Months before they stepped onto the State stage, Collinsville students Haiden Lau and Sophia Woody were already preparing for the challenge ahead.
Like many successful debate teams, their season began long before the first competition. Research, practice rounds and workshops all played a role in helping the pair earn a spot at the UIL Cross-Examination (CX) Debate State Meet in March.
For Woody, a second-year debater, preparation started early.
“We usually start in the summer,” Woody said. “So it started off with our debate coach having us come in during the summer and getting speakers to come demonstrate or explain how CX works since we had some new people join the program.”
The early preparation gave students a chance to learn the year’s topic and begin developing arguments months before competition season began.
“Basically we discussed the topic of the year and how everything fit into a round,” Woody said.
Cross-Examination Debate requires teams of two students to argue both sides of a topic throughout a tournament. Competitors must present evidence, defend their arguments and respond to challenges from opposing teams.
For Lau, who competed in CX Debate for the first time this year, learning the format required both preparation and experience.
“CX Debate is when two teams of two go against each other,” Lau said. “There’ll be a specific general theme where all the affirmative cases are under.”
This year’s topic focused on the Arctic and how the United States could strengthen or expand its involvement in the region.
According to Woody, teams were free to develop a variety of solutions as long as they related to the United States and the Arctic.
“The topic in general was how can a U.S. government significantly strengthen or explore the Arctic,” Woody said.
Lau and Woody’s affirmative case centered on technology and climate research.
“Our case specifically was we were gonna better the Arctic by having a satellite swarm mapping to help with climate change,” Woody said.
Competitors spent the season researching not only their own arguments but also potential attacks from opponents.
To prepare, Woody said the team worked through countless practice rounds.
“We prepare with my teammates,” Woody said. “We discuss who is going to be speaking at what times and what position we’re going to be speaking in. And we practice both affirmative and negative and try to work around what points we might be attacked on.”
As the season progressed, Lau said the team’s confidence grew with every tournament.
“Normally around the first debate I’d be a bit nervous about going,” Lau said. “As the rounds would continue to go on we would get more confident, make better points against other peoples’ cases. Eventually we were able to just walk in there and be confident about what our case was.”
That confidence helped the pair remain positive even after difficult rounds.
“Every time I’d walk out the room thinking, even if we didn’t, that we got the win,” Lau said.
As the season progressed, Lau and Woody advanced through competition after competition, eventually earning a trip to the State Tournament.
For both debaters, qualifying for state came as a surprise.
“I was very shocked,” Lau said. “Before District I was only ever in one tournament before and my team had only gotten one win. I really went into District thinking we would not be doing a lot, because I wasn’t really confident with CX. So it was definitely a shocker to hear we advanced to the finals and would ultimately be going to state.”
Woody shared a similar reaction.
“I was shocked,” she said. “Some of our opponents were very much well trained and have more experience than us.”
Despite facing competitors with years of experience, the Collinsville duo found success through teamwork.
“Seeing how we both really worked as a team and flowed together as a team, it really helped us grab that win to advance to State,” Woody said.
The partnership itself came together unexpectedly.
According to Woody, she originally expected to compete with different debate partners before circumstances changed during the season.
“It was very much last-minute,” Woody said. “I did have two previous debate partners.”
The unexpected pairing quickly developed into an effective team.
“But it was really awesome working with him because we were able to jot down what we wanted to respond to the opponents, and we worked really well,” Woody said.
Each debater had a specific role during rounds.
“He was our first speaker, so he kind of set out the game plan for affirmative,” Woody said. “He would get the case started and I just had to go off of him and what the negation said.”
When competing on the negative side, the pair adjusted their responsibilities.
“For negative he counteracted on their case and then I touched up on how their cases wouldn’t work in the debate world,” Woody said.
Lau said their success stemmed from the trust and support they built throughout the season.
“It’s a big team relationship,” Lau said. “We help each other out with a lot of stuff and we’re up to practicing rounds whenever necessary. Definitely a good team relationship.”
The teamwork proved valuable throughout the season and helped the pair reach one of the biggest stages in Texas academic competition.
When the State tournament finally arrived, both students found themselves balancing nerves and excitement.
“The night before we were in a hotel, and I could not get a lot of sleep that night,” Lau said. “I was very nervous; I only got about four hours of sleep that night. The nerves just continued into the morning.”
As competition drew closer, the reality of the moment began to sink in.
“I remember being very cold that day, and I was just being a little nervous, but also excited,” Woody said.
Part of the excitement came from the opportunity to compete on a college campus alongside some of the state’s top debaters.
“Just to get the speech over with and done and see how we’re doing,” Woody said. “And just to be at that level was just what I saw through my eyes and just seeing all the amazing competition.”
Once the first round began, Lau said the nerves quickly faded.
“As soon as that first round got going, there wasn’t really much to be nervous about,” Lau said. “It was a normal CX round, just with more people from more places. So I got more and more confident in our team’s success after every round.”
While reaching the state tournament was an achievement in itself, Woody said the experience also offered a new perspective.
“At the state level it was really just an amazing experience to get to be competing with such high competition,” Woody said. “Because you have to kind of realize that we’re at the high competition also.”
The realization reinforced just how much work the team had put in throughout the year.
For Collinsville, the state appearance also continues a strong tradition of success in debate. The program has produced multiple state qualifiers in recent years and has built a reputation for developing skilled speakers and competitors.
Looking ahead, Lau hopes the team can continue building on this year’s accomplishments.
“Hopefully we just get better and better at debating,” Lau said. “Next year hopefully we’ll reach state again, maybe we’ll advance further than what we did, and just improvement is my main hope for the upcoming years.”
Woody hopes the program as a whole continues to succeed.
With the team’s debate coach moving on, she believes future students have an opportunity to continue building on the program’s success.
“So hopefully whoever fills that role is ready to take on the talented kids that we have in our program,” Woody said.
She remains optimistic about the future because of the students already involved.
“I hope the program grows exponentially because we do have very strong speakers,” Woody said.
As one of the program’s returning competitors, she hopes future teams will continue carrying the tradition forward.
“Just to continue the legacy of the CX program and the debate program overall would be awesome and just see more success come from it,” Woody said.
For Lau and Woody, qualifying for the UIL State Meet marked the culmination of months of preparation, research and teamwork. Although the season came to an end, the experience provided both students with tools that will carry them forward.
