AHS has another “first here”.

Grace Ramsey, junior, placed 3rd in this year’s regional UIL Congressional Debate and qualified for the UIL State Congressional Debate Tournament in January. This is AHS’s first time to have a state qualifier in UIL Congressional Debate.

Since the beginning of her high school career, Ramsey has been involved in competitive debate.

“I joined speech and debate my freshman year,” she said. “I have been mostly involved in the speech events, which are competitive acting. I started doing Congressional Debate my sophomore year.”

In the past, Ramsey has successfully competed with other UIL teams which has increased her competitive experience.

“Freshman and sophomore year, I went to regionals in both poetry and informative extemporaneous speaking,” she said. “This is my first year competing in the UIL Congress tournament.”

Before competing, Ramsey felt at ease because of the hours of contemplation and preparation.

“I wasn’t nervous for the tournament,” she said. “I felt very prepared because I had written all of my cases ahead of time and I had some experience before.”

The debate class itself gets students very prepared for competitions like this, but also requires a lot of self-study.

“The class mostly focuses on individual debate versus the group debate that Congress is, [so] I had to do a lot of preparation outside of class; but I felt that [Mrs. Davis] gave me the tools to do that preparation,” Ramsey said.

When winning such a large competition, one is bound to feel excitement and surprise, Ramsey was no different.

“I was honestly super surprised considering that this was my first UIL [Debate] tournament,” she said.

Going to state is a huge deal, but Ramsey feels unnerved about this endeavor.

“I think that once I get there it’ll just [dawn] on me ‘oh, I’m at state now!’” she said. “I’m feeling the pressure, but I don’t think it will be a huge problem. I think that it will help fuel my ability because I’ll be hyped and ready to go because of the nerves.”

The UIL Congress Debate meet will happen between January 11-13.