Female Athlete of the week: Anika Walla

Palisade Junior, Anika Walla, is the female Athlete of the Week. Anika is involved in Speech and Debate here at Palisade High School. Inside of Speech and Debate, she is involved in public forums. According to Anika it is a “Partner debate. So basically it is a two on two debate based on evidence about policy and politics.” When asked how long she has been doing speech and debate for she said, “This is my third year doing speech and debate at an actual team level.” Before high school she said, “I did it in my middle school classes, but I never did any actual competitions.” After being asked what got her started she responded saying, “In 3rd grade we had a debate about renewable energy and I really enjoyed it. I then started high school and I was like ‘well, I will give it a shot and see what happens.’ I love the environment and I love this team and I kind of just love the way it worked, so I ended up just sticking with it.” Anika’s favorite thing about speech and debate is the “Community,” and continued saying “It sounds a little weird because the whole thing is competition, but there really are some really great people in speech and debate and I have made a lot of my closest friends through it. I think that the environment of talking through a lot of our real life matters and real world problems is just really cool to me. I really enjoy that.” Other than school and speech and debate Anika said, “ I like to spend a lot of time reading, skiing, and I mostly spend time with my family.” When asked who her biggest inspiration is she said, “My biggest inspiration are two seniors that I met my freshman year who were on the team. They went really far in speech and debate and I was really impressed with that. Outside of that I would say my brother, which, you know, but I have just always wanted to live up to where he has been in life.” When asked about her greatest accomplishment she said “For me I think my greatest accomplishment was actually making it to the National Competition Speech and Debate two years in a row. Actually going and getting to compete at that level is what I consider an accomplishment just because it is something that I had to work really hard for. I was really proud of being able to compete at that level and work to get to the national level tournaments.” Anika’s advice to an incoming speech and debate kid would be “Don’t take it too seriously. I think about the people that get caught up with freaking out about winning, but I think taking it as more of a hobby is a lot better. Take your time, have fun with life, and enjoy the moments.” Anika is having a great speech and debate season so far, so wish her luck as she continues strong.