April 2025
Hello everyone and happy spring!
I have a few end of year details to share with you! Thank you all for your support over the course of the school year and competition season. Every year at Anderson gets better on this team because of the amazing community of students and families that we have here! I am so grateful for the support of families and our booster club! We could not have this success without you.
March student success spotlights:
Henry Dieringer advanced to the quarterfinals of domestic extemporanoeus speaking at the TFA State tournament in Houston!
Henry also advanced to the finals of student congress!
We had four students qualify for the National Speech and Debate Association National tournament!
Congratulations to:
Henry Dieringer for qualifying in the congress- senate! This will be Henry’s fourth year at the NSDA National tournament!
Colin McGowan for qualifying for our district’s world schools debate team!
Atticus Sencenbaugh for qualifying for the district worlds team!
And Elena Lucas for qualifying for the district worlds team!
We are also able to bring students in supplemental events. Nate Watkins will be joining us to compete in extemp debate. This will also be his fourth appearance at the NSDA National Tournament!
April events:
Today,Friday, April 4th,we are taking team photos!
Monday, April 7th- Thursday, April 10th, we have officer interviews after school.
April 25th- 29th:The Tournament of Champions will be taking place at the University of Kentucky. We are taking Nate Watkins and Luke Schooler in policy debate, Henry Dieringer in congress, Audrey Millard in original oratory, and Lucky Cantu and Lily Steinhauser in duo interpretation! Wish our competitors luck!!
May events:
Showcase! Sunday, May 4th at 4:30 pm
Showcase is our annual fundraiser and community event. This is a great way to see what your student does at debate competitions every weekend, celebrate our graduating seniors, and help support the team! If you know any middle school families, please invite them to attend! More details will be shared soon about ticket costs and showcase ads!
We will also have twomandatory rehearsalsfor showcase.
Thursday, May 1st until 6 pm in the theater
Friday, May 2nd until 6 pm in the theater
I will also request students be at the theater by 2:30 on Sunday, May 4th to prepare for showcase!
Debanquet! Tentatively: Sunday, May 18th
The debate banquet is an end-of-year tradition I started in my first year at Anderson. We celebrate our team’s accomplishments over the year as well as share one last team dinner, hear senior speeches, and give superlatives! This has been such a special event for team members to celebrate each other and the team. The booster club will be sending out communication on that to ask for volunteers and donations in the coming weeks.
TBD: Middle School One Day Camp - Saturday, May 3rd
I and the boosters felt this one day camp was a success! We had 14 5th-8th graders join us at Anderson for a day of speech and debate skills and we had a blast!
If we host another camp, it will be on Saturday, May 3rd. I am aware this is senior prom and am not expecting seniors to attend this camp. The current juniors and sophomores would be expected to take some ownership over the success of our middle school camp.