With the speech and debate team adding Congressional Debate to their line-up of competitions this year, a new chance for debaters to make it to state was added. Junior Evan Grisham took advantage of the opportunity by advancing out of district competition; he and coach Melonie Menefee made the trip to Austin last week for the two-day competition.

“The competition was better and harder than any I had ever seen before,” Grisham said. “It got heated and that made it really difficult and interesting.”

Not knowing what to expect made preparing for the contest a little more difficult than usual.

“Evan did a fantastic job at the state meet. We were both walking into a competition that we had never been to at the state level before, so that was a little scary for both of us,” Menefee said. “On top of that, UIL tweaked some of the rules the Friday before, and so we were not sure how that would play out.” hat we had never been to at the state level before, so that was a little scary for both of us.”

Even with all of the last minute changes Grisham stated that we was still able to hold his own.

“Evan made several speeches during his sessions and had strong scores,” Menefee said. “We are not very far off of the goal of making it to finals at state in this event.I hope to improve next year by being able to incorporate some of the strategy we learned this year into our practices.”

Grisham said he was grateful for the opportunity because now he can be more prepared for next year.

“It was a great experience. I really enjoyed the chance to be able to compete among the best in the state,” Grisham said. “I hope to be able to achieve even more next year.”