By Kara Hallam, BubbleLife Intern

The Coppell High School debate team started from humble beginnings of just 20 students and as of this year has risen to over a 120 kids. Within the past two years the growing team has started up a booster club again and has hosted some of their first fundraisers.

The CHS debate team is ranked third in North Texas based off the overall number of points the team has gained. Students on the team who have placed in regional tournaments and made it into state and national competitions have even received college scholarships for their debate skills.

“I am really proud to see the continued success that the team has had since I was a competitor," CHS student teacher Brian Bloss said. 

Bloss is a debate team alumni who was the first CHS debate student to qualify for the high school national speech and debate tournament in 2004, for individual events. He received a four-year scholarship to Western Kentucky University and has worked for the presidential campaigns of Mitt Romney and Barack Obama and now works as a student teacher for CHS’s debate coach, Glenda Ferguson.

Bloss helps coach the debate students, 12 of whom have advanced to the state tournament which will take place over spring break this year.

Now that the team has gotten so large the school has decided to offer two debate classes one for competitive debaters and one for those trying to obtain their speech credit. Although the team has been around for decades, the growth spurt has been fairly recent. 

“High school these days is extremely competitive. I feel like this competitive high school environment has made so many students join debate because students see the team as a resume or skill booster or a chance to use their competitive skills in an academic environment,” CHS debate team Vice President Seema Patel said

Patel is also one of the three who has initiated one of the first few CHS debate fundraisers in several years. Along with her, senior Jackie Carpenter and junior Cassidy Rupley lead the CHS fundraiser for Debate Darling t-shirts.

“Jackie and Cassidy came up with the idea, but once I heard about it I jumped on board because every club or sport or extracurricular has something like a 'debate darling,'” Patel said.

The idea of the fundraiser is very similar to the soccer team’s Sideline Psychos. Members of these teams have their friends buy t-shirts sponsored by the club with the last name of that member on the shirt and they wear them the day of competitions. The first fundraiser raised over five hundred hundred dollars and this year they had a nearly 50% increase in participation.

All this money goes towards the debate team’s travel and entry fees for competitions. The team estimates it must earn $1,500 each year. 

The debate team has had fundraisers in the past but Debate Darlings t-shirts was one of the first continuous projects of the team. This fundraiser also inspired the team to start another one in which they sell poinsettiasduring the winter holiday season.  

Just like the fundraisers, the debate team had had a booster club in the past but it was not until most recently had it become a frequent and official part of the debate team. Just last year the debate team booster club was officially approved by CHS. The booster club was founded by Brenda Hendrix, who is the mother of one of the debate students who qualified for the state tournament this year, senior Noah Hendrix.

The debate booster club consists of parents of debate students and they organize the fundraising techniques for the debate team.

The debate team’s new growth has been accounted for with recent fundraiser’s and the confirmation of a booster club. The team hopes to continue its success and serve an outlet for those students looking to better their speaking and competitive skills.