Recent successes and victories for the EC debate team places them in high ranks among other colleges as their final State and National Championships brought their season to a close.
“We were first in community colleges at the NPDA [National Parliamentary Debate Association,]” Francesca Bishop, director of forensics, said. “Our top team did so well in preliminaries that we got a bye in the first elimination round.”
The team’s success in the NPDA Championship Tournament placed them far above all other community colleges in the competition.
“We had the only two teams that made it to elimination round in community colleges at that tournament,” Mark Crossman, professor of speech communication, said. “There were no other community colleges in the elimination round.”
EC’s top teams garnered the attention of many college recruiters and improved their chances in the final and upcoming national tournament, Phi Rho Pi.
“Abigail Watkins and Andrew Escalante are being heavily recruited by many four year schools, and offered scholarships to get them to go to their schools. Either of them have a good chance of winning gold at Phi Rho Pi National Championships coming up,” Bishop said. “They are amazing competitors and really great people too.”
EC’s debate team is so good that they came out way ahead of many other colleges and universities in the recent state championship while they won the recent national championship.
“We finished third in junior colleges and we finished 11th in four year college and universities, and we won the NPDA Tournament,” Crossman said.
Not only does the debate team compete against local community colleges, but it held its own in competitions against top-tier colleges and universities.
“Out of 300 speakers Abigail was 14th,” Crossman said. “These were the best colleges, too.”
The time and effort put into building a strong team paid off when it came to pulling together and coming out ahead.
“During the preliminary debate rounds, we advanced two teams,” Bishop said. “We kind of crushed them. No other community colleges advanced. There was us and them and they were way down,” she said.
Having such a highly competitive team has motivated college administration to back their competitive advancement.
“We never get to go to this tournament because we can never afford the tournament,” Bishop said. “Rebecca Cobb, of student development, actually gave us championship funds to get this team to that tournament because this team was one of the most competitive, on a four year level, that we ever had. We really wanted to give them that experience.”
Students who play a critical role in building such a strong team often hear about the opportunity either through a friend, or through a communications class. Those who join sharpen their skills, and change their educational futures.
“I’ve always liked to argue and I found out about the program here. I heard it was really good and thought this was probably the best place I could test the waters with debate,” Alejandro Rivera, 20, accounting and communications major, said. “I had a friend on the debate team last year. I took Communication 4 over the summer and then I hit the ground running. It has really made my time worthwhile.”
