Speech and debate team kicks off season

Group adds Congress to their competition line-up

Speech+kids+hang+out+at+their+first+meet+of+the+year.+They+will+be+heading+to+their+third+meet+next+weekend.

menefee photo

Speech kids hang out at their first meet of the year. They will be heading to their third meet next weekend.

Debate students started their season with a competition at John Tyler High School. All 18 students competed in either CX Debate, LD Debate or Congressional Debate, which the team is competing in for the first time ever.

“I was excited to have all of the students travel together for their first meet of the season,” coach Melonie Menefee said. “This was a good chance for everyone to try out something new.”

The tournament was an angel tournament, which meant that students were all competing for their first time in that event and could have a veteran student help them.

“I think everybody did very good for their first time,” sophomore Nadia Garcia said. “I wish we could’ve had an angel debate last year; it would have helped a lot”.

Another Event the student competed in was congress. Students who competed in it were Kendall Morales, Evan Grisham and Abby Smith. It was the students first time doing congress.

“At first I was really apprehensive about competing in Congress because it was something completely new that I knew nothing about,” Kendall Morales said “but after competing I can say that it was so much more fun than I expected and I will be continuing to compete at more competitions.”

Speech coach Jill Henson was excited about having everyone on the team competing already this year.

“I think it was good that everyone got at least one win,” Henson said. “It shows we still have a lot of things to learn, but that we are off to a good start.”