The speech and debate team will be heading to Brentwood High School on March 2 for their regional competition. They will be competing with most schools in the St. Louis area that share the MSHSAA district. The team is looking forward to competing.

“A lot of people means you have a lot of good competition,” varsity member Uma Upamaka said. “You can see if you need to improve, what you need to improve on so you can compete with them. Or if you’re doing well, you know what to continue doing.”

Their first year members, or novices, have been doing well so far this year. They’ve made great progress and kept up with varsity members.

“Our varsity members are pretty well prepared,” Upamaka said. “Our novice members are gonna do really well too. I’ve seen them since the beginning of the year, and they’ve improved a lot. They we’re good to begin with, but they’re doing really well this year. It’s such a leap within these couple of months.”

The team attributes their successful work this year to the community they’ve built through the long practices spent together.

“I really like hanging out with people who are like-minded, who are into politics like me,” Co-Vice President Suhas Andavolu said. “I also like talking to my friends that I’m competing with at other schools as well. It’s a fun experience and you get to learn a lot.”