CISD Speech and Debate Takes the National Championship!

This week on Minute with the Mayor, check out how this last-minute pair of debaters from Southlake Carroll became the first Texans to bring home the national championship for Public Forum Debate.

There’s an old saying that two minds are better than one, and when you think of iconic duos, you may think of the work best done in pairs – Batman and Robin, Mario and Luigi, Kobe and Shaq, etc., but these Dragons made history of their own after becoming debate national champions.

After honoring Dragons Anbu Subramanian and Bailey Koh at the most recent City Council meeting, Mayor Pro Tem Shawn McCaskill and Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Kathy Talley met with CISD Debate Coach Anthony Brown to get the details about this incredible Southlake victory.

Brown mentioned that these students worked incredibly hard to beat out over 2,500 other students, but their most recent entry to the national championship was a surprise resulting from happenstance!

“Actually, they were in two different partnerships originally, and we had to kind of makeshift a partnership for last summer’s nationals which then ended up with a sixth-place finish for these students. They auto-qualified for this year’s nationals and kind of just went for the fun of it and ended up as national champions,” said Brown.

Deputy Mayor Pro Tem Talley mentioned that when we think of excellence and championships, we oftentimes associate them with sports, but we also have an abundance of academic champions in Southlake.

Brown took the time to recognize other students in groups like DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), BPA (Business Professionals of America), Robotics, and more.

Mayor Pro Tem McCaskill made sure to acknowledge how important this victory is for the community, and he was able to honor the students with a proclamation at the most recent City Council meeting that named August 1, 2023, as Southlake Carroll Speech and Debate Team Day.

To watch the full episode of Minute with the Mayor, click below.