Stereotypically, people believe debate participants are all hotheaded, argumentative people only on the team to relieve steam by fighting for one side or the other of a certain controversial topic. However, this is not the case in the slightest, there are two sides to debate, the speech side or the planned out argumentative side; in fact, a good number of the students on the debate team are involved in the George Ranch acting department because the speech side of debate does require some acting.

This past weekend, the debate team traveled to the Dobie High School tournament. Mrs. Richards, the debate team sponsor, said, “Two debate students placed in the top thirty…Zena Gittens and Mario Rodriguez.” She believes that the team is “on the right track” for success and she says, “[she] hopes to take five or six students to [the] state tournament,” which will be held in Houston later this year.

Junior Mario Rodriguez, who placed top thirty for Debate at the last tournament, says he “really likes debate…and meeting new people in [the] community”. He says that the argument side of debate “is not just arguing, [there is] a lot of research”.

Sophomore Sean Hendricks is on the debate team for the second year. He “like[s] to do monologues (interpretation) more because [interpretation] gives you more of an energetic theatrical vibe”. He says he also likes “to meet new people” at the debate tournaments, he also likes “to compete and do better”, progressing at each new competition.

There are a lot of new members on the debate team this year, the majority of them being freshmen at The Ranch this year. Sean, Mrs. Richards, and Mario all believe that the future of the debate team is “in good hands”. Mario believes that the “novices” will turn out to be “really good debaters” Mrs. Richards believes that this year will be “very productive” and without a doubt, Mario and Sean have more accomplishments to bring home to The Ranch this year.