Extreme debating: USU team takes first in international tournament

The smell of brewing coffee filled Haylee Hunsaker’s home most of the night. She didn’t have time to nap the day before the tournament. Like most college students, Hunsaker has work on top of her studies, so sleep wasn’t an option.

Campus was closed by the time the rounds started. Brayden O’Brien, Hunsaker’s debate partner, and Tom Worthen, their coach, Skyped the other teams from her home.

“Being up late was okay, since we were really excited to be going up against Afghanistan students in an international debate,” Hunsaker said.

Because of the time difference, rounds went from 10 p.m. until 3 a.m. for her and O’Brien. In the back of his mind, O’Brien was thinking about his 7:30 test the next morning.

Despite being at a clear disadvantage, Hunsaker and O’Brien took first place in the tournament, which included 20 teams from seven countries.

This was the third annual international Skype debate tournament, but it was a new experience for Hunsaker and O’Brien. Afghans for Progressive Thinking hosted the Debate Without Borders Skype Tournament from March 17-18. Hunsaker and O’Brien, who represented Utah State University, were one of two U.S. teams participating.

Topics varied from the environment to the gender pay gap to foreign language requirements in school. Worthen even judged a round about the security threat Donald Trump presents.

“I didn’t expect it to be as engaging or competitive over Skype, but it still ended up being that way,” O’Brien said. “Seeing it all come together was interesting.”

Because of how the pairings worked out, Hunsaker and O’Brien almost exclusively debated teams from Afghanistan. Between rounds, they shared cultural exchanges — the Afghani students wanted to know what it was like to study in the United States. Afghanis consume lots of American media, Hunsaker said, and they chatted about “How I Met Your Mother” and even “Game of Thrones.”

When it came to timing the rounds, though, they had to be strict and precise, O’Brien said.

“The people in Afghanistan, especially, were in a sensitive location. I don’t know if it was necessarily secret, but we had to keep things moving,” he said.

Women on the Afghanistan teams are not allowed to debate competitively. Because of the Skype tournament, however, they were allowed to compete against other schools.

“Afghanistan — it’s a country of war,” Worthen said. “I was talking to one of the women on the team, and they said women on the teams are not allowed to travel to other universities to compete.”

Utah State’s debate team does not compete as often as most universities in Utah — Hunsaker transferred from Snow College, where she said they travel to tournaments 12-15 times a year. Because of limited funding, USU only goes to four.

“Debate takes a lot of work, and we only get to show off our work if we’re at a tournament,” Hunsaker said. “We do the same amount of work, but we just get less rewards from it … Even without the budget, USU is still extremely competitive.”

She said Worthen puts extra time — and sometimes his own money — into keeping the team competitive.

“Tom has been incredible to watch,” she said. “He stayed up just as late as we did. Tom has an extreme passion for speech and debate. No matter the budget or the circumstance, he’s 100 percent there.”

Worthen is working with Afghanistan for Progressive Thinking to create a “sister school” setup, to work with the group more in the future. The Skype tournaments, while somewhat inconvenient, are free.

— brennakelly818@gmail.com
@bckelly8