Please support LASA’s Debate Team! We need your help to continue building on last year’s historically successful season.

We are the defending national champions thanks to your donations and the hard work of our students and coaches last year. This year, the team is on track to achieve outstanding results again, and it is only possible through your support.

Supporting ASDA and the LASA Debate Team makes debate accessible to more students. Debate teaches critical thinking, public speaking, cultural and global awareness, research and writing, and organizational and time-management skills. LASA Debate alums have attended elite universities such as Harvard, Northwestern, Emory, University of Chicago, Michigan, Penn, and UT, and received significant scholarship offers from colleges around the country.

Top 10 Reasons to Support LASA Debate

Unparalleled success for an exclusively extracurricular team. Following last year’s first-ever LASA win at the national-level Tournament of Champions (TOC), we again have two teams ranked in the top 25 in the National Coaches’ Poll—including the #1 team in the country!
LASA Debate is a volunteer-run, self-funded team. Other debate teams on the national circuit receive financial and logistical support from their school. LASA Debate succeeds despite having no debate class, no in-school meetings or work time, and no funding or paid coaches provided by the school.
4 national-level tournament wins and 1 second-place finish as of December 3. We won the top speaker award at 4 tournaments.
2 teams have already qualified for next spring’s TOC, and 3 teams have earned their first of two required bids.
LASA is #1 in the Elo rankings: https://offtimeroadmap731634130.wordpress.com/2023/12/06/the-kleinline-november-2023/ . Two LASA teams are in the Top-25 in the Coaches Poll, including the top spot! https://hsimpact.wordpress.com/2024/01/05/december-coaches-poll-lasa-bd-1/
Our novice program has already won 3 novice tournaments this fall.
Our talented and dedicated coaches are the foundation for LASA Debate’s success. Our amazing head coach volunteers his time—many weeks 40 hours or more—on top of his own full-time job. We also have two fantastic, hardworking part-time coaches who devote many hours to working directly with our team (for less than the market rate).
More debaters competing at a high level means higher judging and tournament expenses. In addition to entry fees, participation in tournaments requires our team to provide or pay for qualified judges, which often involves travel expenses as well as fees.
Your donations will help defray shared tournament costs including coaching expenses, tournament fees, and travel expenses involved in participating on the national and state-level circuits.
Debate is our passion! LASA Debate and the broader debate community offer a lifetime, supportive network of friends and mentors. We want as many debaters as possible to experience the fun and challenge of participating in tournaments.

Bonus Reason: Austin Student Debate Association (LASA Debate’s logistical support organization) is a nonprofit, so your donation is tax-deductible.

Fall 2023 LASA Debate Fundraiser

Be part of a winning tradition!

Team Members