First tournament win for GC&SU debate team

By Angela Pentecost
Staff Writer

Georgia College & State University’s debate team won their first tournament on January 20 at the University of Florida.
Devon Sheppard and John Wright led the team to victory against Florida International University, who was previously number one. The decision (2-1) came from a panel of three judges.
Judge Eleanor Klingler said, “Devon’s speech was the best parliamentary speech I had ever heard.”
Sheppard was shocked at the announcement of their win.
“I’ve been debating for four years, and this is the first tournament I’ve ever won. This was also the first time John and I had ever debated together,” said Sheppard.
The tournament was based on the British Parliament. Each debater takes a name such as Prime Minister or a leader of opposition and acts as that person during the debate. They are then given a resolution and get 15 minutes to prepare for the extemporaneous event which lasts approximately an hour.
Out of 44 speakers, Sheppard placed 3rd and Wright placed 4th. Sheppard and Wright were the only team to have both team members receive high individual rankings.
Paul Holcomb, a student at GC&SU, helps coach the debate team and had this to say, “The final round was a perfect blend of argumentation and strategy. Not only did they debate well, they used techniques to throw the other team off.”
Dr. Scott Dillard is the coach of the debate team. Right now he is preparing the team for the state tournament at the end of February.
Dillard said, “Debate is only one component of our speech team. We also do individual events such as impromptu, informative and persuasion speaking and literary events.”
The debate team has represented GC&SU at Nationals for the past four years. They hope to do well enough this year to get extra funds from the school to go to Nationals in Colorado.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Feb 8 2002. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry