Speech and Debate team makes waves at state tournament

the state competition.

“I have a lot of friends on the local circuit who I see every couple of weekends, but it was nice to branch out and meet kids from San Antonio, Dallas, and even areas as far as El Paso,” sophomore Waleed Haider said.

Multiple competitors were able to break, or advance, to non-preliminary rounds. Senior Shauri Yedavalli and junior Isaiah Duvvuri were able to break to Double Octofinals in Cross Examination (CX) debate. Junior Izzy Crim and Duvvuri broke to Informative Speaking Quarterfinals. Junior Maya Hay broke to Domestic Extemp Quarterfinals.

“I was very nervous until the round actually started, but then I kind of relaxed because I’ve been there before so the nerves kind of settled down,” Duvvuri said. “One thing I would change about my performance at TFA state would be making the edits to our affirmative case before the Double Elimination round, because then we probably would have been in a better spot going into it.” a really fun experience overall, because both rounds had huge audiences and I was able to land even the worst jokes.”

However, there were only three finalists on the Speech and Debate team at state. Junior Cecilia Acosta broke to finals in Informative Speaking, junior Johnpaul Buwule broke to finals in Original Oratory finals, and Haider broke to International Extemp finals and Congressional Debate finals.

None of the students who made it to the final rounds are seniors, which means they still have years to come to polish their skills.

“I did amazing,” Buwule said. “There’s like 116 competitors and I broke to finals. It was so exciting because as a junior, accomplishing that is a really big thing.”

However, TFA state wasn’t just about the competition for the students who went. They also were able to spend a considerable amount of time together.

“I really enjoyed being able to go to Houston with all my friends,” Duvvuri said. “We had a really good time on the bus ride. We had wonderful meals. We went to this one really good Persian place. We’ve really bonded over the course of the year.”

Of course, this is not the end for the Speech and Debate team. Both Buwule and Haider still have a TOC (Tournament of Champions) competition on April 14-17. Not only that, but the National Speech and Debate Association hosts their national tournament in June, in which many of the same competitors will be competing, this time in Phoenix, Arizona.

Kaitlyn Nash | Co-Editor

Every year, the Texas Forensic Association holds their annual state tournament. This year, the Hawk Speech and Debate team was able to travel to Houston for this tournament.

Around 17 students qualified for this competition by racking up 10 points from competing in tournaments all year round. Usually, a competitor must get to the semi-final or final rounds at tournaments to get points to make it to

“I was honestly really surprised,” Haider said. “I didn’t go into the tournament with huge expectations. I just wanted to give my best speeches round to round, and I was happy that it came out with a good result. It was

“I’m going to be going to two major tournaments during the rest of the year,” Haider said. “First, I’ll be going to the Tournament of Champions in the University of Kentucky, in late April, and then after that, I’ll be spending the rest of the year really practicing for NSDA nationals, which is at the start of summer.”