After placing 3rd in Lincoln-Douglas, or LD, debate at Regionals, sophomore Diana Garcia advances to State and will compete on May 25 and 26.

Garcia is the first LD debater to advance to State at Azle. Despite this being Garcia’s first year as an LD debater, she is the first one to advance to state. She also plans to continue until she graduates.

“It gave me more confidence, but now I do feel a lot of pressure to keep this up,” Garcia said. “I am very grateful for coach Wait because she is the reason I was able to accomplish all of this, this year, and I hope we can continue this together.”

Debate is a recently added class to the school course listing. Debate teacher and wrestling coach Megan Wait recently revived the debate program a few years ago.

“I started the debate program in 2018, and have learned what works and what doesn’t work when coaching debate,” Wait said. “I feel very proud to finally put Azle’s name in the debate ring at state.”

With qualifying for state, Garcia is eligible to receive thousands of dollars in scholarships.

“I felt really proud and shocked when I qualified for state, it was my goal from the beginning but I never thought I would actually qualify,” Garcia said.

Despite the outcome of state, Garcia plans to expand her knowledge of debate and improve through the rest of her high school career.

“I hope to learn more about LD and gain more experience, after LD I plan to improve my debate skills,” Garcia said.

In order to prepare for the state meet, Garcia has been working with the debate class to strengthen her case.

“Diana’s commitment and hard work is what ultimately makes her great. She is always looking for ways to improve her case,” Wait said. “To be honest, she has rewritten her case 3 times now, once after each time she has competed. That is what sets her aside. Normally, students will just settle with what they have written, but she keeps changing it and making it better every time.”