To be fair, Telemante only had about a day and a half to prepare for the competition.

"It had a lot to do with luck," he said.

At a qualifying tournament at Albuquerque Academy, Telemante was named as an alternate for the congressional portion of the national competition in Birmingham, Alabama, he said. When some students couldn't make the trip and another got sick just before the team was scheduled to leave on June 13, Telemante was tapped to join the team.

Preparation for the debate involves a great deal of research to break down the pros and cons of 30 or more student-written bills, he said.

"I really didn't have a chance to do all that," he said. "I read through the books and wrote a few quick points."

He said some of the other students helped him out, and that he had a good group going into the competition.

The actual competition follows parliamentary procedure, just like a congressional session would, and there are hundreds of students competing there.

"It was nerve-wracking, but at the same time it was just fun," he said. "I really had an attitude of, 'Let's just do this.'"

When a bill comes on the floor, the students can either ask questions that draw out its strengths and build the case for the bill, or they can pose questions that try to chip away at its support. Telemante said his group was competitive and aggressively pursued its own political ends, but it wasn't awkward.

"Nobody really tried to make anybody else look horrible," he said. "There was no unnecessary meanness."

This is Telemante's second year in speech and debate. It is also the second year the activity has been offered at East Mountain High School.

He said he is "addicted" to debate, especially philosophical debates involved in discussions of law, and he often discusses the moral aspects of current events with his family, peppering them with references to Thomas Hobbs and John Locke. Telemante hopes to study business law at Harvard University, attend graduate school in law at Colombia University and ultimately practice criminal and First Amendment law.