A year after placing second, Alief Independent School District’s Kerr High School took home top honors in World Schools Debate at the Houston Urban Debate League (HUDL) City Championships on Feb. 28.
Students from Aldine, Alief, Goose Creek Consolidated and Spring Branch independent school districts join others from YES Prep Public Schools in HCDE’s CASE Debates program. The initiative provides inner-city youth and aspiring debaters with training and access to both coaching and tournaments.
At downtown Houston’s historic Bob Casey Federal Courthouse, CASE for Kids students competed against Houston ISD students in 4 of 5 events at the championships: Congressional Debate, Policy (CX) Debate, World Schools Debate and Lincoln-Douglas Debate.
Kerr students Leah Ghebrelul and Erica Carranza returned from last year’s runner-up team, and were joined by Preston Nguyen, Syed Ali and Gerardo Diaz to comprise the champions. They defeated Maria Ledezma, Raquel Barnes, Logan Nguyen, Piet Athmer and Melissa Habani from Spring Branch ISD’s Westchester Academy.
Winning students and teams earned scholarships in addition to advancing to national competition. Below are the 2026 HUDL City Championships:
Congressional Debate
- Champion: Samantha Tran (Houston ISD’s Bellaire High School)
- Runner-up: Emilyn Sun (Bellaire)
Public Forum
- Champion: Ivy Gu and Roy Zhao (Bellaire)
- Runner-up: Mike Weng and Eric Xu (Bellaire)
Policy (CX) Debate
- Champion: Leo Cheng and Ayub Ahmed (Bellaire)
- Runner-Up: Sanjit Kathi (Houston ISD’s DeBakey High School)
World Schools Debate
- Champion: Leah Ghebrelul, Erica Carranza, Preston Nguyen, Syed Ali, and Gerardo Diaz (Alief ISD’s Kerr High School)
- Runner-up: Maria Ledezma, Raquel Barnes, Logan Nguyen, Piet Athmer, and Melissa Habani (Spring Branch ISD’s Westchester Academy)
Lincoln-Douglas Debate
- Champion: Luca Cheng (Bellaire)
- Runner-up: Aashrith Korampally (Bellaire)