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Texas State Speech, San Marcos, TX (2026)

04/22/2026

And that’s a wrap! The 2025/26 season ends with Texas State Bobcats making program history for a second year in a row!!!

Bobcats first traveled to Portland, Oregon to compete at the American Forensics Association (AFA) National Tournament. While at AFA, Santiago Malpica Calleja (junior) was elected as the AFA national student representative!!! Josh Lockaby (senior) and Carlos Castro (sophomore) broke to the Quarterfinal round in Duo Interpretation!!!

Bobcats then made their way to the International Public Debate Association’s (IPDA) National Tournament in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. Here Andrew Groce (freshman) became the first Bobcat in program history to break in the Novice Division at the IPDA National Tournament, reaching the Triple-Octofinals round!!!

Bobcats ended their season at the National Forensics Association’s (NFA) National Tournament in Nashville, Tennessee. Taylor Tate (senior) made program history becoming the first Bobcat to make it to the Quarterfinal round of NFA-Lincoln Douglass Debate (NFA-LD)!!!Taylor Tate also made program history becoming the first Bobcat to be recognized as THE TOP SPEAKER IN NFA-LD!!!The entire LD squad - Taylor Tate, Avery Mills (junior), Collin Ford (sophomore), and Bekah Phillips (freshman) became the first NFA-LD squad in program history to win a sweepstakes award, placing 8th overall!!!

There are wayyyy too many people to thank, but certainly a massive thank you to Joe Gantt and his team at Lewis and Clark College, Dr. Pat Richey and his team at Middle Tennessee State University, and Dr. Sean Allen and his team at Tennessee State University for hosting AFA, IPDA, and NFA, respectively. Thank you for giving us the space to speak our truth.

A big thank you to Texas State University’s Department of Communication Studies, Dean Fleming, Vice President of Student Success Dr. Cynthia Hernandez, Provost of Academic Affairs Dr. Pranesh Aswath, and President Kelly Damphousse. Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to speak our truth.

05/13/2025

As the National Speech & Debate Association celebrates its Centennial year, they posted this video from 1964 of team alum, President Lyndon B. Johnson’s acceptance speech as an honorary member of the National Forensics League (now NSDA). Thank you for sharing the archived footage!!

“I am very honored to accept this honorary membership in the National Forensics League. Only two people could be more surprised than I was to hear about this, that’s Lady Bird and my old debating coach. I noticed the resolution which elected me as honorary member said that ‘this election is not motivated by the exalted office he now holds as President of the United States’. I didn’t know my speeches were really that bad”.

“This is wonderful training, the National Forensics League is doing a great work. I am proud that you should think of me in connection with the contribution you are making to searching for the truth, speaking the truth, surrendering yourself to the truth, and leading young America to a better day, and toward the fulfillment of a greater dream and what we all know is going to be The Great Society”.

05/13/2025

Our season ended this year with 4 Bobcats going up to Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan for the National Forensics Association’s National Tournament!

Huge shoutout to Santiago Malpica-Calleja for breaking to Octofinals in both Extemporaneous Speaking and Impromptu Speaking, and Taylor Tate for breaking to Double Octofinals in Lincoln-Douglas Debate!!

As a team, the Bobcats placed 10th in Division 3!!!

Super proud of all of their hardwork this year and can’t wait to hear the messages they have to share next year!

05/13/2025

Last month 5 of our Bobcats had the amazing opportunity to compete at the American Forensics Association- National Speech Tournament (AFA-NST) hosted by the University of North Carolina Charlotte.

A huge shoutout to Santiago Malpica-Calleja for breaking to the Quater Finals round in Inpromtu Speaking!!!

04/09/2025

The Texas State Speech and Debate Team split up this past weekend. We had four student travel to Baytown, TX for the International Public Debate Association (IPDA) National Championship Tournament and five students traveled to the American Forensic Association (AFA) National Speech Tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina (more on that later 👀).

Sophia Esquivel (Freshman), Riley Jasso/RJ (Junior), Sommer Rhodes (Sophomore), and Luke Sides (Senior) became the first group to represent TXST at IPDA nationals and !

Sophia was just one win away from breaking into Triple Octofinals in the Novice Division!

RJ broke into Double Octofinals, becoming a Top 32 IPDAer in the Junior Varsity Division!

Luke became the National Runner-Up in the Varsity division on a very close 3-2 decision!

Additionally they announced this year 2,000 people across the nation competed at IPDA sanctioned tournaments. This places Luke in the top .1% of IPDAers in the nation!

02/05/2025

This past weekend the Texas State Speech and Debate Team went up to Denton, TX for the Spring Texas Intercollegiate Forensic Association (TIFA) State Tournament. We would like to extend our thanks to Dr. Brian Lain and his team at the University of North Texas for their hospitality this weekend!

As a team, the Bobcats placed 2nd in Individual Events, were state champions in Debate, and won the overall state tournament!

Carlos Castro - 6th place DI, 3rd place Poetry

Robert Davis - 4th place Poetry, 6th place POI, 4th place Prose

Riley Jasso - NPDA Champion (w/Luke Sides), 2nd place speaker in NPDA

Josh Lockaby - 3rd place POI, 4th place DI

Santiago Malpica Calleja- 3rd place CA, 2nd place Extemp, Champion in Impromptu, 5th place Top Speaker in NPDA, 4th place IE Speaker

Jakob Salsgiver - 4th pace Impromptu, Top Novice in Impromptu, Top Novice in Persuasive

Luke Sides - NPDA Champion (w/Riley Jasso), Top NPDA speaker, 2nd place IPDA

Taylor Tate - LD Champion, Quarterfinalist in IPDA

03/18/2018

This week the Texas State Speech and Debate team traveled to Nashville, Tennessee to participate in their first national tournament of the season! Thank you to Tennessee State University for hosting a wonderful Pi Kappa Delta Comprehensive National Tournament! This national tournament saw 82 schools from 25 states, 626 students, 473 judges, 1,763 IE entries, and 299 Debate entries! The speech and debate team had a lot of individual success as well as being Division I national champions! This was such a wonderful experience to hear the voices of some of the most brilliant minds from across the nation!

Special congratulations to:

Senior Matthew Anderson, Austin: 5th place Extemporaneous Speaking. Octofinalist in Parliamentary Debate

Junior Dillon McCoy, Bandera: Semifinalist in Prose Interpretation

Junior Jordan Drake, Cibolo: Octofinalist in Parliamentary Debate

Junior Tyshee Sonnier, San Antonio: Excellence in Impromptu

Sophomore Jaelyn Ashford, Nolanville: Semifinalist in Program Oral Interpretation
Excellence in Poetry Interpretation

Sophomore Preston Nieves, Pflugerville: Excellence in Extemporaneous Speaking

Freshman Lily Montemayor, Hebbronville: Quarterfinalist in Extemporaneous Speaking

Next stop Colorado Springs, Colorado for the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament!

02/14/2018

It looks as if Texas State Speech has a secret admirer this Valentines Day! Happy Valentines Day from your secret admirer, Texas State Speech!

02/06/2018

Thank you Blinn College for hosting a wonderful Spring TIFA! Bobcats had a fun and successful Spring TIFA! Our assistant director of forensics, Jeremy Hutchins, was selected by the TIFA Committee to be Educator and Coach of the Year! Here are a few snapshot moments of the weekend, we hope to see you at Texas State University for Spring TIFA 2019!

10/18/2017

Join us the evening at 7 p.m. in Centennial Hall room G01. Preston Nieves, Pfluegerville, Tx, and Tyler Cole, Whitehouse, Tx, will debate the 2017 British Debate Team! They will be debating Richard Hunter and Rebecca Howarth on the topic, RESOLVED: This House should abolish the death penalty.

Richard Hunter grew up in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and began competitively debating at a young age, twice reaching the final of the Northern Ireland Schools Debating Competition. He went on to attend the University of St Andrews, pursuing a degree in Modern History. His debating achievements include reaching the final of the Scottish leg of the John Smith Memorial Mace in 2017 as well as acting as an adjudicator at the European University Debating Championships in 2016 and 2017.

Rebecca Howarth (Becki) studied Economics with German at the University of Birmingham, graduating in 2015. Her key debating achievements include reaching the Quarter Finals of the European University Debating Championships in Vienna, Austria. Between 2012 and 2015 she won 5 and qualified for the finals of approximately 14 national and international competitions. Whilst studying abroad in Berlin, Becki reached the finals of the “German as a foreign language” category of the German National Debating Championships. She is also an accomplished judge, having been selected as Chief Adjudicator for approximately 6 tournaments and judging numerous finals, including the Japanese University Debating Championships.

10/03/2017

Thank you Southeastern Oklahoma State and Cameron Universities for hosting the Storm Classic Swing this weekend in Durant, Oklahoma!

Texas State Speech

04/22/2026

05/13/2025

05/13/2025

05/13/2025

04/09/2025

02/05/2025

03/18/2018

02/14/2018

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10/18/2017

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