The Speech and Debate team has had the biggest growth in numbers since its start, this year having over seventy people enrolled in a class, novice as well as varsity, and even more who have joined the club. This makes Clear Springs the largest speech and debate team in the district.

This past weekend, under the leadership of Coach Dylan Bennett, 40 people entered to compete in the tournament hosted by Clear Lake High School. For some, this was just another tournament to do their respected events, but for others, this was their first taste of what being on the debate team is like.

Matthew Haverty (9), a novice to the team this year attended Clear Lake for his first tournament. “I was very nervous, it’s crazy here because there are so many people, but I think I did pretty well for my first time.” Haverty said.

At the Lake tournament, Haverty competed in the events Novice Extemp and Impromtu Speaking. Someone who also competed in Impromptu and made it all the way to finals was Skye Plows (11).

Plows is a member of varsity debate, her third year in the program. This is just one of many tournaments for Plows, except for one thing. She was doing something she had never done before.

“I’ve never done Impromptu before, I have no experience in this event. It was really strange to all of a sudden be in the finals round and win a second place trophy,” Plows said.

The following students won awards at the Clear Lake Debate Tournament last weekend:

• Domestic Extemp Semi Finalist
  • Nick Champagne
• Foreign Extemp Semi Finalist
  • Ben Haverty
• Novice Extemp Semi Finalist:
  • Christian Sallese
  • Ty Blankenship
  • Andrea Carrero
  • Adrien Prouty
  • Starr Liwag
  • Arish Maredia
• Impromptu Semi Finalist
  • Christian Sallese
  • Madison Buchanan
• Double Octos Finalist
  • Sharil Maredia
• Octo Finalist
  • Erin Pritchard
  • Ally Boehning
• Congress Semi Finalist
  • Maria Aykara
• Original Oratory Third Place
  • Sydney Rose
• Sixth Place Prose
  • Sydney Rose
• Impromptu Speaking Skye Plows Second Place

Charger Speech and Debate will travel to South Houston High School this weekend.