The 2023-24 Speech and Debate Season began on Sept. 1, with great success for both novice and varsity competitors. 

On Sept. 30, the team competed at Anderson High School, with Maddie Sheppard taking second place in Novice Extemporaneous speaking as well as achieving Top Speaker in World Schools Debate. Arien Khan earned third speaker in Policy Debate, and with Jackie Trusedell, made it to semifinals. Zoey Parks took home third speaker in World Schools Debate and Abir Kulkarni won third speaker in Varsity Lincoln-Douglas Debate. 

Amani Ahmed and Anayeli Hernandez advanced to Novice Policy semifinals, with Amani Ahmed taking home second speaker. There were also various semifinalists in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking and Novice Extemporaneous Speaking: Zoe Costanza, Audrey Staker, Abir Kulkarni, Annika Gillella, and Sam Stillwell. 

The team competed at Hendrickson High School on Sept. 1 and Grapevine High School on Sept. 8, taking home numerous awards with the guidance of coaches Davy Holmes and Ryan Love, and their Speech and Debate co-presidents. 

“In Duo Interpretation, Evie Grimm and Claire Unger took home seventh place, and we also had a Humorous Interpretation finalist, Josie Krajecki, who placed sixth,” co-president of the Speech team Alicia Hernandez said. 

“The main goal every year is to try to get as many people qualified for TFA State as possible,” Holmes said. “I would also like to achieve success in UIL.”

Holmes mentioned that many competitors on the team hope to earn bids to the Tournament of Champions and the National Independent Events Tournament of Champions. He added that he would like to “get more kids participating, more kids qualifying, and more kids to more tournaments.” 

“I’m very confident that we will have a successful season going forward. We have a lot of promising novices, and I think that they’re also going to have a good season,” Holmes said. 

This Speech and Debate Season is off to a great start, with the potential to be even better than the last.