Story by All-State journalism student Kate Read

When you enter the high school and look at the rows of banners lining the entry halls to celebrate student success, one program stands out. Princeton’s speech and debate, through its ups and downs, remains a program of legacy and looks toward a strong year and an even stronger future. 

For 2024-2025, Princeton speech and debate has grown by 27 with a large number of students traveling to the senior high school from Lovelady for the classes. 

“I think that the future of this program is really positive,” Heather Stringer, UIL academic coordinator and director of debate, said. “We like for our varsity competitors to train our novice competitors who then become varsity and train our new novices, and so the program doesn’t make any sweeping changes, but I think that we’re going to continue growing in size and through buy-in that students are able to give us.”

Of the 31 novices who joined this year and the 14 who stayed, about 30 are freshmen and sophomores who come from Lovelady. Ms. Stringer said she is excited about the potential of the younger kids. 

“One of my friends was in debate and that’s why I joined, but the reason I stayed in debate is because it's really engaging and fun,” sophomore Vaishnavi Avadoota said. “It opens new opportunities. I’ve been in debate for two months and I’ve learned so much from it already.”

Speech and debate students participate in four debate events, such as policy debate or congress, and nine speech events, like dramatic interpretation, at tournaments throughout the year.

“I think the thing that has changed now as opposed to in the past, is that students are able to become a little bit more individualized in their events,”  Stringer said. “Because we have so many students who are involved, I can allow students to focus on just one or maybe two events as opposed to when you’re a small program or you have few students you might need to have them in five or six events to have them all covered.”

However, new students are not the only way the program has grown recently.

“When I first took over the program, our interp program, the oral reading and interpretive events, sort of the more theatrical events of speech and debate, pretty much died,” Stringer said. “With adding (teacher Amanda) McClure into the program, she’s been able to help us give the interp side more focus. So we’ve really seen that half of the program grow so that we’re no longer just Princeton debate, but now we can really be called Princeton speech and debate and mean it.”

McClure specializes as the speech coach for the program, and she is also an English teacher at the high school.

“I actually did not do this in high school,” McClure said. “This is my second year teaching this, and it seemed like something interesting and something that could be a lot of fun. They needed someone to teach English and interp, so I jumped at it.”

According to 11-year debate coach, Matthew Riggins, the future of the program looks bright with all the new freshmen joining and the varsity who are here now to lead them.

“I would say this year in particular it seems there's a closer bond even with younger kids,” Riggins said. “The older kids are trying to make it more welcoming and fun for the younger kids so that they enjoy their time in the program, which hasn’t always been the case.”

Sophomore Emma Parker, who is starting her second year in the program, said debate is preparing her for the future through the skills she has learned.

“I’ve learned to become a more confident speaker when talking to teachers or other adults,” Emma said. “Also during my time at summer camp for debate, I’ve learned about other people and met some cool people that can help me on my path for becoming a lawyer.”

Senior Tyler Phillips, who placed 4th in both persuasive speaking and congress at UIL state meets in the spring, has focused not only on continuing his success this year but also on mentoring the novices and building for the future.

“I think the family values that this program has are unparalleled to any group that I’ve been around,” Tyler said. “It feels like a true family where everyone can get along and appreciate each other's commitment to the activity.”