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Richard A. Hunsaker High School Student Award
Hunsaker served as President of the Illinois Speech & Theater Association in 1972. He built a distinguished 30-year career teaching speech, drama, and debate at Belleville West High School. His exemplary teaching, coaching, and communication skills brought him national recognition as an outstanding Illinois Educator. His impact on students has been long-standing, and the success of his students in speech and debate led to many State Championships. He has written and published texts on listening and verbal communication. Upon his retirement from Belleville West High School, he started a new career as a college professor and speech and debate coach at McKendree College. The Hunsaker award is given to a high school student who has been active in speech and/or theatre activities and who has made significant contributions to the community and school.
2025 Hunsaker High School Student Award Winner
William Cote, Oak Park River Forest High School
William Cote is honored to have received the Richard D. Hunsaker High School Award. As a member of the Oak Park & River Forest High School Speech team, William competed in Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, and Extemporaneous Speaking, placing second in Extemporaneous Speaking and the 2025 Illinois State Speech Finals.
William also received the NSDA All-American award for both his speech and academic achievements and was invited to the 2025 Tournament of Champions in Extemporaneous Speaking.
Outside of speech, William worked extensively in the OPRF theater program, serving as a stage manager and assistant stage manager across five shows. William’s commitment to his theater program provided him the opportunity to direct his own full-length show during the fall semester of his senior year, and he was awarded OPRF’s Miller/Cooke/Wood scholarship for students in theater.
William is now attending the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, where he plans on studying International Relations and Hispanic Studies and competing on the school’s debate team.
Past Winners of the Richard A. Hunsacker High School Student Award
1989 Ben Moore, Heyworth High School
1990 Aaron Spaid, Heyworth High School
1991 Allen Cook, Downers Grove South High School
1992 Christopher Daley, Belleville West High School
1993 No Award Given
1994 Ron Provine, Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School
1995 Ryan Meliske, Heyworth High School
1996 No Award Given
1997 Bhavesh Patel, DuQuoin High School
1998 Tanja Ruch, Normal Community High School
1999 Jeff Hemmer, Belleville East High School
2000 Eric A. Gehrie, New Trier High School
2001 Elizabeth Holt, University High School
2002 Chris Appuhn, Fulton High School
2003 Carlisle Wallace, Heyworth High School
2004 Andy Junk, Downers Grove South High School & Jacob Vial, Pontiac High School
2005 Kelly Hires, Downers Grove South High School
2006 Lindsey Boerma, Lincoln Community High School
2007 Ben Leddy, Charleston High School
2008 Kyle Akerman, Downers Grove South High School
2009 Leah Capranica, Glenwood Chatham High School
2010 A.J. Curry, Fremd High School
2011 Jay Daniels, Charleston High School
2012 Ryan Carrigan, Normal Community West High School
2013 Alison Ogunmokun, University High School
2014 Amy Daniels, Charleston High School
2015 Callen Brown, United Township High School
2016 Katie Mueller, Charleston High School
2017 Emily Hill, Huntley High School
2018 Emily Gibson, Glenbard West High School
2019 No Award Given
2020 Jaylon Muchison, Belleville West High School
2021 No Award Given
2022 Joyce Yang, Bartlett High School
2023 Pierce McDade, University High School
2024 Alejandrea Medina, Oak Park River Forest High School
2025 William Cote, Oak Park River Forest High School
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