The UIL debate team competed last Friday at Aubrey High School and won multiple awards.

“In the Lincoln-Douglas debates, we had Katie Shinn win first place,” teacher Craig Hertel said, “while the top speaker award went to Maggie McGeehee.”

The Lincoln-Douglas debate features one student who competes against another student from an opposing school to battle issues concerning philosophy. In addition to this, the UIL members also compete in Cross-Examination debate in teams of two, where students take a stance on a controversial political topic.

“[In the Cross-Examination category] Morghan Stewart and Emily Volk placed sixth,” Hertel said.  “Also, our beginner teams for the first time competed at the varsity level and they both went 2-2.”

The students have been preparing for their competitions since the beginning of the school year.

“We gathered evidence about different topics,” sophomore Bryce Pilawski said, “and we practiced with the other debaters.”

While the Cross-Examination UIL debate team has a class period, those members, and the solely after school Lincoln-Douglas team, also worked past school hours to prepare their material.

“Every Wednesday, since the first week of school, we have all gotten together to work on debate,” junior Shinn said.  “Maggie and I spent a few sleepless nights working on case writing, along with all of the debaters working hard to get more evidence to respond to any argument other debaters make.”

Many of the contestants were pleased with the teams overall performance last Friday.

“It went extremely well for our first competition,” senior McGeehee said.  “It always helps to read the ballots that the judges give you and take their constructive criticism.”

Members are keeping their eyes focused on individual goals that they have for the season.

“Every competition shows us new ways to look at a topic,” Shinn said, “and it gives us more practice for when we start trying to climb the ladder to state.”

With more competitions ahead, multiple opportunities are available to the student body.

“A lot of people don’t really know what debate is around here,” Hertel said. “If someone is interested, come talk to me or one of the debaters. It is mainly a kind of event where you have to do it for awhile and you get better the longer you do it.”