Debate team competes at national tournaments

The University debate team traveled to Oregon to compete in the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence and the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championship Tournament March 7 to March 19.

The junior team, comprised of Alex Warren, economics major, and Travis Smith, political science and speech communication double major, finished 9th in the country, losing to the champion team from the University of Oregon.

“I am very pleased,” debate coach Charles Walts said. “We did very well as newcomers to the national circuit. We are a young squad, and, like any competitive program, you can’t go from zero to national champions. You have to build toward it.”

Walts said the team made several large steps toward their national championship goal.

“We went from a program that only a few people knew about to one that garners respect and attention in the course of a year; that is no minor accomplishment,” he said.

Warren said he expected the team to improve this year, but the “suddenness” of it surprised him.

“Last year, we were ranked in the 50s for much of the year and couldn’t manage much consistent success,” he said. “This year, we set the all-time record for wins in a season for our event, advanced to out rounds in 16 of 17 tournaments and consistently performed as one of the top-eight teams at each of those.”

National Parliamentary
Tournament of Excellence

NPTE consists of the top-64 teams in the nation of a total of 965 teams, Walts said.

At the tournament, Warren and Smith won eight out of the 12 preliminary rounds but lost the first two elimination rounds.

“At NPTE, the first tournament, we were still a little rusty, and, ultimately, this was probably what cost us,” Warren said. “The layoff from the last tournament in February and NPTE in March is actually fairly significant in terms of skill atrophying.”

Warren said they spent much of the time researching debate topics instead of literally practicing debate rounds.

“The time trade-off and the total amount of research we had to do was prohibitive,” he said. “In spite of that, we developed some good strategies and executed them fairly well in most rounds.”

Warren said NPTE “forces success to occur on the margins” because all of the competing teams are good.

“You have to have that extra leg up over the competition, and the smallest mistakes get magnified,” he said. “We made a few too many small mistakes.”

The freshmen team comprised of Addison Gribbin, an English major, and Mike Jones, an accounting major, finished as the top-freshmen team at the tournament.

“NPTE was a collection of the smartest college students in the nation, and I was proud just to be a part of it,” Jones said. “As the only freshman-freshman team, we were congratulated by some of the most successful people in the debate community, which means so much to me.”

Gribbin said she believes everyone on the team had a successful experience.

“Everyone was on their A game, and I got to learn a lot from seniors from other schools,” she said. “I also was able to watch Alex and Travis debate and take some the elements that make them so successful and try to incorporate that into my rounds."

National Parliamentary Debate Association Tournament

At the NPDA tournament, 150 parliamentary-debate teams from all over the nation compete.

Warren and Smith won six out of eight preliminary-debate rounds and won the first two elimination rounds against the University of Nebraska and Willamette University.

“By the second day of NPDA, we were in a fairly good rhythm,” Warren said.

The win against Willamette University put Warren and Smith in octofinals against The University of Oregon team comprised of Hank Fields and Matt Gander.

“That win put us in octofinals against an Oregon team that had just won NPTE (that) would go on to win NPDA several hours later and had been in finals of nationals for three straight years,” he said. “Even though we lost, we gave Oregon all they could handle, and Matt Gander pointed out that it was their hardest round of the season. I can live with that.”

While the freshman team advanced in NPTE, they did not win the rounds necessary to continue at the NPDA tournament.

“In (NPDA) … we were not as fortunate as we intended, but it would be an insult to be upset with the performance against the best parliamentary competition there is,” Jones said. “I believe we made huge strides this season, being freshmen and doing as well as we did. I couldn’t be prouder for the team, my partner or myself.”

Overall, Jones said the tournaments were a positive experience.

“They (the tournaments) taught me that the debate community is a unique, caring and loving collection of some intellectual and beautiful people,” he said. “I learned a lot overall and saw how the best debaters in the nation play the game.”

Next season

The team is excited about what this year’s success means for the future.

“Alex and Travis will be back for their senior year and will be easily one of the top-five teams in the country next year,” Walts said. “Addison and Mike will come back with more experience and will also be ready to step up and pose a double threat to teams. We have some growing and learning to do, but nothing that is out of our reach.”

Jones said the tournaments gave him incentive and set a bar for next year.

“This year, both teams set a precedence for UT Tyler,” Jones said. “It starts here. In a couple years, the University is going to be one of the best-overall, parliamentary-debate programs in the nation.”

Warren said he is optimistic about next year.

“The second half of this semester demonstrated that we are a threat every weekend, and that’s the kind of momentum we can build on,” he said. “The freshmen will make a similar jump next year, I suspect, and they’re going to be a very good team. This is an activity where reputation and momentum matter, and this season has positioned us well in both of those areas for the next year.”