Rice Debate advances to nationals

By Josh Rutenberg     3/19/09 7:00pm

Rice Debate will have a chance to defend its title as a top-10 school at speech and debate nationals this month when the 14-member team debates March 27-29 at the National Parliamentary Debate Association National Championship at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, Calif.In 2008, Rice placed fifth in the national sweepstakes, with their highest performance in recent memory being second place in 1998.

In order to qualify for speech nationals, a student must reach the final round at three different tournaments. Each tournament consists of between 40-100 competitors, depending on various factors. This year, the entire team qualified despite the fact that the members were primarily comprised of first-year students.

"It's an honor just to get to that point," Director of Forensics David Worth said about reaching nationals. "We always set a goal of finishing in the top 10. Over the last few years, we've met our goal every year."

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During the three-day competition at the University of the Pacific, the debate team will compete in 11 different events, ranging from informative and persuasive speaking to after-dinner speaking and literary interpretation. Students will be given topics with a limited amount of preparation time, then write and deliver speeches based on prior research and knowledge of the assigned topic.

"We pretty much debate for the whole weekend," Lovett freshman Isiana Rendón said.

Each debate round lasts for one hour from start to finish. A team participates in five to six preliminary debates and must win at least four rounds to advance. Final rounds consist of octofinals, quarterfinals, semifinals and finals, depending on how many teams are at the event.

In addition to the team members who will be competing at the national debate championship, three members of the George R. Brown Forensics Society placed at the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament district qualifier last weekend at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Okla. A total of four members will advance to nationals April 3-6 at the University of Akron in Akron, Ohio.

Martel College freshman Katie Donovan, who qualified in informative speaking, and Jones College freshman Kern Vijayvargia, who qualified in extemporaneous and impromptu speaking, will join previously-qualified Jones junior Aparna Bhaduri and Wiess College sophomore Danny Shanaberger at speech nationals.

"They have done extremely well, given how young they are," Worth said about the freshman debaters.

Worth and Assistant Director of Forensics Glenn Prince coach a team comprised of three-fourths new students in competitions where experience is key. Worth said the team faced a steep learning curve earlier this year and lacked the additional aid of senior students, an advantage that has been utilized in previous years.

"The new students have had to do a lot of work they normally would have had upperclassmen to do," he said.

Nevertheless, Worth said he was successful in creating presumptions, for his students in the debate realm, where image can make or break a close competition.

The students were not the only new members to the team this year, as Prince joined the debate squad this year after coaching an award-winning debate team at Western Kentucky University. Prince said he feels Rice students have an internal motivation to gain knowledge and skills necessary for speech and debate, as the Rice debate squad is made entirely of volunteer students.

"It's been very challenging [training a new team], but the good thing is you get to start from the ground up," he said.

Prince credited some of the team's success to a lack of preconceived notions about debate, as well as a willingness to learn and have fun.

Bhaduri, team captain and one of the team's only upperclassmen, worked with the new students to help them develop valuable debating experience. Worth said he believes Bhaduri may be Rice's next national champion.

"[Bhudari] has great leadership," Worth said. "She's literally one of the best in the country.

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