By Jessica Moore

Staff Writer

A Forrest student was announced as the winner of a county-wide songwriting competition at a special event at the Rec Center Saturday night.

Austin Duvall, a freshman at Forrest High School, was presented with the first place award for the Nashville Unleashed songwriting competition. Duvall wrote the song, "Born Brave" about her cousin, who suffered an amputation at the age of three. Duvall was so excited she could hardly speak.

"I am very excited, I play guitar already so this is just so exciting!" she said. The young songwriter has dreams of becoming a country singer/songwriter one day and has taught herself to play guitar. This experience will help push Duvall in the right direction. The second place prize went to Isabelle Bout, but she was not present to accept in person. Among the other finalists were Trent Turner and Lexi White, Breanna Walker, Samantha Lawson, Amy Toesland, and Sarah Moorehead.

The professional musical touring production, Nashville Unleashed, teamed up with the Marshall County Board of Education for a county-wide songwriting competition for high school students. Students were encouraged to submit a song, lyrics only, to Nashville Unleashed via their website. The song had to be about someone or something that had inspired them. The winner received a brand new Jay Turser sunburst guitar with a built in tuner, a hard-shell guitar case, a guitar stand, a leather and sheepskin guitar strap, two guitar lessons, an annual membership to songwritingandmusicbusiness.com, a songwriting session with Jack and Diane of Nashville Unleashed, a feature spot in a Nashville Unleashed web series, and an award prize pack.

After an evening event of music, dinner, and shared stories, Duvall's win was announced. Entertainment for the evening was provided by local artist Shelby Lee Lowe, Jack and Diane of Nashville Unleashed, Mason Douglas, and Nicole Johnson, who are both Nashville artists. Douglas currently works with Rural Records, and Johnson was most recently a part of Team Blake on "The Voice." The evening was also broadcast live on a local radio station and television channel.