By Toni Garrard Clay/AISD Communications Specialist
The Athens High School debate team just won state for the second year in a row. Sophomores True Head and Matthew Hernandez took the UIL District 4A state title in CX debate on Saturday.
Sixty teams gathered in Austin Friday to compete in the 4A category. One day, eight rounds and 16 judges later, Athens emerged victorious.
“By quarterfinals, they were the youngest team remaining,” said AHS speech and debate teacher Nicole Cornish. Through every round, the judges’ decisions were in favor of Head and Hernandez. “They didn’t have a single judge vote again them. All their decisions were unanimous.”
After finishing Friday in fourth place, the team felt confident going into the next day’s rounds to face the remaining 16 teams. After their last round, which would determine who took gold and who took silver, Head said they felt confident “but we didn’t want to jinx it.”
“We were sitting in this big auditorium (waiting for the announcement), and the conference director says, ‘In the round with Crandall on the affirmative and Athens on the negative, it was a 3-0 decision …’ And then it was an eternity until he said, ‘for Athens.’ We jumped up, and the three of us hugged.”
Both Head and Hernandez say they plan on repeating the win next year, and they’re likely to have competition from within. Athens also sent a state alternate team: freshmen Jordan Ramirez and Jose Sanchez-Cerillo.
Present at the award ceremony was one half of last year’s championship team, Madalyn Mikkelsen. Mikkelsen’s debate partner, who graduated with her last year, was there as well, via the wonders of video-telephony.
In her five years at Athens High School, Cornish has coached to three state championships. She knows the process well from both sides. Ten years ago, she won the state title in CX (cross examination) debate as a high school junior.
Cornish believes in the importance of debate in preparing a young person to do well after graduation. “Colleges love to see students participating in and being successful in debate. It means they’re articulate, and they’re good researchers. They know they’ll be successful if they’ve been successful in debate.”
CX debate is a form of policy debate in which teams of two argue for or against a resolution calling for a change in federal policy. This year’s resolution calls for increased non-military exploration and/or development of the earth’s oceans. During the debate, one team presents a plan (the affirmative team) and the other argues against it (the negative team). It’s referred to as cross-examination because there is a questioning period after the first four speeches of a debate round.