2015 graduates Anjali Manghnani, Deepti Kannan and Sudeep Raj traveled to Dallas from June 14-19 and lived the dream of every serious speech and debater: competing in the national tournament.

Manghnani participated in Original Oratory, Kannan in Lincoln Douglas Debate and Raj in World’s Parliamentary. While Manghnani and Kannan did not qualify for elimination rounds, Raj made it to double octofinals, the first elimination round, with a team of selected parliamentary debate members on the California Forensics League. He earned a spot on the team due to his own high ranking in the league.

Despite the intensity of the tournament, Manghnani said that it was an amazing experience.

“We met teams from all across the country and even internationally, and it was an honor to compete with the best of the best,” Manghnani said. “But competition was definitely tough. I think everyone on our team could attest to how difficult each round was.”

The three booked an Airbnb near the Sheraton for three nights. Because Kannan and Manghnani did not qualify for elimination rounds after competing for two days in preliminary rounds, the two had time to explore the surrounding areas of Dallas. They went to the Dallas Art Museum and a Posting Party, which was organized by the tournament.

Kannan also judged the national rounds for middle schoolers.

“We just had more time this year to watch all the final rounds and get involved in the excitement of the tournament,” Kannan said.

Despite their passion for speech and debate, Kannan and Manghnani have no plans to continue in the future. However Raj plans on competing in World’s Parliamentary debate in college. Kannan, now a freshman at Stanford University, said that her high school experience on the team was “transformative,” but she is ready to explore something new in college since college debate is incredibly time consuming.

“I will use the public speaking skills I gained from this activity in my future endeavors though,” Kannan said.

Newcomers welcomed to the team

On the other hand, as a new season of speech and debate begins, new competitors began practicing on Aug. 23 at the speech and debate retreat, which was held at the high school.

Club adviser Chris Harris and parent committee president Sunder Raj organized the event in order to ease freshmen into the program and prepare for the upcoming season.

“I’m feeling very good about the freshmen,” Harris said. “Although they have only competed at a middle school level before, they seem very prepared for the more competitive [nature] of high school debate.”

Freshman attendees of the camp found it be beneficial in preparing them for the competitive nature of high school speech and debate.

“The coaches were helpful and had informative presentations,” freshman Joseph Li said. “Also, a lot of my friends were there and I was able to hang out with them over the weekend.”

Additionally, it helped newer students decide which event they would compete in over the school year. The coaches this year are hoping most students attempt policy debate because it is the foundation of most speech and debate events.

Returning speech and debaters attended the retreat as well. For them, the retreat was both a review and a practice for.

“I’m excited to learn more about debate this year, and I think the camp has gotten me even more excited for the first tournament,” sophomore Lincoln Douglas debater Ayush Aggarwal said.

Senior captains such as Ashvita Ramesh (original oratory) and Shrey Desai (Lincoln-Douglas Debate) will be returning for their fourth year on the team, while other senior speech and debaters will be returning as members, some hoping to obtain leadership positions.