PHEONIX, Ariz. — A group of nine Green Country high school students chose to spend the first weeks of their summer away from the pool and headed back to the classroom — to discuss policy and ethics.
Union High School's Speech and Debate team traveled over 1,000 miles by van to Phoenix, AZ. to compete in the largest National Speech and Debate Association tournament to date.
Over 6,000 students from 2,000 schools are at the tournament, competing in a range of 42 different events. The team spent many long hours and late nights preparing for the trip.
UHS took nine students and three coaches to the tournament after the students qualified by placing in the top three of their district.
Student William Spatz competed in extemporaneous debate, where students are given 30 minutes to prepare a 15-minute one-on-one debate about a randomly-selected topic.
William made it to the seventh round of competition, speaking about topics like raising the voting age, the NCAA transfer portal, rapid rehousing, the impacts of social media, the G7, and more.
Four UHS students competing in Worlds Debate reached the top 65 in the nation. Makayla Goode, Tegan Fouts, Alexander Raza, and Chris Dunn debated topics like the efficacy of artificial intelligence, the benefits of parliaments vs. president systems of government, as well as three impromptu topics they were given on the spot.
"We are so proud of our students just getting to nationals," coach Ricinda Spatz said. "It's pretty amazing to watch our kids go to out rounds and compete against the best of the best from across the country. Anyone who wants to complain about the youth today obviously doesn't know these kids."
Lawson Carter, Katie Andrews, Raashi Karande and Kriti Gopi also made the trip to Phoenix and competed in multiple speech and debate events including extemporaneous debate and storytelling.
The team returns to Oklahoma Saturday and will start their season back up in August — not including the students who attend debate camp in July.
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