Albany UIL participants to compete March 24

By Sandy Morris

The sophomore Cross Examination debate team of Leddie Leech and Ella Webb competed in the state meet on Monday, March 15.

The team debated four rounds but did not make the finals held on Tuesday. 

Sponsor Jenny Scott said it was a long day for the girls, but they never quit.

“The state meet was held virtually rather than face-to-face like the district meet, so the girls had a learning curve from the start,” said Scott. “They adjusted well and even though they were exhausted by the last round, they finished strong. I really feel like their last debate was their best of the day.”

While the judges’ critiques had not been posted at press time, Scott said the speaker points that were available were high for the team.

“Because the girls’ speaker points were high, we know their ability to communicate is strong,” Scott said.

There were a total of 20 teams competing with eight teams advancing to the finals.

Out of the four teams that Leech and Webb debated, only one team advanced to the finals. 

Scott said the girls felt good about their efforts and learned different techniques in reasoning and arguments. 

The topic for this year’s competition was reform in the criminal justice system, and the team had to be prepared to argue both the affirmative and the negative for any topic they were given.

“The girls had such a wide span of topics yesterday,” said Scott. “They debated on everything from the demilitarization of police all the way to the legalization of marijuana. We would get a text 30 minutes before the debate letting us know who we would be debating and whether we would be the affirmative or the negative side of the argument, but we wouldn’t know the resolution until the debate began.”

Scott said the sophomores plan to continue to debate in the future and now have a better idea of how to prepare as far as gathering arguments and evidence to different styles of debate.

UIL Academic

District Meet

Albany High School will take a total of 26 students, including alternates, to the District 10-2A University Interscholastic League academic meet scheduled next week on Wednesday, March 24.

The meet will be held face-to-face at Stamford High School, which is a change from the previous meets this year that have been held virtually.

UIL academic sponsor Rick Davis said while the virtual meets were not the same as competing in person, they still provided an opportunity to prepare for district competition.

“The virtual meets did allow the kids to be challenged and to practice on their contests,” said Davis. “We have several students I expect to place in multiple contests. I will be surprised if we don’t have a dozen kids who place and advance on to regionals.”

Albany students are entered in several events including Calculator Applications, Current Issues, Copy Editing, Editorial Writing, Feature Writing, Headline Writing, Mathematics, Number Sense, News Writing, Ready Writing, Science, Social Studies, and Spelling and Vocabulary.

Students representing Albany at the meet include Sarah Cotter, Morgan Garcia, Jackson Chapman, Corbin Roberts, Ella Webb, William Webb, Luke Ivy, Ashley Richards, Tana Thompson, Susan Cormack, Hannah Trail, Tyler Everitt, Ashley Richards, Mayson Garcia, Sidney Bartee, Clara Holson, Paige Picquet, Carli Edgar, Jaden Bean, Jaci Chapman, Kiana Roberson, Robyn Trail, Taren Farmer, Ryan Mark, Brooks Neece, Michael Sadler, Brooke Kayga, and Sidney Russell.

District 10-2A includes Anson, Cisco, Hamlin, Haskell, Hawley, and Stamford.