Debate team takes first in conference competition
The Utah State University Speech and Debate Team became the Northwest Forensic Conference Champions Saturday in Forest Grove, Ore., beating 32 teams from five different states.
“Utah State’s team took on all the schools in the Northwest. These are schools that are on the top tier in private and public universities – and we beat them,” USU speech and debate coach Tom Worthen said.
The team beat out the runner-up, Albertson College, by more than 100 points, Worthen said. The win is remarkable because Albertson College has a team of more than 40 members and has won the conference for the last four years, he said. Utah State proved “pound for pound” that they were a better team, Worthen said.
“We made a big splash in the water this year, and people in the debate community are talking about us,” said Chelsi Sutton, a junior majoring in English.
Some of the individual wins include Eric Peatross, who took first place in both After Dinner Speaking and Junior Persuasion and third place in both Junior Informative and in Prose Interpretation.
Peatross and Chelsi Sutton took fifth place in parliamentary debate. Sutton was awarded a plaque for being the second best debater at the conference and Peatross was awarded a plaque for being the third best debater. Sutton also took second place in Junior Informative.
Adam Fulton, a senior studying political science, said the victory came after a lot of hard work.
“To be able to come in our first year in the conference and take first place really is a big deal. It would be comparable to USU basketball succeeding in March Madness,” he said.
The team is now ranked 18th among the nation’s 300 colleges and universities with debate teams, Worthen said
Richard Walker, a junior studying math, said, “Right now all over the Northwest, debate teams who would have liked to have won are talking about us and how to prepare to compete against us next year. It’s great bringing a good name to your school and Utah State has earned itself a name in the forensics league of the Northwest.”
Members of the debate team say their success comes because of their coach, whom they refer to as Dr. Tom.
“Dr. Tom also put in a ton of effort to help us understand what we were doing. He has taught us specific strategies and we use them to our advantage. A lot of other coaches won’t take that kind of time to work individually with students,” Sutton said.
Eric Peatross, a junior studying speech communication and public relations, said Worthen is a coach who “intensely loves what he does.”
Worthen said one reason the team won is because they are task oriented. He said the team drove in a van to the competition at Pacific University and instead of listening to music they practiced their speeches and grilled each other on current events for 12 hours.
Once the team arrived in Forest Grove, the members arrived an hour early to the competitions in order to practice their speeches, Worthen said.
Part of what is remarkable about the team is how new it is – this is only its second year, Worthen said. For many of the students, this is their first time participating in debate, he said.
Richard Walker is one of the newest members of the debate team. He is studying math, but says he was attracted to the team as a way of getting involved in the university and being able to bring it prestige.
Worthen himself was a student at USU and participated on the debate team, he said. He was the coach in 1983 before he graduated, which was also the last year the team existed. Once he returned to USU, he helped put the team together again and has now coached it for two years, he said. He paid for the many of the team’s expenses last year and this year the university matched him $5,000 to pay for this year’s expenses, he said.
Other debate teams that were at the conference have large budgets, their coaches are on salary and their students are on scholarship, Worthen said.
“What we did for the conference is a fifth of what other teams have for a budget,” Worthen said.
Worthen said the speech and debate team is a “feather in the cap for the university.” The team’s success attracts the attention of many of the students with high GPA’s and ACT scores in the area, he said.
The admissions office contacts Worthen with the names of students who want to come to USU to compete on the debate team, he said.
“I hate telling these students that our team will hopefully continue but we don’t have any scholarship money to support it. As we are the best program in the state of Utah, I know that the support of a team would create a market niche in attracting these students,” Worthen said.
The team is taking time off from practice for a couple weeks to recuperate, but will begin to prepare for next year as well as recruit members for next year’s team, Worthen said.
Worthen said students wanting to join the team need to be willing to work hard and show up for practice.
“If you’re willing to be intelligent, we’ll find the talent,” he said.
-jks@cc.usu.edu