The speech and debate team has begun to prepare for their UIL district tournament by attending several invitationals, placing first at their last three in a row.
The speech and debate team had multiple students place in the top six of all four invitationals attended. The most recent being at Waller High School, where they were named team champion.
Senior Jonathan Ponce has been on the team for almost two years. He placed second at their last tournament for informative speaking and third for Lincoln Douglas Debate.
“Placing at district is important because we are representing Caney Creek High School as a whole,” Ponce said. “We are also representing our team and it’s really small right now and we want it to grow. The best way to grow it is by actually winning, and once people start hearing our name, they’ll try to join as well.”
Junior Jose Solis said the team has been preparing for UIL district by staying after every Tuesday and consulting with teachers on their cases. He has been in debate since the program got revamped three years ago and has placed at every invitational.
“It’s important to place at district because then we can represent our school in an important way, showing that our efforts all year paid off,” Solis said. “I like debate because it’s kind of fun and it’s a passion I have. I want to become a lawyer when I grow up so doing this right now really builds the building blocks for becoming a lawyer and practicing law.”
Debate adviser Joseph Collatos says students prepare by: completing multiple hours of research, writing cases, practicing writing and performing speeches, and completing specific workshops.
“Our invitational tournaments are crucial to prepare us for UIL district, and placing there is of the utmost importance,” Collatos said. “To prepare for UIL competitors (students) will need to focus at practice and use their free time wisely to make sure they are on top of their game. A few new practice strategies are being introduced to give a fresh approach to preparing for district.”
The debate team will host the UIL district competition here at Caney Creek High School this upcoming Monday.
UIL Academics
The UIL Academic team took first place at the Waller High School Invitational tournament –marking the first time in school history Caney Creek has won overall sweepstakes for an invitational.
Sweepstakes are determined by adding all points a school earns for placing in the top six of each event and as a team. At Waller, CCHS took team championships in computer science, mathematics, literary criticism, journalism, and speech and debate.