Over the last four years, the speech and debate program has grown to 47 debaters bringing home medals, trophies and seven state qualifications.
President Mayank Bharadwaj, a senior, has qualified for the Texas Forensics Association State Championship in the public forum bracket for the second time this year. What started as a fear of public speaking led him to become a two-time Texas state qualifier in speech and debate and winner of the California State Championship.
“At my first two debate competitions I lost every single round,” Bharadwaj said. “I was so demoralized. I thought that the worst I could do is keep losing but the best I could do was improve.”
Qualifying for state and handling the club at the same time was challenging for the upperclassmen in debate, but through the coordinated cooperation with the rest of the varsity members, there was time for debaters to prepare for their competitions.
“Last year our team was about 20-30 members and this year we have over 150 and only about 60 made the team so it was a big challenge to decide who makes the team,” Bharadwaj said. “But it was mitigated because we have a good varsity team and they help out a lot.”
The sponsor and coach, Carrie Reavis, handles the club’s finances and the Lincoln-Douglas debate team.
“It’s a massive job that nobody really thanks her for,” Bharadwaj said. “I absolutely couldn’t have done this without her, it would’ve been impossible.”
Senior Harshal Dhaduk prepared his team by providing three times more sources and argument material than the team previously had.
“What he does specifically is that he works with other teams from the region and we trade our prep which we wouldn’t have if Harshal wasn’t putting in his efforts,” Bharadwaj said. “He also does a lot of backend work with preparations for novices which helps immensely. I think that without him, we would be lacking in the resources we have.”
Dhaduk was not only a contributor to the team, but was also among one of the seven state qualifiers for this season. He competed in Public Forum, a partner event and made a fast win to the top at the Jack C. Hays debate tournament.
“Honestly, I wasn’t even expecting it,” Dhaduk said. “I needed a first-place win in order to be able to fully qualify for state. I competed with some of the best teams there such as Dripping Springs, Hendrickson, Lake Travis and McNeil, so it was very unexpected.”
Qualifying for state requires preparation and research, but the main principle this year’s state qualifiers followed was having ambition and commitment towards the debate team.
“Passion beats talent every single day,” Bharadwaj said. “You don’t have to be the most talented debater if you’re passionate enough, you’ll do good.”