The speech and debate team has come along way since the beginning of the year. With steady coaches and a more bonded team, the newer members have been able to achieve impressive records in varsity tournaments.

Presentation High hosted a debate tournament on Jan 11. Abhi Venkataramana and Vijay Menon were the only Parlimentary debate team to attend this tournament. They came out with a record of 3-1.

“We’ve come a long way from the beginning of the season, we were somewhat disappointed that we couldn’t go 4-0 but we were content with our 3-1 record,” said Menon.

The Martin Luther King tournament, an annual and highly competitive event took place at Logan High School the following week. This was the first time attending a varsity tournament for many freshmen who regularly competed at a JV level. Freshman Nichole Shadman and Danielle Savage broke to octo-finals in Public Forum debate. Freshman Michael Chen advanced to the next level in Impromptu speech. The tournament was good exposure for the entire team.

“This is always a really competitive tournament, so it was a good experience for everyone to meet some talented competitors,” said Congress captain junior Varun Parmar.

The next tournament the team participated in was a CFL congress tournament on Jan. 27th but results could not be reported due to publication deadlines. The Stanford Invitational, which hosts teams from all across the country, will be held on February 14th.