October 2025
It feels like the month is flying by! We had a lot going on at the end of September so thank you for your patience in waiting for my newsletter this month!
I have to start this email with an enormous THANK YOU!
Thank you all so much for all that you did to make the Trojan Classic 2025 so successful. Thank you for donating items, money, and time to us, whether as concessions runners, Friday night set-up crew, hospitality hosts, or judging. Thank you all so much for your help!
This year at our tournament, we were able to earn almost $7000! This has doubled the budget allocated to us by Austin ISD and will be a significant help in enabling us to attend tournaments in town and around the country this year.
Thank you to the Booster Club!
Teri Taylor
Hope Benko
Beth Engelking
Todd Fine
Mina Kumar
Danor Padden
Betsy Johnson
Thank you to Julie Joe, whose daughter graduated in May, but still took the time to help us run an amazing hospitality room!
Shout out to Kaamileh Hamid, who hand-made and donated many delicious items to our hospitality room! I’m still thinking about the mushroom galette!
A HUGE thank you to our volunteer judges!! We had some hired judges cancel on Friday night, and we could never have run such an efficient and amazing competition without you all.
And thank you to all our donors, volunteers, and judges!
Sean Tenney
Nadia Budhiwan
Jeff Russell
Stuart Laves
Jami Turner
Katherine Dombromski
Kylie Hall
Sean Doyle
Pam Paxton von Hippel
Neel Sarkar
Anders Rabing Noes
Amy Chandler
Charlotte Trafton
Tracey Fine
Marita Frackiowiak
Dennis Dy
Shazia Lloyd
Esam Fadhel
Aubrey Johnson
Gretchen Doyle
Sean Doyle
Erica Flynn
Andrew Benko
Markus Lindelow
Cynthia Hamilton
Pam Wright
Terry Shaw
Kate Watson
Leshia Crotty
Melissa Hsieh
Thomas Pollan
Alex Hall
Jerri Imhof
Elizabeth Fitzgerald
Angelica Herrera
Misty McLemore
Mark Wiesner
Amanda Sencenbaugh
September Student Success Spotlight!
At the Anderson/Hendrickson Swing (Trojan Classic) tournament, Harry, Jazaa, and Mads competed for the first time!
Alexis advanced to the finals of Humorous Interpretation, earning her first points towards TFA State
Interested in learning more about TFA State and how qualification works? Visit our website! On the “About Us” page, there is a list of Frequently Asked Questions.
You can also read about past tournament results, see photos of the team, find links to the calendar, and read my newsletter archives!
Also, if there are any questions you’d like to see answered on the FAQ page, please let me know!
Visit Our Website!
Merch has arrived! Students can pick it up after school or at lunch starting next week. Merch must be paid for before it’s picked up.
I also have leftover merch from last year available for purchase at a discount!
PayPal - @AHSSpeechDebate
Zelle - treasurer@andersonspeechdebate.org
Check addressed to “Debate Boosters” and sent to school with your student or mailed to Anderson - 8403 Mesa Dr, Austin, TX, 78759
October Events:
Westlake Tournament - October 17th and 18th
The informational Email went out earlier this week
If your student would like to watch rounds, please have them email or Slack message me so we can coordinate a time for them to arrive!
Teacher Conference Day - October 20th
All Anderson teachers will have several hours of conference blocks on Monday. I don’t teach a core subject so I don’t have many sign-ups (just 1 as of today!) so if you’d like to schedule a 10-minute long in-person or virtual conference to discuss speech and debate, you can sign up here:
Team Bonding - October 25th
Costume party at the Russell Residence! The address will be posted on Blend next week!
November Events:
UIL Congress 11/6
I’ll be taking a small group of students to compete at the UIL Congress District Tournament in Lexington.
Virtual Bowie/Lampasas Swing 11/7-8
This tournament will only be open to varsity students because it is fully online. Students competing will need to compete from home on Friday and Saturday. Students will be able to enter either or both sides. The Lampasas side will be all day on Friday and the Bowie side will be all day on Saturday.
Rouse 11/15
Open to everyone!
We’ll need lots of parent volunteers to drive our carpool and judge on Saturday, November 15th at Rouse High School.
McCallum 11/22
Open to everyone!
We’ll need lots of parent volunteers to drive our carpool and judge on Saturday, November 22nd at McCallum High School.
Dues Reminder -
Please pay or set up a payment plan by November 1st
Even with our fundraising and district budget, we still require dues to help our team! We use dues to get to and pay for competitions, cover the cost of custodians for events and substitutes, and pay for memberships to the state and national debate honor societies.
Pay Via:
PayPal - @AHSSpeechDebate
Zelle - treasurer@andersonspeechdebate.org
Check addressed to “Debate Boosters” and sent to school with your student or mailed to Anderson - 8403 Mesa Dr, Austin, TX, 78759
Follow the team on Instagram to see photos and updates from our competition season!
@ AndersonSpeechDebate
Thanks for reading! As always, please email me at el.contreras@austinisd.org with any questions, fundraising ideas, or concerns.
Coach Contreras