Speech and Debate team travel nationally to prestigious tournament

Kaitlyn Nash | Co-Editor

The second semester brings a multitude of trips for different teams and clubs across campus. The Speech and Debate team took 10 students to Berkeley, California Feb. 17-21 for the California Invitational Berkeley Debate tournament.

The team was given the choice between going to California or heading to the east coast to compete in the 49th Harvard National Forensics Tournament. For their first year back to traveling nationally, team members were excited to experience what they missed during COVID.

“Traveling with the team was a blast overall,” sophomore extemp and congress debater Waleed Haider said. “Going on the airplane with the team and exploring San Francisco was a great experience. The only rough part was the ‘debater flu’ I caught at the end of the trip. Flying back to Austin with a cold wasn’t particularly enjoyable.”

Entered into the tournament were Cross Examination (CX) team junior Isaiah Duvvuri and senior Shauri Yedavalli, Public Forum (PF) team senior Kaitlyn Nash and junior Maya Hay, Extemporaneous speakers Haider, senior Lucas Flores, and junior Cecilia Acosta, Informative speakers Acosta, junior Brianna Williams, and junior Allison Chavarria-Hernandez, and

Original Oratory speakers Williams and junior Johnpaul Buwule.

“I ended up reaching the octafinal round, putting me in the top third of the competition,” Haider said. “While this wasn’t the result I wanted going into the competition, I learned a lot about competing in another part of the country where audiences have different expectations from speeches. I was definitely nervous in elimination rounds. The octafinal round used a ‘Freaky Friday’ theme, where we had to give speeches theorizing what would happen if two world leaders were switched with one another.”

Though only one competitor on the team made it to post-preliminary rounds, the team was able to make memories together throughout San Francisco.

“My favorite part about the trip was going to the Golden State park for half a day,” Hay said. “It was so beautiful with lots of different activities and things to do. I also got to pet a bunch of adorable dogs which I loved. Aside from that, at the park some of the team got to see a live jazz band perform under a bridge which was one the most unique and fun experiences I’ve ever had.”

Team bonding is one of the most important parts of the Speech and Debate team, which means spending as much time together as possible.

“I think the team had an awesome dynamic,” Haider said. “Throughout the tournament, we all gave speeches to prepare with one another. I think [that’s] what really makes our team work well together is that we’re always finding ways to lift each other up as competitors.”

Chavarria-Hernandez had a hard time choosing which of the activities was her favorite part.

“I enjoyed everything that we did, whether it was us being on the plane, singing our hearts out in the car, shopping, having photoshoot sessions, trying new foods or just hanging out in our rooms,” Chavarria-Hernandez said.