This week the Central Catholic Academic Team competed in the TAPPS state competition in Waco, TX. Moderated by Mrs. Uriegas, English teacher and English Department Head, the team competed in Literary Criticism, Original Oratory, Poetry Interpretation, Prose Interpretation, Number Sense, Math, Science, Social Studies, Current Events, Spanish, Ready Writing, Spelling, and the latest addition, Debate. Mrs. Uriegas has been moderator for 3 years now, and having previous experience working with UIL (University Interscholastic League) academic competitions, she decided to take on the challenge of moderating the academic team at Central Catholic.  

The academic team competed against 18 other schools in their division. Central Catholic had 18 participants, only two of which were seniors, and the team competed against 54 other students in each category. Junior Nathaniel Van Ness placed 5th in Social Studies and Daniel Guerra place 6th in Number Sense, 2nd in Calculator, and 1st in Advanced Math. Overall, the A-Team placed 9th in the statewide competition and outscored all the other San Antonio schools.

The Academic team’s latest edition to their list of competing events is the Speech and Debate team formed by Mrs. Lippert and Ms. Lopez. “CC had a previous winning debate team, then the coach left. Ms. Lopez and Mrs. Lippert have had previous experience, and they took on the speech and debate teams. It will take a few years, but we are trying to grow a team,” Mrs. Uriegas said. The Speech and Debate team consists of many freshmen and sophomores including a few juniors. One of our most talented speakers is freshman Maxwell Feldman who does original oratory. Uriegas added: “Maxwell is one of the hardest working members of the team, yet, he has only been preparing for state for the last two months. His enthusiasm and drive have made up for the late start. He went up against very seasoned seniors in original oratory, and he held his own. He got some very good feedback from judges, and we are excited for his future with the academic team.”

Next year the team will consisted of mostly freshman and sophomores, but the academic team is remaining optimistic with talented rookies like Maxwell Feldman and and Francisco Garcia.