The Eagle Edge CX Debate team looked through evidence on their laptops to prepare for UIL Debate Districts. Debaters junior Faysal Anis, senior Berryman Toler, senior Emir Humzah, sophomore Jacob Redmond, senior Zulqarnain Sourathia and junior Tucker Smith all competed at UIL CX Districts at Berkner High School, placing in top eight in the district.
“CX debate is more evidence-heavy and preparation-worthy than any other debate format,” Toler said. “I do more preparation for CX than I’ve ever do for anything else. In order to debate well, we have to extensively know everything about United States economic engagement in Latin America, which is the topic for this year.”
The CX debaters competed against schools like Dallas Law Magnet, Sunset and Berkner. Anis and Humza placed fourth and are the second alternate to UIL CX State, which will be held in Austin, Texas.
“Our greatest weakness was the one form of argumentation we didn’t prepare for, so we lost by one ballot,” Anis said. “The competition was challenging because the schools brought on crazy arguments, but we were prepared for most of it. Law Magnet was a pain, as their arguments were very unique, but overall it was a great experience.”
While the team may not be directly advancing to state for UIL, Debate coach Michael Bolen said he has high hopes for the upcoming National Speech and Debate Association qualifying tournament.
“The National qualifying tournament is the biggest tournament of the year for most of these kids,” Coach Bolen said. “We qualified many competitors to advance last year to the National Tournament, and we plan on following that success.”