The Cypress Ranch High School Speech and Debate team competed at Jersey Village High School Sept. 6-7 in the Northland Christian Classic tournament, marking the first debate tournament of the season.
Cypress Ranch students made an impressive start, bringing home numerous awards, including the tournament championship in impromptu speaking, third place in Congressional debate and second place in foreign extemporaneous speaking. Many others advanced to finals in categories such as novice extemporaneous, humorous interpretation and dramatic interpretation.
While this tournament marked the first competition of the season for many of Cypress Ranch’s speech and debate students, it was Debate 1 student Kaleb Holmes’ debut. Despite being a newcomer, Holmes brought home a victory for Cypress Ranch by placing sixth in the novice extemporaneous speech finals.
“My teacher thought I’d be good at it, even though it was my first time ever doing debate, and he believed in me,” Holmes said. “I’m glad I listened to Mr. Hennessey because I made it to finals.”
Cypress Ranch has a long history of success in speech and debate, bringing home many awards throughout the years. This tournament marked the first awards the team received under the leadership of their new coach, Ryan Hennessey.
“This is my first year with the Cypress Ranch speech and debate team,” he said. “I was very excited about it. I heard that they are a bunch of really amazing kids who seem really excited to learn and compete, and I was excited to get started.”
The speech and debate team has a long road ahead with many more tournaments on the horizon. Despite the busy schedule, excitement is building among the students for this year’s competitions.
“I’m really looking forward to UIL,” junior Henry Barger said. “They usually have some pretty fun topics to talk about in debate, and we get to go up against the best in the district.”
The team said sights are set on bigger goals—the state and national competitions later this year. Despite the high stakes, confidence is running high among the team.
“We’ve made it to nationals before, and we can do it again—same for districts and state,” junior Kaiana Matos said. “The team is determined to reach these high goals, but with their talent and drive, many believe they’re well on their way to making it happen.
