Debate will go to the Texas Forensic Association’s (TFA) Annual State Tournament March 14-16 at Alief High School in Houston, Texas.

This year, the team will be sending the largest number of people it has ever sent. Seniors Zoha Rizvi, Sunil Krish, Grant Shamblin, Evan Williams and Alyshu Lalani, along with juniors Philip Ng, Aashir Sanjrani, Gavin Loyd, Sameer Haq, Krish Patel, Xain Bhagwandin and Joseph Kirk will be participating in the tournament.

To qualify for the tournament, one must earn 12 state points, which are obtained by participating in and reaching the elimination rounds at debate tournaments.

“When I first found out I qualified for TFA state, I was excited because it is the first time I’ve qualified for state and the first time my partner has qualified for state,” Patel said. “It was very exciting for me and my partner to find out we got 12 state points.”

The topic that the team is focusing on is immigration reform, and currently, the members are working to prepare different arguments against different schools.

“There is a lot of intensive prep and research about our current topic of immigration because we want to be really good [in the tournament],” Patel said. ”Our goal is to make it to elimination rounds, and we really want for the Hebron Debate team as a whole to win the entirety of TFA State.”