to go," Allie said. "But I really enjoyed it from the get-go. I'm kind of an introvert, but acting and stuff like that it's easy for me to be more extroverted in those situations."

Both Sextons are already looking forward to the 2021-22 season with debate up first, running from the start of school until the late January. Forensics then starts immediately after debate ends and runs until mid-May. Competitions are held virtually every weekend with competitors limited to eight events throughout the respective seasons.

This year will be a somewhat different atmosphere for the Sextons and their counterparts in those activities, however. Due to COVID-19 concerns throughout the 2020-21 school year, the Debate and Forensics seasons were contested virtually instead of in-person.

Some events were asynchronous, in which a performance was taped and submitted for judging. Others were synchronous in which performances were held via Zoom calls with judges.

"They have no experience (with in-person), so that will be a new challenge for them this year," Taylor said. "Even just getting on a bus in the morning and going to competitions will be something different."

They're looking forward to it.

"It will definitely be different because I've never experienced anything like that before," Allie said. "I think we can learn even more and we can get better because of it."

"There are a lot of competitive things that go on when it's in-person," Taylor said. "But I also think it's a lot more fun. I will always advocate for debate and forensics for this reason – we have such a good community. Don't get me wrong, I want to trash all the teams we compete against, but at the end of the day, all the coaches are my best friends and our squads get along.

"There's a lot of good camaraderie that they missed out on last year because at the end of the round they just logged off Zoom and it was done. It will be a lot more fun this year because of the atmosphere."