As Hillsdale celebrates its 30th year of competitive speaking, the debate team hopes to focus on rebuilding the club and educating new members. The forensics and Mock Trial teams eagerly expect success.
The debate team has performed well in recent years, winning the biannual Pi Kappa Delta national tournament three times in a row. However, Assistant Professor of Speech Matthew Doggett, said several key competitors from last year either graduated or are devoting their time to other interests.
“This is the youngest, most inexperienced team we’ve had,” said senior Ian Hanchett, the debate team’s manager. “So really the focus is going to be everyone working hard and developing.”
From the forensics team’s perspective, the season is looking a bit better.
“The attitude for the returning students of the individual events team is the most disciplined, the most serious, and [has] the strongest desire to compete I’ve ever seen,” Matthew Warner, assistant director of forensics and debate said. “They have a fire in their belly that is unquenchable.”
Warner expects a year of winning and hopes to use the team’s success to celebrate three decades of competitive speaking at Hillsdale.
Warner stressed that Mock Trial, though only in its fourth year at Hillsdale, composes an important part of the team.
“They’re a new addition, but they are part of the 30-year history,” he said.
Mock Trial was composed of two teams last year and will be adding a third team this semester. Two are captained jointly, one by junior Abigail Loxton and sophomore Ryan Ahrens, and the other by senior Michelle Janowiecki and sophomore John Shannon. Junior Dylan Hoover is the sole captain of a third team.
Members of the debate team this year will be arguing for and against the resolution: “The United States Federal Government should substantially reform elementary and/or secondary education in the United States.”
Hillsdale’s Mock Trial team was successful last year, and Hoover now hopes to go even further.
“A lot of newer members have an extreme amount of potential. I’m really excited to see where it’s going to go this year,” he said.
This will be the Mock Trial team’s first full year with Keith Miller, assistant director of career services, as head coach.
“He’s pretty competitive, and that’s a good thing,” Hoover said. “He pushes us in a lot of ways.”
Forensics captain Brandon Butz said their team is hoping to take first in the Ruth A. Wilcox Individual Events Tournament, hosted at Marietta College in November.
‘It’s kind of a milestone tournament that we go to every year,” Butz said. “We’re looking to follow up from our success last year to crush it out of the park this year.”
The first speech and debate tournament is from Sept. 20-22 at Western Kentucky University. Students interested in participating in speech, debate, or Mock Trial can still join by emailing the coaches.
