Fall tourneys wrap up for debate and individual events

Home News Fall tourneys wrap up for debate and individual events

If competitive speaking is the umbrella that covers debate, individual events, and mock trial, the Hillsdale College Debate and IE teams are certainly not caught in the rain this fall.
The teams have seen great success in their various tournaments since the beginning of the semester.
Junior Kevin Ambrose, team manager for the debate team, explained the two types of debate that the team practices: the first is called Lincoln-Douglas, which is a one-on-one person format.
“They debate a yearlong topic regarding some kind of policy that the United States fed government should implement,” Ambrose said.
The second is two-on-two parliamentary debates, which discuss either fact, policy, or values.
He said that their first tournament at Western Kentucky University from Sept. 19-21 yielded positive results.
“Two of our freshman broke, and one of our parli teams also broke, which is really good for the first tournament of the year,” Ambrose said.
Assistant Professor of Speech and coach of the team Matthew Doggett explained that to “break” means that members enter the “play-offs” or the “outround” of the tournament if they are good enough.
The team placed second in the overall sweepstakes debate, which means they earned the most points of any team present.
The team has participated in six tournaments so far. At their most recent tournament at Bowling Green State University from Nov. 15-16, the team had members finish in the quarter and semifinals of both the Open and Novice National Parliamentary Debate Association debates.
Director of Forensics James Brandon said that forensics, or individual events, consists of 11 different events, including poetry, drama, prose, and others. He said the whole forensics program is very broad.
“They are different in the way that you prepare for them and different in the way you compete,” he said.
The individual events team also attended the BGSU tournament, their last of the semester.
According to Assistant Director of Forensics Matthew Warner, the team placed sixth overall out of more than 20 teams, beating schools like Ohio State University and University of Michigan.
In their tournament at Ball State University in October, the team had five finalists out of 12 speeches, which is a good percentage at a nationally competitive tournament.
“It made me very happy, to show that we were right there with anybody in the nation,” Warner said.
Warner said that among the 11 individual events, the team is strongest in impromptu speaking.
“In impromptu speaking you need to have a depth and a breadth of knowledge that is well-supported by the liberal arts, as well as a way of thinking and a way of arguing that is inculcated by the liberal arts,” Warner said. “For me, the liberal arts and the kind of education you get at Hillsdale College and our continual success in impromptu speaking in particular are connected.”
“Debate helps build up your convictions and your beliefs,” Ambrose said. “It’s also really valuable because it helps develop your critical thinking skills overall, and you’re able to really go through and rationally warrant out arguments to an extent that I don’t see anywhere else on campus.”
Doggett said that, because the teams draw from students of all skills, ages, and majors, it is consistent with the liberal arts.
“Everything that you learn here on campus, you use in the debate round,” he said. “You may not use it every single time, but there is the potential that in any given round that you will have to draw from your philosophy class, from your biology class, from your math class.”
Brandon reinforced this idea.
“The ideas and the ways of thinking that we learn about here at the college are expressed in competition. To be a debater, you have to be able to look at an issue from all sides,” he said. “My philosophy for the whole program is that first and foremost they have to be learning something, and second they have to be having fun. And if we bring back little shiny trophies, that’s nice, but it’s not why we exist.”