Clear Lake High School - September 5-6
Clear Brook speakers and debaters returned from their first meet of the year which was held at Clear Lake High School this past weekend. At the end of two long days, the World Schools Debate team comprised of Alaina Van, Alim Merchant and Kendrick Toennies bested their opponent in finals on a 2-1 panel decision to take first place and earn their first six points toward their state qualifying goal. Extemporaneous speakers Khang Ngo, Emily Joseph and Elaina Joseph also walked away winners with 1st, 2nd and 6th place finishes respectively earning six, four and one points in that same order. The last contingent of the team who also performed with great skill were those in more creative events. Heading up this effort was Kelyn Tran, an Informative Speaker and team senior who placed 3rd and earned three points followed by Eman Ahmed in Program of Oral Interpretation who earned four points by placing 2nd and Sara Sijo who placed 2nd and earned four points as well in Dramatic Interpretation. All of these wins catapulted the team to a 2nd place over Sweepstakes finish!
Elkins High School - September 19
The Wolverine Speech & Debate team were out for their second time this season returning with some impressive results yet again! The team attended Elkins High School's annual individual qualifying tournament after which the team has - yet again - the distinction of being able to claim CCISD's first Texas Forensics Association's state qualifier! This honor was bestowed upon Emily Joseph who walked away with a 1st place finish in Domestic Extemporaneous Speaking, an event that affords participants a thirty minute preparation window to create a seven minute speech over a randomly chosen current event topic. After three rounds, she bested more than thirty competitors to walk away with this honor. Additionally, Emily's sister Elaina Joseph accomplished the same feat, placing 1st in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking. This finish brings Elaina more than half way to her state qualification. Additional speakers in these events include Khang Ngo and Kendrick Toennies who both placed 4th in Domestic and Foreign Extemp, respectively, adding to their impressive state totals of nine and two. In addition to these wins, the more creative side of the team, comprised this weekend of Kelyn Tran, Sara Sijo and Sophia Merchant placed in finals as well! Kelyn placed 4th in Informative Speaking, ending in a state total of five points while Sara and Sophia placed 4th and 6th in Dramatic Interpretation, bringing their totals to six and one points respectively. Semi-finalists this weekend also included Hania Khan and novice team member Zaahid Mansoor.
Memorial Spring Woods Swing - September 26-27
Hitting the road again this past weekend, September 26-27, the team attended the 20th annual Memorial Spring Woods Swing - two tournaments in one! This weekend, the team's speakers and actors came out on top! At the end of day one of the tournament, both Dramatic Interpretation performers Sara Sijo and Sophia Merchant fought their way to the final round where they came out victorious with a second and fifth place finish respectively. In addition, Elaina Joseph placed second overall in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking while Surabhi Kashyap placed 6th in her event, Original Oratory. On day two of the tournament, Sophia advanced to finals again with two first place finishes in prelims and semis and placed fourth overall! In additional, team senior Kelyn Tran took two ones in her first two rounds as well and landed sixth in finals in Informative Speaking. All in, these young women walked away with a total of thirteen state points which they share. The next two closest qualifiers for the annual state tournament are Sara Sijo who sits at ten and Elaina Joseph who is now at eleven. The team's novices were also represented admirably by Nashmia Rahman who fought her way to the semi-final round or Original Oratory at her first tournament speaking passionately about internalized ableism and just missed the finals by one rank.
Atascocita High School - October 17-18
Clear Brook speakers and debaters once again found success the weekend of October 17th and 18th at their fourth tournament of the season at Atascocita High School! Beginning on Friday night, Extemporaneous Speaking competitors Elaina Joseph, Khang Ngo and novice Zaahid Mansoor advanced to the semi-final bracket with Elaina edging her way to finals and a second place overall finish with panel ranks of 1, 1 and 4! This earned her six more state points which makes Elaina the team's latest state qualifier! In addition, after taking first place in her first two rounds, Dramatic Interp competitor Sophia Merchant fought her way to finals and picked up one additional state point after placing sixth overall at the meet. Then on Saturday as the debate portion opened, Brook fielded three World Schools Debate teams and after three rounds of debate, all three advanced to the quarter final bracket. After this round, two advanced to the semi-final bracket which resulted in the team of Alim Merchant, Kendrick Toennies and Alaina Van picking up two points in quarter finals for a total of eight so far this season. During semi-finals, Brook's two remaining teams both faced off against private school Northland Christian, teams who are partially comprised of national level members. This was where both Brook teams unfortunately took a loss but were still lauded as the tournament's third place overall winners. The end result was that each team's members individually walked away with four points - a great feat! The first team who lost on a 2-1 decision was the team comprised of Elaina Joseph, Emily Joseph, Khang Ngo and Victoria Constanza. The second team was made up of all first time competitors: Jackson Barnett, Hania Khan, Luke Wills and Jaza Sheikh. All in all, the team returned with one state qualifer and 38 state points for their running total!
Grand Oaks High School - October 31-November 1
While other students were out being tricked on Halloween, a small contingent of the Wolverine Speech & Debate team brought home treats to Clear Brook in the form of state qualifications from Grand Oaks High School! Friday night saw speakers out competing in Extemporaneous Speaking - an event steeped in current event knowledge as well as Information Speaking which is an event that is focused on a personal connection to a topic that students want their listeners to take to heart. And heart was brought to both! Senior Kelyn Tran, a four year student of Clear Brook's team began her evening with six of her needed 12 points to attend the state meet in March. At the end of the evening she wowed her judge panel and walked away with two ranks of one and one rank of two about her ten minute speech about the uniqueness of crocheting! With this, she stitched together a 1st place finish which qualifies her for state!
But debaters were not to be outdone. At the end of three arduous preliminary rounds that began with the impacts of surge pricing, the team of Elaina Joseph, Emily Joseph, Victoria Constanza and Hania Khan fought their way through semis and to the final round where they won on a 3-0 decision against Westchester International. They articulated cogent and complex arguments about the merits of space exploration over deep sea exploration. And finally, novice member Zaahid Mansoor also fought his way to the final round of Novice Extemp where he placed 6th overall! These wins brings the team to a total of seven qualifications among five members with at least five more waiting in the wings!
But debaters were not to be outdone. At the end of three arduous preliminary rounds that began with the impacts of surge pricing, the team of Elaina Joseph, Emily Joseph, Victoria Constanza and Hania Khan fought their way through semis and to the final round where they won on a 3-0 decision against Westchester International. They articulated cogent and complex arguments about the merits of space exploration over deep sea exploration. And finally, novice member Zaahid Mansoor also fought his way to the final round of Novice Extemp where he placed 6th overall! These wins brings the team to a total of seven qualifications among five members with at least five more waiting in the wings!
Spring High School - December 5-6
The weekend of December 5-6 saw a small contingent of Wolverine speakers at Spring High School flexing their verbal muscle in a host of events ranging from Original Oratory and Extemporaneous Speaking to Dramatic Interpretation. Second year memeber Brianna DeLeon found seized first place in her preliminary round while fellow teammate Suven Dhakal landed in 3rd which propelled both to the semi-final round. Brianna missed the final round by just one rank and both are looking to better their odds after great feedback as they attend future meets this semester. After two rounds of preliminary competition, novice extemporaneous speakers Lydia Hartless and Ricki Fort found themselves in the final round where Ricki walked away with a third place finish while Lydia took home 6th place! And in Dramatic Interpretation, sophomore member Sophia Merchant came away ranked 5th which earned her one additional point toward her state goal of twelve. She now stands at seven as she continues her quest to state competition!
