Debate team begins the year strong

The Emporia State University debate team began the year with a bang. The team of Kelly Thompson, junior secondary education major and Kurt Fifelski, freshman political science major won the first tournament of 2007.  The tournament was the first half of the "Texas Two Step," two tournaments held back-to-back in the Dallas area.  The team of Fifelski and Thompson won the junior varsity division at the first tournament (hosted by the University of North Texas) and finished in semi-finals at the second half of the two-step (hosted by the University of Texas-Dallas).

"Attending a swing tournament is pretty demanding," said James Taylor, assistant coach of the ESU debate team.  "These kids have to give-up half of their winter break to go spend 12-14 hours a day debating for 7 days."

 A "swing" tournaments, like the two-step, consist of two tournaments held back-to-back and are usually scheduled for winter break to avoid extensive absence from school. 

"Three days after Christmas, we were back at it in the squad-room practicing, filing, and doing drills" Fifelski said.

Thompson was honored as seventh speaker and first speaker at the tournaments respectively.  "Kelly has a great attitude in class and in practice," said Sam Maurer, director of debate. "It is really starting to come across in his competitive success."  This is the second time Kelly has been honored as the top speaker this year (the first time at the Joe C. Jackson Classic at the University of Central Oklahoma). 

"I really can't say enough about this kid's work ethic," Maurer said. "We're talking about a student who is pulling down top-speaker awards regularly and carried better than a 3.8 GPA last semester.  He is on pace to be an Academic All-American."

The debate team's next tournament will be at Augustana University, January 20-23.  "There is a month-and-a-half long break between the ending of fall tournaments and the beginning of spring tournaments," Maurer said.  "The Texas-Two-Step has demonstrated that long amount of down-time has not left us rusty.  We never think further than one round in advance, but we're optimistic about our next opportunity based on how the semester started." 

Last Updated July 2, 2007>