November 2023
Coach El's November Newsletter!
LC Anderson speech and debate community,
It’s almost the end of the year! November snuck up on me. October was an incredibly busy month and I traveled out of state with the team three times. We had many students earn state points, state qualifications, and bids and qualifications to the tournament of champions! We also had some sweet moments of team bonding at travel and local tournaments.
Don't forget to check out our website- andersonspeechdebate.org to see sweet team photos, learn more about parent judging opportunities, and shop our merch store! A portion of each item purchased goes to the boosters, which they send right back to the team.
A Note on Parent Volunteers
I want to take a moment to thank all of the parents who have volunteered with us at tournaments this semester. I am very grateful to Norma Cantu, Hope Benko, Julie Steinhauser, and Christy Schooler for traveling overnight with this team!
We could not go to tournaments without parent volunteers. Literally. Parent volunteers drive our carpool and help students physically get to and from tournaments. We are all so appreciative of anyone who has taken their Friday or Saturday morning or evening to drive some teens to a debate tournament. You make it possible for students to compete every weekend! Thank you for sharing your time and cars with us!!
As we reach the end of the semester, I want to ask parents to continue volunteering with our carpool! I also want to ask that if you’re at all interested in judging, we are in need of volunteers. We have paid out a lot of judging fees to tournaments this year. Volunteering as a judge helps us save money, of course, but it also gives you an opportunity to see what your students are up to every weekend!
Our team is full of the best students you’ve met and hanging out with them on a Saturday is just a treat. Tournaments also have hospitality rooms with food and drinks to keep you energized for a day of competition. In order to keep this program funded and running, we need your help. Judging saves us a minimum of $100 for each tournament and I use that money to pay entry fees, provide students scholarships for travel, and fund our memberships in required state and national speech and debate organizations.
E
very week of a tournament, I send out an email with information about the carpool and tournament schedule to all tournament sign-ups and their parents. That email contains the volunteer form where you can sign up to drive and/or judge! I'll also attach some here below.
- Tournament Calendar: November and December -
November 4: Cedar Ridge. Round Rock, TX. One-day. We could use one more speech judge. Volunteer sign up here: https://forms.gle/w4x9eiUc7TTNRfaz7
November 10-11: Bowie/Lampasas Swing. Virtual Friday, In-person Saturday at Bowie High School here in Austin. This is a two-day but I’ll only need parent volunteer judges and drivers on Saturday!
Volunteer sign up here: https://forms.gle/VAPk2BtnXvPpADXn8
November 17: Sandra Day O’Connor. San Antonio, TX. One day!
Volunteer sign-up will be posted on Blend next week and sent out to everyone who signed up.
December (sign-up Google forms coming soon)
December 1-2: University of Texas at Austin!
December 8-9: Dripping Springs Tiger Tussle. Virtual Friday, In person at Dripping Springs High School on Saturday.
Spring travel:
Churchill tournament- January 5-7, overnight in San Antonio, TX. I’ll need kids to be signed up by December 1st for this so I can get all the paperwork processed before the break! This is 2 nights in San Antonio. I anticipate taking about 20 kids, so we’ll need a few parents to travel with us! We will cover the hotel costs for this trip for parent chaperones!
Emory tournament- January 26-28, overnight in Atlanta, Georgia. I have to have kids signed up for this by December 1st as well. They have to “apply” to compete (everyone was accepted last year) and I’ll need to get these forms submitted before winter break as well.
Harvard tournament- February 17-19, overnight in Boston, Massachusetts. Sign-ups will be due the second week of January. I'm anticipating taking a good-sized group and we'll need some parents to go with us! I'm also planning to use public transportation since that exists in Boston, so no rental-car-driving needed!
Looking ahead...
The Texas Forensic Association State tournament in March! This will be in Dallas.
The Tournament of Champions in Kentucky in April!
The National Speech and Debate Association National tournament in June! This is in Des Moines this year.
Fundraising!
The lovely Lauren Ward is visiting us at Anderson this week to get us started with our fundraiser! Thank you to Lauren, Mike Millard, and Anje Watkins for getting the ball rolling on fundraising!
Your student gave Lauren their email and she signed them up for a page on Givebutter, where your debater can add a short biography and send email and text invites to donate to this campaign! Please make sure they've check their email and set up their account! We've kicked it off well and we have high hopes! Our team goal is to raise $30,000.
The booster club helps us immensely to get to tournaments. They help cover coach travel costs from hotel rooms to plane tickets, rental cars, and travel costs for parent volunteers traveling with us. Perhaps most importantly, they help us cover costs for students whose families cannot afford to travel. We all deeply believe that students should be able to compete nationally because they deserve to and that financials should not restrict student participation.
Every student has the goal of raising $500! Please share our fundraiser with your friends, families, coworkers, and communities!
Link here- https://givebutter.com/AHSSpeechandDebate or donate directly to your student. The link will take you to our main fundraiser page and you can select a student from the list to support.
You can also donate to my page! I've set a goal of raising $1000- https://givebutter.com/AHSSpeechandDebate/coachcontreras
Support our team fundraiser here!
We've had a ton of fun (and picked up some trophies and state points along the way) this semester! Here's a list of all the students who have qualified to either the Tournament of Champions, earned a bid to compete in it (2 are needed to qualify), or earned their qualification to the state tournament in Dallas in March!
Logan Marcum- state qualled in DX (domestic extemp), TOC qualled in DX, earned a TOC bid in congress
Kendall Meachum- state qualled in DX, TOC qualled in DX
Henry Dieringer- state qualled in congress, earned a TOC bid in congress
Nate Watkins- state qualled in LD (Lincoln Douglas) debate, TOC qualled in LD
Luke Schooler- earned a bid to the TOC in LD
Lucky Cantu and Lily Steinhauser- state qualled in Duo Interpretation, earned a bid to the TOC
Lucky Cantu and Atticus Sencenbaugh earned their state qualification
Thanks for reading! I'll be back in a few weeks to tell you about our Decemeber tournaments, spring travel, and to give you an update on our fundraiser!!
If you have any questions, ideas, concerns, or thoughts, please reach out to me. My email is elizabeth.s.contreras@austinisd.org and I'm happy to chat about anything.
Peace, love, and debate
Coach El Contreras