For the second year in a row, members of Alemany High School's speech and debate team qualified to attend the state tournament, which will be held in Concord April 23-25.

English teacher and speech and debate coach, Rami Hernandez, started the team last year with seven members, including three who qualified for the state tournament. This year's team of 24 students has eight students who have qualified to attend the state competition.

The team has won awards this year at various tournaments including Pepperdine University, Cal State University Fullerton, Cypress College, Damien High School and Stanford University. The eight team members who have qualified for state include: Bobby Gray and Chris Sithi Amnuai in Policy Debate, Bridget Hayes and Sema Krikunova in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Eric Riss in National Extemporaneous Speaking, Anthony Mendoza in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Jenn Kimbal in Original Advocacy and Craig Strazzeri in Humorous Interpretation.

Gray, Hayes and Krikunova were double qualifiers; besides their designated debate events, they will participate in International Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking and Original Advocacy, respectively.