Seven UIL competitors and four coaches took a trip to Texas A&M Corpus Christi for a conference designed to prepare students for the UIL Academic season.

“The conference will help us in competitions, where we can hopefully advance as far as State,” junior Madison Mata said.

Two of the sponsors that went had never coached their events before.

“Because I haven’t coached Speech and Debate before, I went to a special conference for new coaches,” Debate coach Tammy Bishop said.

Debate competitors were part of the group that traveled to Corpus Christi. Out of four students that went, three already had experience competing in the event. However, none of the debate team members had attended the conference before.

“The conference helped a whole lot,” senior Paige Williamson said. “I learned more information about how to argue our cases and what they were. Before, we didn’t know how to approach the case or how to write it.”

Three Journalism team members also came to attend lessons on Journalism events. Mata, who is on the Newspaper staff, hopes they will also help enhance the quality of the newspaper.

“I’m glad I went,” Mata said. “I’m always trying to improve because I want the publications to be more interesting and something I can be proud of.”