September 2023
Hi Anderson debate community!
Coach Contreras here with my September newsletter!
Happy Labor Day to everyone, I hope y’all had a relaxing 3-day weekend! My newsletter this month will be a bit shorter than last month’s as we’ve gotten a lot of the administrative details out of the way.
I'm still missing signed handbooks from a few students!
Dues must be paid or a payment arrangement must be made by Thursday, September 28th!
Judge Training:
I hosted a group of parents on Zoom on Tuesday, August 29th for a judge training. Thanks so much for coming out, the video recording is on the Debate Blend page and the website on the “Our Team” tab under “Parent Judges’. Carpool and judge volunteer signups will be on the blend page, please ensure you’ve completed your AISD/APIE background check before you volunteer to judge or drive. Reach out to Mina Kumar at mina.kumar@gmail.com if you need any help with that process.
Hendrickson results:
Our kids did AMAZING at the first swing and first tournament of the year! Tournaments are my favorite part of debate because we get to spend so much time together. Thanks so much to our parents who volunteered to drive and judge at this event!
Atticus and Lucky have qualified to state in duet acting!!
Kendall and Logan both qualified to state in U.S. Extemp!
Debate results:
Our PF team of Sam Martin and Nick Sharma went all the way to the semifinals!
Our other PF teams did well too, with both Ananya Arora and Kaavya Yalamanchili AND Parker Benko and Rosemary Spindler going 3-1 in prelims. Our seniors Paul Foreman and Isaiah Dietz went 2-2.
Sam also earned the title of 3rd best speaker at the competition!!
Our World Schools team of Alex Webster, Bryn Oliver, and Orion Padden advanced all the way to the semifinals as well!
Our congress competitors did phenomenally as well, with all four of them advancing to the semifinals! Congratulations to Colin McGowan, Emmy Ward, Gabi Avramova, and Henry Dieringer for this feat!
Three of those students advanced to the final round, and Emmy, Gabi, and Henry all placed in the top 12 of the whole tournament. There’s still a bit of mystery surrounding the congress results but according to the tournament website, Henry placed 2nd in Congress!!
For the Hendrickson/Hawk side:
The duet team of Atticus Sencenbaugh and Lucky Cantu took home 1st!
The duo team of Lucky and Lily Steinhauser took home 3rd!
Our novice extempers took home 1st and 2nd, with Zoe Taylor placing first and Amanda Kromer placing 2nd!
Our prose performer Mia Vaisman placed 5th!
In U.S. Extemp, Charlotte Gossett placed 6th, Kendall Meachum placed 3rd and Logan Marcum placed 2nd!
On the Pflugerville/Panther side:
Once again, Atticus and Lucky took home 1st place in duet!
Our duo team of Lucky and Lily took home 2nd!!
In novice extemp, Zoe once again won 1st place!
Mia won 6th place in prose!
In U.S. extemp, Salomé Casey advanced to semis in her first competition! Kendall brought home 3rd and Logan placed 2nd!
Our Speech and Debate team president Logan Marcum with her 2nd place trophies!
Loyola results:
Nate Watkins happened to be in California for Labor Day weekend with his family and we decided competing in the Loyola high school tournament would be a good experience for him. He went 5-1 in prelims and advanced to octafinals! He also won the first-place speaker award for his event!!
Upcoming Tournaments in September:
Grapevine: Our first travel tournament to Grapevine is this weekend (9/8-9/10)! Wish our travel team luck in DFW! If you have not signed a permission slip for this yet, please send it to school ASAP.
Lake Travis: The Lake Travis tournament will be happening virtually this year. The dates are 9/15 and 9/16. Coach Zimmerman and I will be at Anderson both days to open classrooms for students who wish to compete from Anderson. If this is your child’s first tournament, we strongly encourage them to compete here at Anderson. That sign-up closes on Monday the 11th. We will absolutely need a few parent judges and you’re also welcome to join us here at Anderson for that! Judge volunteer sign-up will be on blend this week.
Westwood: This tournament takes place September 22nd and 23rd, which is homecoming weekend. The signup will be posted soon! We will likely need a few parents to drive us to and from the tournament, and possibly judge.
Trojan Classic: September 29 and 30
The boosters will send some information about donations and volunteering soon! Keep an eye out for that.
If your student is not able to attend, they need to let me know ASAP. I will begin asking for students to sign up for shifts this or next week.
October travel:
The Bronx high school tournament is October 13-15 in New York City. Because I am the only coach attending, we want to keep this travel team small. As a result, there is a short Google form application for varsity students wishing to attend. This is on Blend and will close on Friday, September 15th.
We will be attending Florida Blue Key again this October, from October 27-29. This will be open to all active varsity members and I will have interested varsity members fill out a Google form on Blend, this form closes on 9/29.
If you're interested in traveling with your student and the team at either of these events, please reach out! I'm happy to take a parent (or two!) with us.
As always, please reach out with questions, ideas, and concerns at elizabeth.s.contreras@austinisd.org!
Peace, love, and debate,
Coach El Contreras