SEHS recently introduced Congressional Debate to their list of academic UIL events. SEHS took the opportunity to use this program to help some of their students with the other events they are in such as debate. Junior Annabelle Anchondo and sophomores Emma Stevenson and Lynnsey Mahler participated in the regional Congressional Debate contest on November 15th.

Congress is a way of writing legislation, such as a bill or a resolution, and debating over it. The person debating over it has to pretend like they are legislators, whether they’re representatives or senators. 

“If a bill comes before them, they have to give speeches over that bill to make that bill into a law,”  debate coach Marlana Tanaro said. “They go in and debate the pieces of legislation that is entered by the schools that are competing.” 

The 2021-2022 school year is only the second year that SEHS has had this UIL event on their roster. SHES has always wanted not only the best, but the most for their students. 

“Springlake-Earth has always prided themselves on competing as in making sure that students have every opportunity to go in whatever direction they want to go,” Mrs. Tanaro said.  

Monday, November 15th the Congressional Debate team competed in Lubbock against 1A schools across the district. 

“There are not many 1A schools that compete in congress, having said that the competition is probably harder in 1A than it is for any other schools,” Mrs. Tanaro said. “We competed against Jayton, O’Donell, Borden County, and we were in the room with other 4A schools.” 

Anabelle Anchondo is one of the top students in her class and participates in multiple UIL debate contests. 

“This year I’m doing CX and Congress, congress is a more laid back version of CX,” Anchondo said. 

Congress provides students with opportunities to further develop the skills the need for other debate contests including cross examination (CX) and Lincoln-Douglas (LD).

“Debate has become a huge thing here. We have our state winners from last year, and congress is a whole lot like debate,” Mrs. Tanaro said. “It helps the students become more confident in speaking.” 

Sophomore, Emma Stevenson, also participated in congress. This was her second year and she found it easier this year. 

“I knew what to expect this time,” Stevenson said. “I think I could make it to state. It’s sort of fun in a way, that’s like extremely nerdy.”