The MTSU Blue Raider Debate Team is wrapping up another
successful season in which members continued sharpening their oratory and
reasoning skills against fellow collegians around the country.
The team competes in National Parliamentary Debate
Association (NPDA) and International Public Debate Association (IPDA) debate
formats. In NPDA competition, two-person teams debate head-to-head in multiple
rounds, with a new topic presented each round. In IPDA formats, debaters
primarily go one-on-one, with various time limits in effect for both formats.
“Coming off of last year's National Championship
victory, MTSU's debaters continue to show that they can hold
their own and excel,” said team coach Dr. Patrick G. Richey, director of
forensics at MTSU. “I am lucky to have such dedicated and
intelligent students on this team.”
The team began the year at the University of the Cumberlands
in early September with two semifinalists emerging during the IPDA competition,
according to team captain Michaela Edwards, a senior from Nashville, Tennessee,
with a double major in communication studies and psychology.
That was followed by a successful visit to the University of
North Georgia where MTSU took first place in IPDA sweepstakes, third place in NPDA
sweepstakes, and third place in overall sweepstakes at the annual “Chicken and
Egg Debates.”
This included Abby Howard, a junior a communication studies
major from Smyrna, Tennessee, as tournament winner in the junior varsity
division and more than nine speaker awards, including first place by junior
communication studies major Abbey Barnes of Morristown, Tennessee, in the
Varsity Division.
Blue Raider Debate continued north to Walters State
Community College in Morristown later in the fall where the team won the
tournament in the open division (debaters Samantha Abbott, a sophomore
marketing major from Hendersonville, Tennessee, and Colonial Geiger, a junior
computer science major from Fairview, Tennessee) and third place in sweepstakes
overall.
The team rounded out the fall semester at Valdosta State
University taking first place in overall sweepstakes and having second place
finalists in both the novice and varsity divisions. This was coupled with a
great showing in NPDA as team members Abbey Barnes and Leigh Stanfield, a
senior communication studies major from Soddy-Daisy, Tennessee, went to semifinals
and Stanfield won first place speaker in the open division.
The spring semester saw the team do well in both the Southeast
Regionals/University of Tennessee-Knoxville’s Volunteer Classic as well as the
annual Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics Association (TIFA) Tournament,
taking a novice to semifinals at UTK and winning three speaker awards.
Freshman Breyhana Johnson, a fashion merchandise major from
Chicago, took the novice division at the Tennessee Intercollegiate Forensics
Association State Championship as well as second place speaker in the division.
The team is currently fundraising in hopes of traveling to Pi Kappa Delta
Nationals in March and IPDA Nationals in April to defend its national title.
“MTSU Blue Raider Debate is not only a competitively based
team, we are also a community-based team,” Edwards said.
During fall semester, the team hosted a “Think Before You
Vote” event on campus highlighting key issues and differences between the main Democratic
candidates for president. A similar event was held in the spring for the Republican
primaries hoping.
“We are also heavily involved with the local homeschool
leagues and volunteered to judge their local tournament,” Edwards said.
Last month, some team members joined debaters from Belmont
University in Nashville to participate in a citywide model debate at
Murfreesboro City Hall sponsored by the Murfreesboro/Rutherford County League
of Women Voters.
Later this spring, the team will travel to Memphis to judge
the Memphis Urban Debate League City Championship, a high school program geared
toward at-risk schools in the urban areas of Memphis.
For more information about the MTSU Blue Raider Debate, contact
Patrick Richey at patrick.richey@mtsu.edu or visit www.mtsu.edu/debate.
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