Fall 2023 Debate Wrapped
My favorite part of the end of the year is the Spotify wrapped story made by my Spotify account that shows all the highlights of my music and podcast listening. The booster club had the great idea of creating a Fall 2023 Speech and Debate wrapped to showcase all of our team’s accomplishments!
In the fall semester, LC Anderson speech and debate students competed at 16 tournaments across the great state of Texas: Austin, Round Rock, Kyle, San Antonio, Pflugerville, Dripping Springs, and across the country, in New York City, Gainesville, Florida, and Oklahoma City!
We have over 60 students compete in tournaments, attend team bonding events, and hold membership in the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA), our national debate honor society.
We hosted a fantastic tournament with the help of our booster club, parent volunteers, community judges, and debate student volunteers! I’m so excited for the 2024 Trojan Classic!
These students earned a bid to the Tournament of Champions (TOC), a national tournament in April that requires two bids to qualify for:
Logan Marcum, Extemporaneous Speaking
Kendall Meachum, Extemporaneous Speaking
Lily Steinhauser and Lucky Cantu, Duo Interpretation
Henry Dieringer, Student Congress
Logan Marcum, Student Congress
Nathaniel Watkins, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Luke Schooler, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
These students earned their qualification to the Texas Forensic Association (TFA) state debate tournament in March. Students qualify by earning points by advancing to outrounds at TFA tournaments. 10 points are required to qualify!
Logan Marcum, Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Kendall Meachum, Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Henry Dieringer, Congress
Nate Watkins, Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Lucky Cantu and Atticus Sencenbaugh, Duet Acting
Lucky Cantu and Lily Steinhauser, Duo Interpretation
Gabi Avramova, Congress
Kaavya Yalamanchili and Ananya Arora, Public Forum debate
Henry Dieringer, Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking
Emmy Ward, Congress
These students have earned points towards their qualification for the 2024 TFA State Tournament:
Luke Schooler
Colin McGowan
Kelsey Lind
Samantha Martin
Nicholas Sharma
Orion Padden
Alex Webster
Bryn Oliver
Salome Casey
Audrey Millard
Parker Benko
Rosemary Spindler
Paul Foreman
Isaiah Dietz
Milo Tyler
Ellie Hamilton
Vivi Fitzgerald
Charlotte Gossett
In the University Interscholastic League (UIL) District Congress tournament, junior Henry Dieringer advanced to the state competition. He will be competing in early January at UIL State!
Our overall competitive successes in Fall 2023 included:
Hendrickson
Overall sweepstakes- the team earned 2nd place on one side of the swing and 3rd place on the other!
Both Logan and Kendall earned TFA state qualification and TOC bids at this competition! Charlotte Gossett was also a domestic extemp finalist! All four of our congressional debaters advanced to semifinals! Our junior PF team of Samantha and Nick were semifinalists!
We had student finalists in 10 different events on both sides of the swing and semifinalists in 2 additional events! This included novices Zoe Taylor and Amanda Kromer in novice extemp!
Grapevine
Our first travel tournament for the semester!
Nate earned his first TOC bid!
We had 6 students in outrounds of their events! This means they advanced past the preliminary rounds to compete in higher-level competitive rounds. They were Lucky, Lily, Luke, Nate, Samantha and Nick.
Westwood
Only three students competed at this tournament and all three of them were finalists! Henry, Colin, and Kelsey all advanced to the finals of their events and earned state points!
McNeil
Another great local tournament, we took a large squad of students to McNeil High School, including a large group of novice debaters! Sophomore Salome Casey earned her first state points at this tournament! Sophomores Rosemary and Parker were public forum debate finalists!
New York City Invitational tournament in the Bronx
Our first trip out of state for the competition season. Our students Lucky and Lily earned a bid to the TOC!
Hays tournament
Over 30 students competed at this tournament here in central Texas!
Seniors Ananya and Kaavya earned their TFA qualification here! Senior Maiya Olsen was an extemp semifinalist!
JW Patterson
Two of our teammates, Luke and Nate, earned bids to the TOC at this tournament! They were finalists and both were top 4 speakers for the tournament!
Florida Blue Key
We took two carloads of students to Gainesville, Florida this year and returned with two congress bids, earned by Logan and Henry. Henry also placed 2nd in congress at Blue Key!
Cedar Ridge
At this one day tournament, junior Gabi Avramova earned 1st place in congress and qualified for TFA state! Luke also won 1st in LD, and sophomore Mia Vaisman earned 1st in prose! We had five other students in finals of their events and four more in semifinals!
Bowie Lampasas swing
At this two-day swing tournament, we had 30 students compete online and in person.
Junior Audrey Millard earned state points for informative speaking and placed 4th while senior Kelsey Lind placed 4th on the other side of the swing! Freshmen Vivi Fitzgerald and Ellie Hamilton were finalists on both sides of the swing and earned state points at their very first tournament! Junior Milo Tyler was an LD quarterfinalist and sophomore Emily Hernandez was a semifinalist in Novice LD! In Novice PF, the team of Cameron Carillo and Noble Padden were finalists!
Sandra Day O’Connor
At this San Antonio one-day, we had multiple finalists! Freshman Rebecca earned 5th place in novice extemp, the team of Dina and Noble were finalists in novice PF, junior Henry earned his domestic extemp state qualification, and the PF team of Sam and Orion were semifinalists!
Longhorn Classic/University of Texas at Austin tournament
This is one of my favorite tournaments because I love visiting my alma mater with students! Sophomore Emmy Ward earned her first TOC bid and finaled in congress! Luke and Nate both broke to outrounds in LD. Milo earned a speaker award for LD! The PF teams of Orion and Ananya, and Samantha and Nick broke to outrounds! Kendall was a quarterfinalist in extemp and Kelsey was a quarterfinalist in informative speaking!
Dripping Springs Tiger Tussle
We had over 30 students compete at the last tournament of the semester! Novice freshmen Rebecca Ballow and Izzy Tenney were finalists in novice congress! Emmy earned her state qualification for congress! Sanayah was an original oratory finalist! Our World Schools team of Henry, Atticus, Elena, and Talia were 2-1 and only a few points away from finals!
I had an amazing semester with your students and am so proud of all of their successes and hard work!
We quite literally could not get to tournaments without you, our parent volunteers, and I am so grateful to have such a supportive community!
I am super excited for our spring semester and all the tournaments we have coming up!
Happy New Year! You'll hear from me again soon for my January coach newsletter.
Peace, love, and debate ~ Coach El Contreras