El Camino’s Forensic and Debate top-ranked pair placed 8th in the nation at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence on Wednesday night, a member of the team said.
The entire team is currently ranked No. 1 among U.S community colleges, and No. 4 among universities in the nation and will begin competition at the National Parliamentary Debate Association on Today.
The 17-year-old political science major-duo of Zara Andrabi and Curtis Wang are the team’s current top performers.
“We’re the top community college pair in the nation and ranked 9th overall and we’ve been doing really well so might rank higher,” Andrabi said before Wednesday night’s award show. “I love being partners with Curtis, we’re really good friends and work very well together so it’s a lot of fun.”
Most ranked debate pairs are juniors and seniors attending universities and they are Top 10 as sophomores at a community college.
Wang said that he and Andrabi would be the only ones competing at the NPTE.
In order for teams to qualify for the NPTE, potential teams must earn at least 18 points.
Andrabi and Wang have a total of 31 earned points, Wang said.
The two sophomores will be leading the group during the competition at the National Parliamentary Debate Association, NPDA.
Wang said that preparation for tournaments varies, depending on the caliber or time constraint of the competition.
“For instance, NPTE is a topic area tournament which means they release the topics are released a month in advance and (Andrabi) and I have to write files for all (15 topics total),” Wang said.
EC’s debate team has seen their fair share of success this season.
EC was placed at second overall in the majority of attended tournaments, beating top teams across the nation, just in this semester.
They will also be joining the rest of their teammates competing at the National Parliamentary Debate Association, NPDA, today.
“For NPDA we have to do the research in the 20 minutes before the round, so we focus more on drills for speaking, speed, new arguments and efficient use of prep time,” Wang said.
Wang added that he and Andrabi have advanced the furthest any EC pair has gone in a national tournament and any community college team has gotten since 2004.
They’ve also advanced far enough this weekend that they have secured a place in the Top 10.
Another member of the team, Damon Mitchell, a 19-year-old sign language interpretation/deaf studies, communications, and psychology major, said that preparation for tournaments vastly ranges, depending on the type of competition.
Mitchell said that staying well-versed in politics, memorization, and being prepared for anything is vital in a debate competition.
“(The results can be determined based on what happens in the context of the round),” he said.
Last spring, EC made history by becoming the first community college to host the prestigious National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence.
