Instead of spending their summer relaxing, four McCallum students will step into the National Speech and Debate Association’s (NSDA) annual national tournament.
From June 14 to June 19, senior Noble Pierce, junior Francis Azarian, junior Paityn Jones and junior Tyson Thompson will join roughly 7,000 students from 1,500 schools across the country all competing for a national title. Of McCallum’s contestants, Pierce is the only returning member to participate in the tournament.
Pierce, a dramatic interpretation competitor with the cutting “For Such A Time As This” by Sharon Risher, grew into the program because of a connection to the individuals who established the team before them.
“I had become friends with the founding fathers of our program one random lunch day,” Pierce said. “These were the seniors who took the steps to truly develop the debate program and I was in awe of their dedication and their dreams. Having them as guides and stars in my life fueled me to want the same. I wanted to bathe in the glory and freedom that they had built—and I’d like to think that I’m finally there.”
After being inspired by the program and its foundational members, Pierce took up a member position and began adapting to the relatively new environment. With a bit of background in acting from middle school, Pierce was able to be comfortable and confident with speaking, but didn’t fully recognize how different the abilities were. Along with navigating a new skill, Pierce also faced other struggles in their first year.
“Last year was actually my first year competing in speech,” Pierce said. “We had no speech coach and no one else on the team who had really committed to doing speech. Basically, I had to teach everything to myself. Coach Stockton had only known the bare basics and helped me the best of his ability, but it was frankly quite hard. I was given a speech and I did my best to study and master it and to my surprise, I would go on to be the first on the McCallum debate team to qualify for state.
This year, the team gained a new coach, Sade May, in addition to coach and history teacher Vaughn Stockton, who specializes in speech. With the extra experience, knowledge and support, Pierce saw immense improvement in themself and other students
“At the beginning of this year I was given the title of speech captain and it is now my job to teach all of the new kids who are interested in speech,” Pierce said. “Although there weren’t that many, it was still difficult as I had only known things about my own event and nothing about the others so I tried my best. I could never be more proud of how we have grown.”
After being appointed as a speech coach, Pierce bonded with their ‘speech little brother,’ junior Francis Azarian, another national-bound member.
“It was nice having someone so willing to take advice, even if I didn’t really know what I was talking about,” Pierce said. “Watching him grow as a speaker is a privilege. In a matter of months he had reached my level of speech and it was fantastic. We jokingly bicker about who is the better of us two and, despite that, I know he has a deep respect for me. He had built confidence and charm, and I keep saying it but ‘proud’ holds too little weight for what he has done. He is my hope and my legacy and I will forever be grateful that he decided to join the team.”
As Pierce’s mentee, Azarian shares a similar sentiment, recalling that qualifying for nationals together at the Texas Forensic Association’s (TFA) State Tournament marked a defining moment for the duo.
“We wanted it to be competitive,” Azarian said. “We didn’t do that many extracurricular activities [at the tournament], so we were really either at the hotel practicing, getting food or at the high school competing. I’m really proud of us for placing. We’re both really competitive in nature, especially with this, so we both wanted to go farther.”
Secretary of the team, junior Mia Foster, expressed her admiration for the four qualifiers, praising their commitment and persistence.
“It is extremely hard to get to state, nonetheless nationals,” Foster said. “It takes going to tournaments every single weekend and really knowing your stuff. Those students showed up to every single practice, they were completely memorized in what they did and their events just came second-hand to them.”
Foster explained how these four students are not only creating history at the school, but a path for future McCallum speakers and debaters to appreciate and value.
“It really is a landmark moment in our team,” Foster said. “We are still new and developing what works for us so we are extremely proud of our four national and state qualifiers and we’ll be forever proud of them.”
Azarian emphasized that the season is not over yet. Though there is a period of time full of practice and preparation, the team has to remember to stay sharp and ambitious.
“The hope is to win,” Azarian said. “There is a lot of work to do to get to that point. Since right now, we pretty much just got back from state and nationals isn’t until June after school ends. We’re planning on taking a month off until late April when we’ll start practicing every Tuesday and Thursday, just getting ready for nationals. It’s just a lot of practice.”
In Foster’s perspective, though the team is preparing to compete, the focus goes beyond winning.
“Our team’s goal is to keep showing up to practices and to keep doing what we love,” Foster said. “It’s not necessarily about the wins, but it’s what we’re getting out of it.”