The Buffalo High School speech and debate team is off to a strong start. They have attended four meets since the start of school and have grown with every meet. The strong start began over the summer when members of the team attended a week-long debate intensive. Freshman Genevieve Arabie, sophomore Kaylen Sanchez, and seniors Nicollette Arabie and Mason Ayles attended for CX Debate, and junior Tristan Cole and senior Alyncia Jackson attended for LD.

“Camp has given me a big leg up, I feel,” Jackson said. “It helped me get in the swing of things before getting into the actual season. It was basically two-a-days but for speech.”

Jackson placed first in the novice LD section at the Buffalo Tournament That Teaches on Saturday. It was the first meet she was able to attend since getting a concussion earlier in the month. 

“It was a good confidence booster,” Jackson said. “I was super happy with how I did.”

While Jackson attended her first meet at the end of September, other members of the speech team attended meets starting at the beginning of the month. The first meet of the season was at Melissa on September 2. The meet was attended by Ayles and Sanchez, who competed in Congressional Debate. 

“I went to camp for CX, so going to a season opener for Congress was really helpful for getting the hang of the debate style again,” Sanchez said. “I wasn’t super happy with how I did at Melissa, but I know I will be where I want to be when Regionals come around.”

Neither Sanchez nor Ayles made it to finals at Melissa, but the tournament prepared them to debate the topics provided for the fall semester. 

“I gained a lot of knowledge from that first tournament on the bills we debated,” Ayles said. “I think I will be well prepared for Regionals when they come around.”

The very next weekend, Genevieve, Nicollette, Ayles, Cole, and Sanchez attended a meet in Princeton. Jackson had been scheduled to compete, but when she suffered a concussion at the volleyball game the night before, she was unable to do so.

“I had a lot of fun at the meet, and I learned a lot about the Congressional style,” Genevieve said. “For my first meet ever I was fine with how I did, but I want to be able to do even better.”

The older Arabie sister was the only member of the Buffalo team to advance to the final round of the Princeton tournament.

“I had a lot of fun at the tournament, but it was honestly the messiest round of Congress I have ever participated in,” Nicollette said. “It was as if everyone lost their sense of decorum and just started mudslinging and making a bit of a mockery out of the event. While all that’s true, I’m glad that the judges recognized that, and that they recognized I was someone trying to keep a lid on the craziness.”

Nicollette placed second at the tournament, which hosted roughly 100 students in the Congressional Debate section. Nicollette also earned eight of the 10 required points for the Texas Forensic Association’s state meet. The next available meet was two weeks after the Princeton Tournament but was scheduled for the same date as the Homecoming Dance. 

“There was no way I was going to expect the students to give up the homecoming dance for a debate meet,” speech coach Melonie Menefee said. “Nicollette, however, had her sights set on finishing her TFA qualification and picking up a TOC bid, so she decided to skip the dance for the debate.” 

Nicollette was the only student to attend the Lindale meet. She was ready to finish up TFA and work to qualify for the Tournament of Champions, a prestigious national tournament that takes place annually in Kentucky.

“It was really important to me to get the first TOC bid at Lindale,” Nicollette said. “I went to that same tournament last year when I already had a bid, and I missed out by three spots. You need two bids to get to TOC, and I needed one bid most of last year and couldn’t seem to get to that required top-six placement at TOC tournaments. This year, I’m going to get it. I’m not going to let anything hold me back from Kentucky.”

Nicollette placed second again at Lindale, earning eight more points for TFA State and a bid for TOC as well. If Nicollette qualifies for the Tournament of Champions this year, it would be the first time anyone from Buffalo has ever qualified for the tournament. 

“Nic is on her way to meet some new goals for the Bison debate,” Menefee said. “This is the earliest I’ve ever had a student qualify for TFA state, and if she can pick up one more TOC bid, we’ll be competing in Kentucky this spring. If she keeps working and improving the way she has been, she’ll be there.” 

The team’s next tournament was hosted at Buffalo, and students who had been competing in congressional debate made a switch to more debate-focused events. Jackson and Cole competed in Novice LD, Ayles and Genevieve competed in Novice CX,  Nicollette and Sanchez competed in Varsity CX, junior Ashtyn Barzda and sophomore Yuliet Gonzales competed in Novice Interpretation, and Nicollette competed in Varsity Persuasive Extemp.

“I learned a lot about my event at that tournament,” Barzda said. “I was super proud of my performance and I’m excited that I have even more time to work on my piece and grow as a performer.” 

Barzda placed first in Novice Interpretation and Gonzales placed fifth. Both received medals.

“I’m glad with how I did in this first tournament,” Gonzales said. “I know that I’m going to have a lot of time to perfect my pieces before the District Speech Meet in February.”

Ayles and Genevieve competed in their first rounds as a CX team since camp over the summer. They placed third out of 14 Novice entries. 

“I was proud of how we did,” Ayles said. “After we lost our first round and received our critiques, the judge told us how we could’ve won, and I made absolutely sure that we did that in the next round, and we won.” 

The placement was a big confidence booster for the pair. 

“I was so happy we won a round,” Genevieve said. “I’ve been feeling really confused about CX, but this tournament made a lot of things click into place. Getting third was also really impressive, and I’m super happy with our performance.”

Nicollette and Sanchez placed first in Varsity CX, being the only undefeated team at the varsity level. 

“With the amount of time and preparation that we put into developing the cases we used this week, I wasn’t surprised that we were able to go through the rounds pretty smoothly,” Nicollette said. “I for one spent a lot of time on our affirmative case making sure it would be perfect, and I know Kaylen spent a lot of time on our negative cases.”

Last year, Nicollette and Sanchez made it to State Quarterfinals at CX State. 

“We’re really looking to replicate our success from last year,” Sanchez said. “As a team, we were undefeated until Quarters. We want to have a totally undefeated season this year and we’re going to put in the work to make that happen.”

The Buffalo team is losing a lot of seniors this year, however, and this year’s major goal needs to be preparing the next generation of debaters. The team will be losing Jackson, a regional quarterfinalist in LD, Ayles, a district medalist in CX, and Nicollette, a two-time national semifinalist in Congressional Debate, three-time State finalist in Congressional Debate, a State medalist in Congressional Debate, a three-time state medalist in CX, a State medalist in Prose Interpretation, and a three-time TFA State qualifier in Congressional debate. 

“We’ve got big shoes to fill next year,” Sanchez said. “The seniors leaving have done so much to put Buffalo’s speech team on the map. I really want us to continue that name next year, and continue to push through and be successful.”

This year is off to a great start, though, and everyone is ready for a promising year with Buffalo Speech and Debate. They have eight more meets planned for the fall, plus their regional Congress meet.

“It’s a lot of practice, a lot of travel, and a lot of competition, but it will pay off in the end,” Menefee said. “There is so much potential in this group of students – I am excited to see what they can achieve.”