Every club has that one person who inspires others. In Speech and Debate, that person is Caleb Newton.

The senior debate captain has been a three-year state qualifier for the Texas Forensic Association, two-year state qualifier for the University Interscholastic League (UIL) Speech & Debate, has twice advanced to the Tournament of Champions, and has been ranked 11th in the Nation.

He may be exceptional at debate now, but this wasn’t always the case.

“When he was first in my Debate 1 class, I did not think he would amount to anything. I didn’t think he would even take Debate 2, nor did I really want him in Debate 2, because all he did was sit in the back and talk,” debate coach Bryan Alford said.

Newton expected the debate class to be much different than it was, so he was planning on dropping the class.

“I joined debate because I literally thought it was going to be like a mock trial-lawyer type thing, and I was sorely mistaken,” Newton said. “Throughout my entire first year in debate I was like ‘this is not mock trial, I do not like this’ then I learned what congress was and they said I was very good at it, so I stayed in debate and here I am.”

As defined by UIL, Congressional Debate is an individual contest within a large group modeling the legislative process of the United States Congress. In the UIL competition, contestants draft legislation and research a list of cases for bills and resolutions dealing with real world political and social rules.

“This form of debate models our government, and its really interesting to me,” Newton said. “We get to debate a lot of topics that actually matter and that are being passed through our U.S. Congress right now. It’s just cool and relative to recent politics.”

Newton’s first few competitions freshman year were a little rough. But with the encouragement of former senior debate captain Ethan Roberts, Newton learned many debating techniques, and has since become one of the best debaters in the state.

“It’s definitely a manner of keeping up to date on practicing all the time, which makes it difficult but the competitions themselves, as long as I put in the work beforehand, are easy,” Newton said.

Many students on the debate team respect him because he works very hard with his classmates, but he also knows when to cut loose and have fun using Russian, which he learned from a few of his Russian friends.

“It’s kind of fun whenever he’s screaming in Russian or whenever he makes us pray in Russian,” sophomore Alexus Harris said. “I think that whenever that happens it just brings a whole new level of energy to the debate competitions.”

Newton helps the underclassman with the policy research, writing cases and structuring arguments to help them persuade the judges effectively.

“He’s always helping us and he’s always trying to make us  better,” sophomore Lauren Warhola said. “Like I need to work on my speaking sometimes and he helped me find techniques and ways to practice to become better.”

In addition to serving as the debate captain, Newton is also president of the Red Cross Club and president of the Junior Statesmen, while also working a part time job at Sonic.

“If I get home from work at like midnight, I either sleep or I’m like, ‘This seems like a good time to practice a debate speech,’” Newton said. “Every single weekend since my first week of sophomore year I have gone to a debate tournament, so my life is consumed by it. I don’t have a weekend life really.”

Even though Newton can be tough on the debaters at times, they know that he has their best interests at heart and that he’s trying to improve their skills so they can collect more state points for themselves and bring home more trophies for the school.

“I would say Caleb Newton is a good captain because he works really hard in debate and he gives us someone to look up to,” Warhola said. “Whenever we look at his speeches we know what we need to fix, and whenever we’re around him he’s always helping us.”

Debaters need to win 12 State points determine if a person qualifies for State and later on, Nationals. Newton has 86, setting the record for the most in the state and most state points won at one event.

“His first couple of tournaments he did alright, but he’s qualified for state every year that he’s been competing so that’s pretty good,” Alford said.

For the congressional debate, winning students receive gavels, instead of trophies.

“Someone could build a desk with all of the gavels that he has,” Alford said.

As the debate captain, Newton has a lot of responsibilities, whether he’s just helping students improve on their cases or getting the debaters back on track, he always seems to find a way to do it while keeping their spirits up.

“I’m a teacher’s assistant in a Debate 1 class, so I can teach them all the events and help Alford out in case he’s gone for a tournament or something,” Newton said. “I have to be the leader, and make sure everyone’s morale is up and just make sure everything is going as planned and everyone is behaving correcting and making sure everyone’s succeeding.”

In addition to his logistical duties as the senior debate captain, Newton has boosted the morale of his fellow debaters whenever they were having a bad time at competitions or stressing about whether or not they could go to tournaments due to budget cuts.

“He’s really useful especially in this stressful year with all of our budget cuts, he’s been a really strong leader to the group,” sophomore Maggie Bisone said. “At tournaments, he’s always there for us if we had a bad win or we need encouragement.”

Being in debate has taught Newton so many valuable things and shaped him into the driven, strong willed person he is today.

“[Debate has] taught me to be a better citizen, because now I’m much more involved in politics and I care about people,” Newton said.

He will be attending the University of Texas and double majoring in government and international relations, a decision Alford supports.

“I definitely see him doing something on the legal side or something involving talking, because God knows he’s good at it — whether it’s debate or just talking when he’s not supposed to be talking,” Alford said.