Speech and Debate Starts with a Strong Season

ALAN TAM
News Editor
For members of AHS Speech and Debate, the new school year has brought a deluge of new members to train, tournaments to attend and skills to learn, or relearn, in some cases.
However, the outcome of the first few competitions have been promising for the debaters. This season is on track to become a very successful one for the team.
   AHS speech and debaters have won awards at every tournament in the region, with five teams earning trophies at their first tournament, titled Ice Breaker, to four first place Congress winners at their second, Package Deal.
“We’ve been outstanding,” said senior Interpretation Co-Captain Ben Olsen. “We shut out Gabrielino at Ice Breaker, and Mark Keppel at Package Deal.”
This achievement has been attributed to a large group of talented new members. The team has over 150 participants this year, making it the largest group of individuals participating in the organization in its history.
New students from every grade level have been in attendance at each tournament. This profusion of team members has also helped the organization edge out long-time competitors.
“The novices are working very hard [during practice],” said senior Co-Captain Nancy Nguyen. “[Many] of them stayed until 9:00 p.m. to practice [mock] Congress.”    
    The team hopes to maintain its second place standing in the Southern California Debate League while qualifying more members to the state tournament in Berkeley later this year.