Debaters headed for national tournament

Mar. 26—Two Permian High School students will be exercising their intellectual muscles in June as they travel to Des Moines, Iowa, for the National Speech and Debate Tournament June 16-24.

Juniors Ashley Sisneros and Sinthia Cope are the two who qualified. There are about 45 students involved, including those outside of Speech and Debate teacher Seth Trevino's class.

"Honestly, I'm really excited. This is the first time that Permian has gone to nationals and NSDA at all and the fact that we did is pretty awesome," Sisneros said.

Cope said they don't have the resolutions yet for nationals, so they are just honing their skills — the way they speak, the way they handle things and their ability to hold arguments.

"We're kind of working on each other, too, because it's our first time being partners," Cope said.

Sisneros said their partnership is working out pretty well so far.

"We think in the same way and we build attacks in the same way," she added.

Cope said she has enjoyed the wins in debate.

"I just like winning and getting close to a team. No matter who you guys are it's really cool," Cope said.

Sisneros said she feels debate has helped her grow intellectually.

"It forces me to think a lot deeper about normal things (like everyday things)," she added.

Cope agreed that debate has let her think deeper and think about things she never would have thought about before.

Sisneros said debate has helped her in a lot of her harder classes and "it's also helped me when I had to advocate for myself professionally."

She added that it has also helped her motivation — if she can do this, she can do anything.

Sisneros said they are feeling the pressure since they are the first to represent Permian at nationals, but not in a bad way.

"It's more of a big motivation to do better," Sisneros added.

Cope said she feels the pressure in a different way. They are representing Permian and the whole region and if they make the top 14, there are scholarships out there.

Trevino said Sisneros and Cope have applied themselves and worked hard. He has had Cope for three years and this is Sisneros' second year.

"No matter what, I can always rely on them to get their work done. Rounds aren't won the day of, they're won the week before with a lot of prep work and going through the evidence that they had prepared; everything they have ready to go. There's really not a doubt in my mind that they are going to go far. It's been great. It's been great just because of their work ethic and their ability to do what it is that they need to do. (It's) definitely made it a lot less stressful for me," Trevino said.

The qualifying tournament was held at Lubbock High School in February. They competed against schools from the very top of the Panhandle all the way to San Angelo where Odessa is the furthest west and then "all the way out east," Trevino said. He estimated that about 35 schools competed.

"You had to be in the top three in order to go and we fought, we advocated and we did what we do and ended up making a little bit of history," Trevino said.

He added that he's confident in his contestants.

"If they consistently work the way that they have ... I think that they do have a shot. I'm going to teach them a couple different styles that we need to adapt to on the national level. But they've been able to pick up things just about as quick as I can put them down. I have a really, really good feeling that we may be able to hit days two and three at nationals," Trevino said.

He added that they will get what they will be debating about at the beginning of May and then they have from May until mid-June to prepare and get ready to go.

"At that point, once we get to the tournament it's just going to be a matter of executing our plan," Trevino said.

He added that they will likely have to fundraise as he doesn't want to make the drive all at once so the students can see some of the country.

"I've been talking a whole lot about trying to go to a zoo or an aquarium. That would be kind of fun because we don't have anything like that here," Trevino said.

Trevino himself was a debater in high school.

"I'm going to be a little bit biased here, but I would argue that speech and debate may be the single most important thing that you can do in high school. I know that's going to sound like tall talk, but what debate teaches you is not only things like research skills, but also teaches you, just like Ashley said earlier, ways to advocate for yourself, (think) critically through things. I think that debate ought to be probably the pinnacle of what education is built off of. I turned down a pretty high paying job in the oilfield so I could come out and coach this so if I didn't believe in it ...," he added.

Trevino said they are doing great things in Permian debate. They made UIL state for the first time in a long time and they did it again this year, and they made state in the Texas Forensics Association meet and made nationals.

"We're just setting a whole lot of records that historically Permian debate has ever seen before, so we're on the way up," Trevino said.