The speech and debate team traveled to Washington D.C. to debate at George Mason University from Friday until Tuesday. Each school year the speech and debate team has one ‘travel tournament’ where they go out of state to compete with other students from across the U.S.

“We started the travel trip back in 2013 and it was the start of an opportunity that I knew so many students would benefit from,” speech and debate coach Rory McKenzie said. “Competition is wonderful, and I feel like our team really learns about life in addition to getting the opportunity to compete on a larger scale.”

The tournament was named The George Mason Patriot Games, and took place all around the George Mason campus located just outside of Washington D.C. over a two day span. This year was their 20th anniversary game with the high school level.

“The George Mason tournament was well organized, providing exactly the type of experience we wanted for our students,” speech and debate coach JP Fuglar said. “The ability to sightsee in our nation’s capital on the same trip was an added bonus.”

The two debate coaches, McKenzie and Fuglar, attended the tournament with the students as well. They chose this tournament for its proximity to D.C. and the fact that GMU is one of the premier speech teams collegiately.

“The opportunity to get a look at the world outside of Lindale is something everyone should get,” McKenzie said. “I think it’s great that students get to take their message out on the road and show what they’ve got against some of the premier programs in the country.”

Students could also apply for a scholarship opportunity to help aid in the cost of the travel trip. This is funded by alumni and friends of the organization as much as possible, as well as by the team’s activity account. 

“These scholarships are helpful to some of our students who otherwise wouldn’t be able to go,“ Fuglar said. “We want every student to go that puts in the work, regardless of financial obligation.” 

Sophomore Conner Stevens competed in congress as well and placed 9th overall. Congressional debate is where students debate as though they are congressmen over bills proposed by their peers prior to competition.

“I was a finalist in congressional debate,” Stevens said. “I placed in accordance to the amount of work I put in.”

Junior Hailey Maccalous and president of the speech and debate team placed 3rd in informative speaking. She also competed in Congress where she was a semi finalist. 

“I am incredibly proud of placing 3rd at this tournament,” Maccalous said. “It was hard and the competition was phenomenal, overall it was a wonderful experience getting to compete.”

Informative speaking is a 10 minute memorized speech informing an audience on a specific topic. Maccalous also participates in theater where she was Mrs.White in the play Clue, and last year she was Tessie in the play Annie.

“I love my extracurriculars, I truly believe that debate and theatre are shaping me into the person I am today,” Maccalous said. “They’ve helped so much with confidence and public speaking.”

Junior Odin Burks, an officer for the team, was a semifinalist for extemporaneous speaking (extemp), and also competed in the Lincoln-Douglas debate (LD). Extemporaneous speaking is where competitors get a topic and have 30 minutes to prepare a 7 minute speech, and LD is a one on one philosophical debate about a morality based question. 

“I absolutely love debate. I have become obsessed with the event, fallen in love with competitions, and found a fantastic community full of wonderful people.”

Burks mostly competes in policy debate, which is a two on two debate about different plans for a policy. He is also on multiple UIL teams including, math UIL, science UIL, computer science UIL, and robotics, where this year his team won the state championship.

“I am a big fan of all of these extracurriculars that I do,” Burks said. “Especially the ones where I actually compete against others, those ones are extremely fun.”

Junior Madison Barnes, and vice president of the team, was a semifinalist in Congressional debate. She also competed in extemporaneous speaking. 

“Debate is a huge part of my life that I would never exchange for anything,” Barnes said. “Doing well at tournaments, especially big ones like this, makes all the hard work I’ve done worth it a thousand times over.”

Barnes mostly competes in extemp, where she has gone to state in for her freshman and sophomore year, and LD, where she has gone to state her sophomore year for as well a Nationals. She is also the Managing Editor of News and Features for the Eagle Eye Newspaper. 

“I love being on the newspaper staff; it’s given me the ability to write about things that truly matter in my community and school,” Barnes said. “As for debate, LD is where I found my confidence and my passion, and extemp has allowed me to gain skills in speaking that I wouldn’t have found anywhere else.”

Senior Flor Mendez was a semifinalist in oral interpretation, which included both prose and poetry events. Prose is where competitors perform their interpretation of a short story, while poetry is the same but with published and unpublished poetry pieces. 

“I am very proud of how far I got because honestly, I did not think I would get to the semis,” Mendez said. “Even though I did not make it to the finals, I am proud of this achievement.”

Mendez is the only senior on the speech and debate team this year. She also participates in the National Honors society. 

“I feel proud that I have made it so far to be in the National Honor Society,” Mendez said. “It seems like a very special accomplishment because I never thought I would be the best academically.”

Other competitors were freshman Emma Deslatte, who competed in Lincoln- Douglass debate and extemporaneous speaking, sophomore Ethan Barchak, who competed in extemporaneous speaking, sophomore Abigale Reeves, who competed in oral interpretation, and sophomore Robert Mejia, who competed in congress. 

“The George Mason University travel trip was really fun,” Deslatte said. “I learned a lot, and I really enjoyed the historical aspect of the trip.”

After competition the team took one day, Monday, to travel around Washington D.C. and sightsee. They looked around the Washington and Lincoln memorials, the White House, took a bus tour around the city and played in an escape room. 

“The George Mason tournament was such a fun trip,” Burks said. “I loved being able to compete in Virginia, and exploring DC was really enjoyable after two long days of competition.”

One team member, sophomore Audrey Ratliff, was not allowed to participate until a few days before the team was set to leave, causing her to still be unable to attend. The team, to honor her situation, carried around a cardboard cut-out of her to take pictures with. 

“I felt pretty joyful we got to bring the cutout of Audrey because she is one of the people that keeps a positive environment in speech and debate,” Mendez said. “Even though she could not come to George Mason, she came as a cutout and she was there with us in Washington, D.C.”