Photo by Stephanie Grover

For the third year in a row, the Mr. WHS competition, put on by the journalism program, has delivered entertainment and laughs all around.

Ten contestants competed for the affection of the judges and audience, whose votes decided the 10 men’s fate. This year was a year of firsts: the first freshman competitor (Alfredo DeOllas), the first perfect score during the talent portion (senior Will Kellogg) and the first time people were actually turned away at the door because the theatre was sold out.
The stage was set for an entertaining performance, including the comedic personalities of senior Kellyn Stephens and junior Shawn Gandola, as well as a newcomer senior Neal Anderson. The talents were a major factor into the voting by students.

“My favorite part was the talent portion because of the different kinds of acts. They were very diverse,” Catherine Teano said.

The talents included playing the viola (Kellogg), singing a song he wrote about McDonald’s (Gandola), and a full band cover of “Afterlife” by Avenged Sevenfold.

“It was a pretty successful night. I wasn’t really [nervous] because our band has performed in front of audiences before,” DeOllas said.

In order to make the night successful, hours of rehearsal time and planning went in beforehand. To get the practice the contestants and workers needed, school-time had to be taken out and many reschedules took place. The day of the competition, the competitors, as well as several of the stage managers and crew, took time out of their third period classes to run through a quick rehearsal in the theatre, thanks to the generous donation of time from theatre teacher Mr. Rick Eldredge.

The crew had to scramble to learn the responsibilities and techniques needed to work the lights and sound in a time of about two hours. Of course, there were a couple of sound troubles and lighting snafus, and it made for a busy night for the people involved. But, it was all worth it in the end.

“It was cool how we overcame all the obstacles and to see the show come together in such a short time,” worker Chad Tucker said.

The show kicked off with an introduction of each contestant from the host, senior Leigh Leonard. Leonard kept the audience laughing throughout the show with quick bits of improvisational humor during the downtime needed to count the coin votes. “You Belong With Leigh,” a cover of the famous Taylor Swift song, broke out, with contributions from the guys and audience alike.

After the votes from the judges and audience were tallied, it was time to announce the winner. Second runner-up went to Kellogg, first runner-up was awarded to junior Darren Garcia,  and Anderson took first place and the title of Mr. WHS.

By ROBERT PARKER