January 2026 Newsletter
Hello and Happy New Year!
I hope everyone had a lovely winter holiday season!
We kicked off a super busy spring semester with an overnight in San Antonio and a virtual tournament last weekend! We are nearing the end of the Texas Forensic Association (TFA)* competition season and have a lot on the calendar for January and February! I've got lots of great info and updates to share here!
December Student Success Spotlight!
Rock Hill online 12/6
- Klein broke to extemp semis!
Dripping Springs - 12/12-13
- Lizzy, 5th place info and 3rd place novice extemp!
- Katherine, novice extemp semis!
- Zay and Elliott, novice congress finalists!
- The novice World Schools team of Eva, Jazaa, Sullivan, Isaac, and Joey won 2 of their 3 prelims!
- The novice World Schools debater Sean was the highest-ranked novice WSD speaker!
- The novice World Schools team of Tessa, Anji, and Maddie advanced to finals and won on a 3-0 decision!
- Emmy was a congress finalist!
- Zoe T and Omar were extemp semifinalists!
After School Practice
As a reminder, all varsity members are expected to spend 1 hour a week *outside* of the class period preparing for competition.
After-school practice is optional for novices (but strongly encouraged, especially on tournament weeks).
January after-school practice schedule (4:35 - 5:40pm):
Tuesday, January 12th
Wednesday, January 13th
Tuesday, January 20th
Wednesday, January 28th
January Competition Schedule
(Google Calendar link here!)
McNeil - January 17th
Sign-up was due on Saturday, 1/10. Only 4 students registered for carpool so I'll be driving them and don't need any parent volunteers at this time for driving (but I'll let y'all know if that changes!)
I am in need of 3 parent/volunteer judges for speech! Please let me know ASAP if you're interested in judging!
Travel: Emory Tournament - January 22nd - 26th
Students attending received an email today with reminders!
Limited Entry: O'Connor/Brandeis Swing - January 30th - 31st
This tournament will be limited to students who have earned substantial TFA points. Interested students should reach out to Coach Contreras in person or via email/Slack to discuss attendance!
February Events
Travel update: We are not longer going to the Bellaire tournament.
Club Photos! - February 3rd at 2:20pm
Virtual: Midway TFA - February 7th
Open to all varsity members! This is the last TFA-qualifying tournament of the season.
Travel: Harvard University - February 13th - 17th
Information has already been sent out to attendees.
Limited Entry: TOC Digital Series - February 20-21st
TOC bid seekers only! Interested students should reach out to Contreras.
Limited Entry: NSDA District/National Qualifying tournament - February 27th - 28th
This is our district's national tournament qualifier. I can enter a limited number of students in each event and will enter based on seniority and interest in attending nationals.
Nationals is held every year over a week in June. This year, it's in Richmond, Virginia! More information will be shared at the start of February.
Novices will be allowed to enter but only if they've earned 25 merit points (students can check on speechanddebate.org to see their merit points!) and if spots are available after varsity members sign up. Novices are also allowed to attend nationals! If students attend all 4 years of high school, they earn a special trophy from the National Speech and Debate Association!
February Fundraising!
Trivia Night
More details coming soon but bookmark Tuesday, February 10th for the debate team's 3rd annual trivia night!!
Student Fundraising
More information will be shared about this in the coming weeks but we are getting ready to launch our fundraising campaign! Fundraising is critical for an organization of this size and ambition. In past years, the booster club has been able to use funds for student flight/fee scholarships to travel, to subsidize student travel, and even to cover all student hotel costs for Nationals 2025!
All students will be expected to help with fundraising.
There will be a few options for students to get involved- reaching out to companies for sponsorship opportunities or donations for our trivia night raffles and Showcase raffles (more info on Showcase coming after spring break!), and reaching out to friends and family members for donations!
If you have ideas for fundraising, please reach out!
While we're on the note of forward thinking - summer camp and the 2026-27 school year.
Course selection for the 2026-27 school year will start at the end of February. Coach will talk to students about this during class.
The student officer process will also start after Spring Break!
And, summer camp!
Many of you will remember our back-to-school camp in August. I'll share more information about it towards the end of the semester.
But there are other speech and debate camps in late June, July, and early August! I would highly recommend that students who want to continue with debate next year attend a speech and debate camp this summer! I'm going to share some Texas recommendations below. If you're interested in sending your student out of state to camp, I also have suggestions for that!!
I also have some camps I would *not* recommend, but I know better than to put that into writing, so please reach out if you'd like that information!
My recommendations:
- Victory Briefs Institute - VBI- (full disclosure: I worked for this camp in an administrative role the last two summers but that's why I know they're good!) for Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas debates. They'll have a session at UT this summer! [Link here]
- Texas Debate Collective -TDC- for World Schools debate and Lincoln Douglas debate. This camp is awesome because they offer TONS of financial aid! [Link here]
- UT's National Institute of Forensics - UTNIF - for interpa or congress [Link here]
- Mean Green at UNT for Congress [Link here]
If you're interested in sending your student and have any questions, please reach out! I can also help you get in contact with directors to talk scholarships and financial aid options, if that makes attending camp easier. Summer speech and debate camp really makes a difference in a student's competitive success and is also just really fun!
Post-Season Competition
Our Post-Season Competition will be starting soon! Post Season Competitions are the culmination of months of hard work from our students and these tournaments are restricted to those who qualify through exceptional performance at local or national tournaments.
Competitions include TFA State in March (Dallas), the Tournament of Champions in April (Kentucky), and NSDA Nationals in June (Virginia).
More information can be found on our website's FAQ section here!
Thanks so much for catching up with me and the speech and debate team!
Please let me know if you have any questions, fundraising ideas, or feedback on the website. Don't forget to follow our instagram (@ andersonspeechdebate) to see photos of our amazing team and celebrate these kids!
And a fun fact to sign off with- this month, our trip to Emory will mark my 70th tournament with the team as a coach! I think there are technically a few more that I coached at without judging but Emory is the 70th on my tabroom page in my four years at Anderson. Thank you to this community for making these four years so interesting, fun, exciting, and full of learning and support!!
Stay warm (or cool, depending on the day!)
Coach El Contreras
el.contreras@austinisd.org