February 2025
Happy Lunar New Year and Black History Month! February may be the shortest month of the year but it’s packed full of speech and debate activities!
If you didn’t know, I teach ethnic studies in addition to speech and debate, and every year I start the fall with a lesson about the original LC Anderson: Laurine Cecil Anderson. He was born in pre-Civil War Tennessee and became the principal of the original LC Anderson High School (which was the only high school in Austin for the Black community) in the early 1900’s. He was a Latin teacher and before moving to Austin, the president of Prarie View A&M University (then called Prairie View Normal Institute), a Historically Black College and the location of TFA State 2025! You can read more about him here.
Reminders and Important Dates:
Monday, February 3rd: Course Selection due.
Students should talk to Contreras if they’re confused about what section to register for. I have discussed this with all the periods already so hopefully everyone is on the same page!
Tuesday, February 4th: Team photos!
We are taking club photos during the school day- specifically, at 12:30 pm (6th period). Please remind your student to wear their Anderson debate merch, an Anderson shirt, or the color blue if they don’t have any debate or Trojan merch!
Thursday, February 20th: After school team bonding in the debate classroom!
All members are invited to this team bonding. We’ll be doing arts and crafts and enjoying snacks.
Thursday: February 27th: Trivia Night fundraiser!
Save the date for our fundraising Trivia Night! We’ll be sending more information on this soon!
January Student Success Spotlight
I have really enjoyed sharing our students' competitive successes with you all! I want to remind you that you can also follow our success on Instagram (@andersonspeechdebate) and on our website-
https://www.andersonspeechdebate.org/tournament-results
State qualifiers:
Zoe Taylor, US Extemp
Atticus Sencenbaugh, World Schools Debate
McNeil:
Our Worlds team of Atticus, Schaefer, Colin, and Salomé advanced to finals!
Emily, Lauchly, and Zoe advanced to extemp finals! Emily earned 6th, Lauchly earned 4th and Zoe earned 2nd!
Emmy was a congress finalist!
Lake Travis:
Huge thank you to Marcy Farrell for driving and chaperoning this competition!! We literally could not have gone without you! Thank you also to the Paddens, Wards, Jeff Russell, Julie Warner, and Teri Taylor for driving students to and from this competition!
Emmy placed 2nd in congress!
Rebecca placed 4th in congress!
Zoe placed 2nd in US Extemp!
Lauchly placed 4th in US Extemp!
The Barkley Forum at Emory University:
Nate and Luke advanced to outrounds in policy (Pelhem) debate and earned their 4th bid of the year! They were both in the top 20 speakers of the tournament, with Luke earning 19th and Nate earning 13th place.
Henry advanced to the semifinals of congress and earned his first bid of the year!
Audrey advanced to the finals of oratory, placing 4th, and earned her 2nd bid and full qualification to the Tournament of Champions!
Due to Anderson’s record of competitive success, we were awarded membership to the Barkley Forum, which means in future years of competition, we won’t have to ‘apply’ for entry!
February tournaments:
February 7-8th: Westlake tournament
This is the last opportunity for most novices to compete this year! I closed the sign-up form on Friday but can register students until Tuesday the 4th if anyone decides to sign up last minute.
February 15th: Austin High Online tournament
This is the very last TFA tournament before state and the last opportunity to qualify for TFA state! Austin High is only open to varsity members.
February 14-18th: Berkeley
Our second out-of-state tournament of the semester is the University of California Berkeley tournament! We’re taking some varsity members to the Bay area for a weekend of competition.
February 22-23rd: TOC Digital Series #2
This is only open to varsity members seeking bids to the TOC. Interested students should discuss this opportunity with Coach Contreras.
That's all I have for now! Please remind your students about the club photos tomorrow, February 4th! I look forward to an exciting month of speech and debate!!
Peace, love, and debate
Coach El
el.contreras@austinisd.org