Debate team wins second straight national championship

The Southeast Missouri State University debate team came away as national champions for the second year in a row at a debate tournament in March.

Southeast competed at the National Educational Debate Association’s National Debate Tournament, hosted by Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana.

Southeast brought three teams to the tournament, having two two-person varsity teams and one novice team.

Both teams competed in the opener varsity division as well as the novice team.

The tournament had two different categories, crossfire, which is a public forum, and traditional debate. The debate teams competed in the crossfire category.

Overall the teams competed well, director of the debate team, Avery Henry said.

“In varsity we won everything,” Henry said. “One team took fifth place and two people won the sixth and eighth speaker, while in novice, the team took fifth place and one person that won fifth or sixth speaker.”

Coming into the tournament, Henry had high hopes for the debate team.

“I had very high aspirations for the team,” Henry said. “I’d hoped that we continued to win. Throughout the year we had success, but we hadn’t won a tournament this year and hadn’t had that breakthrough that we wanted.”

The season is about a year long, with team meetings being held every Tuesday from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.

About a week to two weeks before the tournament, the team meets close to every day, Henry said.

To help the students prepare, Henry set up practice debates.

He met with the teams one-on-one, making sure their arguments were ready and that they know what they are going to say and do.

Henry also gives more argument assignments to practice and gives time for everyone to do individual research to make sure everyone is prepared and that there is not anything that will surprise them.

The topic for the tournament is announced in August, which means the team had long amount of time leading up to the tournament, which ensured a lot of preparation.

Greg Johnson, a sophomore, offered some more insight on preparing for the tournament.

“One of the first things you do is extensive research on the topic,” Johnson said. “You’re also trying to predict what other team's arguments are going to be. There’s a lot of staying up at night researching and writing out your own speeches, readjusting it if you get blown out of the water in a previous tournament.”

Johnson won the varsity crossfire this year after winning the novice crossfire last year.

Johnson said the difference from winning this years nationals to last years was the competition.

“It was a much harder goal to accomplish,” Johnson said. “I went up against more experienced debaters in varsity, more people that had won several varsity championships.”

Johnson said him winning the last two years is a testament to the effort and work put into debate.

“Winning the last two years says that I can accomplish anything as long as I work hard enough when it comes to debate,” Johnson said. “When I first started, I was really bad. I couldn’t speak with any confidence, couldn’t type up any speeches, couldn’t even read the speeches my partners gave me.”

“However, I wanted to do well with this. I wanted to bring trophies home to my mom and try to earn some scholarships.”

Johnson also said the team winning back-to-back says a lot as well.

“Even though we’re a small school, it shows we can compete with anyone in the debate world,” Johnson said. “We have a really talented coach in Dr. Henry, who debated in college as well. Even though we may just be Southeast, but we’re actually really good, if not the kings of debate.”

He has only been here two years, but Henry mentioned how incredible the jump the team has made from last year is, especially in varsity.

“To make that next step and to win at the varsity level, which is the highest level, is incredible, to watch as the debaters progress,” Henry said. “I saw their excitement and enthusiasm once they won last year, you could tell they were really excited about coming back.”

“Of course, to be able to take that next step is what you dream about as a coach, as you watch your debaters progress and get better and better. Then to do it as a freshman and a sophomore, which was what Greg did,” Henry said.

As for Johnson, Henry said he has a chance to win nationals four years in a row, even though it would be difficult.

“It would be incredible to see Greg win nationals four years in a row,” Henry said. “It would be difficult because the competition is very talented. They work very hard, so it’s always going to be difficult.”

Going into next year, Henry is excited to see how this year’s novice team takes the next step.

“I’m looking forward to the team we had at novice, to watching them progress and how they develop next year,” Henry said.

With only one senior, Jo Nell Cougill, leaving next year, everyone else plans to return.

Henry mentioned how the recent success of the debate team could influence the team to grow.

“It’ll be interesting to see new people who might want to come to debate,” Henry said. “You might see a lot more people want to join, which could change the dynamic of the team and how large they are.”

Johnson believed winning two years in a row would help bring more people on board, as well as the Arrow bringing notoriety to the debate team and its’ success.

“We had some new people join the team at the beginning of last semester,” Johnson said. “They saw the trophies we had and they wanted to help us win more.”

“With this being in the newspaper and people talking about us that we can bring more more people who are really good at this on to the team,” Johnson said.

Bringing on more people to the team, Johnson said, would help them bring even more teams to these tournaments.

“It would mean we would have an easier shot at winning,” Johnson said.

Johnson mentioned a school, Ball State, who brings almost 8 to 10 teams every year.

He said even if they did average or below, they would still end up winning.

“If we were able to bring more people on, it would mean that we all wouldn’t have to go 5-1 or 6-0. It would mean we could go 3-3 or above and give us a good shot at winning,” Johnson said.

The expectations for next year’s team is maintain the success they’ve had.

“There are always those expectations to do well next year,” Henry said. “We’re hoping to continue on that success. Nothing can ever downplay what they’ve accomplished. Even if we don’t win next year, it’s fine because I know how hard they work and how motivated they are to succeed.”