No Cinderellas—ESU debate team to compete at invite-only NDT

Political science Major Kurt Fifelski will make his first trip to the National Debate Tournament as a sophomore.

Senior speech communication & secondary education major Kelly Thompson draws inspiration from the photo of George R.R. Pflaum, an honored former debate coach at ESU.

Emporia State University’s debate team has snapped a three-year drought by receiving a bid to the National Debate Tournament (NDT) in Long Beach, Calif. Only 78 teams in the country receive a bid to participate in the tournament every year, so it is quite an accomplishment for team members Kurt Fifelski and Kelly Thompson.

“We’ve had a terrific season, consistently winning and beating good teams,” said James Taylor, assistant debate coach at ESU. “But we’ve come on strong in the spring.”

The team, ESU FT (Fifelski and Thompson) was ranked outside of the top 78 teams in the Ratings Percentage Index at the beginning of the spring semester and finished ranked number 67. “Neither Kelly or Kurt has the debate experience that is usually required for getting a bid to the NDT,” said Samuel Maurer, director of debate at ESU. “But two words explain fully how they pulled it off—elbow grease.”

Combined, Thomson and Fifelski have spent hundreds of hours this year practicing, researching, filing and watching film. “It does require a lot of time to be good,” said Thompson. “But we want to be great, and that takes more time.”

The team has been well aware all season that it has been three years since ESU had a team compete at the NDT. “Running with the drought metaphor, our M.O. all season has been ‘make it rain,’” said Fifelski, a sophomore from Wayland, Mich.

While preparing and traveling, ESU FT has also maintained strong academic performance. The ESU debate team as a whole earned a 3.09 GPA for the fall semester.

In debate, there are no divisions (I or II, etc.) so ESU will compete against the best in the country. Thus, Emporia State will be pitted in intellectual combat against Berkeley, Harvard, Dartmouth, Emory, Northwestern, USC, Texas, and Wake Forest, to name a few.

Although ESU will be one of the smallest schools represented at the NDT, team members don’t think of themselves as underdogs. “They’re the underdogs because we work harder,” said Thompson. “This is the thinking that got us here and we’re hoping it will get us to elimination debates.”

Debate tournaments run like a professional sports season packed into one weekend. At the NDT, ESU will have to win a minimum of five debates to reach the elimination rounds.

“It will be a challenge but so was getting here,” said Maurer. “And we didn’t come this far to get our rear-ends handed to us in Long Beach.”

Thompson, a senior from Alma, adds, “There are no Cinderellas—just people who work hard and people who work harder. The latter wins.”

Last Updated March 26, 2008>