Debate team prepares for competitive semester, celebrates accomplishments

Kaitlyn Nash | Co-Editor

Crunch time looks different for every sport. However, even non-athletic activities have their own idea of “crunch time.” For the speech and debate team, the second semester is filled with extremely competitive tournaments, going to countless competitions to rack up State points, and preparing for the big league: Nationals.

“I just really like doubling down, advancing, and working on our arguments, and developing them,” junior Cross Examination (CX) competitor Isaiah Duvvuri said. “The first semester is just trying to get settled, the second semester is when you start trying to get started for real.”

The debate season never really ends for many competitors on the team. Every tournament is a fight to get to 10 points in order to qualify for State. In order to do that, competitors have to make it to elimination rounds, or “break”, in their events.

“I did qualify for State,” junior Johnpaul Buwule said. “I struggled in the beginning a little bit when I was not breaking to finals at the first two tournaments but later on, I did start breaking.”

Buwule does only two of the many events that the team has to offer: Original Oratory (OO) and Congress. Junior Maya Hay competes in Public Forum (PF), which changes debate topics every few months. January’s topic had to do with West Asia and United States diplomatic intervention.

“There are a lot of interesting standpoints that are being made on this topic,” Hay said. “Some of them feature some pressing issues that surround U.S. social life and politics such as Orientalism. A lot of them make some good points on critiques on U.S. intervention in the Middle East and the impact it has not only on the U.S. but also the people who live there and the damage it can do to their governments.”

Though many competitors have already qualified for State, they still compete in order to get bids, which are won at bid tournaments in the semifinal

Congress and Extemporaneous Speaking at UT and Westlake. Buwule received a bid in OO at Churchill, Westlake and LASA. Lucas Flores received a bid for Extemporaneous Speaking at LASA. Cecilia Acosta received a bid in Extemporaneous Speaking at Westlake at LASA. Simon Alverez received a bid in Informative Speaking at Westlake. Duvvuri received a bid at LASA in Informative Speaking and Hay and Kaitlyn Nash received a bid at Churchill in PF.

“We went to only three locals this year and we got to finals in every single one,” Duvvuri said. “We went to a bid tournament at UT Austin and we got to the elimination rounds. We have another one coming up in February and we plan on doing pretty well there, too.” and final rounds. If competitors get enough bids, they qualify for extremely competitive tournaments such as the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions. Waleed Haider received a bid in

Later in the year, some competitors shake up which events they compete in for the Nationals tournament. This year, Nationals are in Phoenix, Arizona.

“My favorite part [of Nationals] is getting to do research on new topics for info speeches and also doing world schools and LD, which I really enjoy,” Hay said.

The team also travels many times during the second semester. Feb. 16-21, the team will travel to Berkeley, California to compete in the California Invitational at the University of California.

“I think my favorite part about the second semester is that we have less tournaments and the tournaments we do have [are] out of state and we get to travel and do fun things,” Buwule said.