March 13 to the 17, the Loretto Academy Speech and Debate team took three girls to state competition in Houston, TX.

The team began with current senior and captain Sofia Almanzan in 2015, when she decided she wanted to bring speech and debate to Loretto.

Loretto had not previously had a team until then freshman Sofia decided she wanted to bring something new that she was passionate about.

The senior said, “I did it because I loved speech and debate. It was my safe haven and I knew that I wouldn’t be the same person if I hadn’t done it.

I really wanted more girls to do it because it gives you a sense of confidence that you don’t get doing anything else”.

After a year of having an official team, the endeavor only grew to be an elective at Loretto, with a total of 15 girls now in the class.

The three girls included sophomores Barbara Castillo and Illiana Moreno, and senior Sofia Almanzan.

Barbara Castillo has been apart of the speech and debate team for 2 years and qualified for state in the category oratory.

Illiana Castillo has also been competing for 2 years in the prose category.

Sofia Almanzan qualified in oratory, domestic extemporaneous speaking, and foreign extemporaneous speaking.

She has qualified 3 years in a row for state throughout her past four years at Loretto.

She said, “It’s an amazing extracurricular to do because it opens up so many doors for you”.

In order to qualify for state, a student must gather a total of 12 points throughout the season.

Winning first place earns 6 points, winning second place earns 4 points, and so on.

Congratulations to the Speech and Debate team for this amazing accomplishment.