Last weekend, Newman’s Speech and Debate Team traveled to Lafayette for Louisiana’s District Tournament, which is also the qualifier for the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament in June. All teams from Southeast Louisiana participated in this tournament. The team did exceptionally well, with all of the seniors qualifying for Nationals along with a couple of juniors. The team swept some events as well, with Avni Shridhar and Max Kanner closing out Lincoln Douglas debate, and Laura Arenas and Sydney Gold winning Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking. As a team, Newman came in first in debate, second in speech and won the tournament overall.  They also won the Morris Block award for the most cumulative rounds.

With the regular season now over the debate team is looking towards state, then the Tournament of Champions and Nationals for those who qualified. Mr. Malis is especially motivated this spring, saying that he will only be satisfied if the Newman team loses because the other team was more skilled; he will not be happy if we lose because we did not do enough work. This mentality has motivated the team to work extra hard in and out of practices to hopefully continuing Newman’s three year winning streak at state.

With only one regular season tournament left, the Speech and Debate team is excited to see what State and the remainder of the year will hold. In the words of Mr. Malis the team is ready to “Go, Fight, Win!”