By Christina Dimyan

Friday afternoon the debate team left to the NFL district national qualifier at MacArthur in hopes of making it to nationals.

“I don’t expect us to get eliminated. They are both solid and have demonstrated that this year,” debate coach Chris Mifflin said.

Shamira Shepherd and Summer Mills are both competing in the individual competitions. Today’s results can be a good indicator for them on how to prepare for districts in April 2.
“Most are preparing already. The rest of the kids will prepare next week for districts,” Mifflin Said.

UIL distcits will be held at MacArthur all day on the April 2. Between 6 and 9 students will be going from varsity debate. there are 9 spots; 3 speaking and 3 debate spots. Districts is a very different experience for debaters. Rather than debaters having up to 2 losses, districts is double elimination. With that, about half of the competitors get eliminated after the second round.

“It’s a very stressful and different event, and I expect it to go well,” Mifflin said.

To debate students, all the this hard work is no different than sports. They prepare, practice, and compete in tournaments in hopes to make it to the finals.

“[Debate] gets you included in school and gives them opportunities. Some kinds need to be challenged more and this class is challenging ,” Mifflin said.