The Speech and Debate team has almost doubled in size since its last season. 

With this year’s competition season in full swing, the team has 17 members, seven of whom are new, to turn to when it comes to meets. The boost in numbers should give them more depth when it comes to the variety of topics they will take on.

“You do better when you’re part of a team,” said Jackson Kaiser, a senior political science, economics and communication major and team president. “Each member brings something different to the table.”

He said that having different areas of expertise on the team enhances the ability to bounce ideas off of each other. 

The team shrank during the COVID-19 pandemic but continued to compete as it rebuilt.

Despite having a smaller team than most, the Horned Frogs finished fourth at last year’s national competition and broke the school record for highest team placement. 

Vice president Cadence Jones, a junior double majoring in astrophysics and philosophy said this year’s bigger team should give them an advantage to potentially place higher.

Kaiser and Jones both said that the only potential downside to the larger number is logistics. With more people on the team, coordinating practices and schedules can be challenging, but Kaiser said he finds it “worth it.” 

First-year student Mason Hatfield’s strength is poetry and interpretation. Hatfield, an entrepreneurship and innovation major, said he is “honored” to have been selected for the team and he’s happy about its size. “The more, the merrier,” Hatfiled said, adding the expansion will provide “more opportunity, more growth and more talent.”  

The Speech and Debate team will travel to six tournaments this year. They competed in their first competition the weekend of Oct. 4 in Dallas and this weekend, they travel to compete at Abilene Christian University.