Moving the debate stage from the classroom to the virtual room couldn’t stop the Carroll ISD Speech and Debate team from qualifying 38 students for the state tournament next week.
Every year, the CISD Speech and Debate team auditions in person to compete at the state tournament in the spring. But because of COVID-19, all of its debates had to move to Zoom for the safety of its participants. Debate coach Anthony Brown says his team prepared themselves with the different format over the summer.
“We spent a lot of the summer having practice rounds on Zoom, so we would be more prepared than other teams when the year started,” Anthony says. “Being able to overcome those unique obstacles and still push through to get even more qualified than usual is pretty special.”
The 38 students that have advanced to the state tournament include Anbu Subramanian, Nikhil Reddy, Pranav Kaginele, Sydney Fraser, Katy Lin, Darasimi Adeyemo, Aaron Ahmed, Arman Amin, Rishik Bethi, Eesha Bethi, Arnav Bhatia, Aarin Bindlish, Patrick Bonham, Ian Bonham, Neha Boyapati, Cristina Capriglione, Saaketh Chennaiahg, Haley Chokshi, Samhith Dharani, Catherine Doherty, Adramy Fall, Surina Kishinchandani, Mehdi Kizilbash, Aakash Kurapati, Paul Kuriakose, Aamir Mohsin, Bart Musser, Nitya Nadella, Monil Parekh, Enya Pinjani, Shriya Punreddy, Aarush Sathu, Olivia Schlamp, Sanjay Shori, Omeed Siadati, Jack Sibbett, Eesha Suri and Darya Tadlaoui.
They will compete from March 11-13 at Gregory Portland High School in Portland, Texas next week. To learn more about the state tournament, visit TXFA.org.