by Michelle Liu, managing editor

Tiger Forensics took three students to the the inaugural UIL State Congress competition on Jan. 7, where senior Shankar Srinivasan and junior Karna Venkatraj advanced to the second round on Jan. 8.

“It was strenuous–seven hours of debate about 15 different topics drained me emotionally and physically,” Venkatraj said.

The two, along with senior Taylor Zhang, were among the 45 5A competitors who were split into two chambers for the preliminary round, where Srinivasan placed 4th and Venkatraj placed 2nd, enabling them to advance to the final round.

The two then debated at the state capitol, where they were filmed live and observed by state politicians such as Texas lieutenant governor David Dewhurst. The debaters argued topics from petroleum subsidies to voting identification laws, according to Venkatraj.

“I thought it would be complete death,” Srinivasan said. “It was actually really fun because there was more strategy that went into this tournament than any other tournament I’ve been in. There was a lot of political partisanship, a lot of alliances, and a lot of mutual hatred–like real Congress.”

Debate coach Roy Rodriguez noted that congressional debate forces students to focus–they have a mere three minutes “to give their speech, three minutes to make their side known, three minutes to do a little bit of refutation and to go against what the other representatives are saying,” he said.

Rodriguez, who was recognized for his role as a district clerk in running the competition at a prior level, noted that while Consol’s participation in the pilot year of the event was significant (in that the UIL rarely introduces new competitions), the act of debating itself is like second nature for his team.

“The debate students at the school excel in Congress. We do this all the time,” Rodriguez said. “This is like our bread and butter.”