Negating the opposition
Liberty debate team ends season in first place in the Cross Examination Debate Association championship, beats out teams including Harvard, Cornell and NYU
AFFIRMING SUCCESS — Students and coaches on the debate team posed with their various awards they received throughout their season.
Photo provided
The Liberty University debate team brought its season to a close with a win in the Cross Examination Debate Association (CEDA) championship and had a varsity team make it to the quarterfinals.
The team started the semester with a couple of losses to teams like George Mason University, according to Michael Hall, the director of the debate team.
“It was fun having the pressure and seeing the students perform well under the pressure,” Hall said.
“It feels a lot better to win when it is a question as to whether or not you will.”
The CEDA tournament is an open-invitation tournament, so any schools that want to participate have the opportunity.
“I was anticipating some challenging rounds and a lot of creative arguments at the CEDA championships, and my anticipations were met,” varsity debate team member and Liberty senior, Amanda Dabney said via email.
“My biggest highlight of the season would have to be watching partners Jeleesa Omala and Rakeem Robinson dominate in the limitation rounds at the CEDA tournament.”
Hall said even though he had confidence Liberty would be in the tournament, he had no idea they would do so well.
“Our focus for the CEDA tournament was to really hone in on the individual teams,” Hall said.
Hall said that out of the whole debate team of approximately 26 people there are various individual teams of two people.
The debate team as a whole could lose a competition but still have successful individual team performances.
“Personally, my partner and I won half of our rounds at the CEDA championship,” Dabney said.
“We were hoping to do slightly better, but overall we had a great time. I was so proud and amazed at how well some of my team members did though. It was truly a privilege to watch some of these debaters just thrive.”
Hall said the unexpected losses they experienced in the beginning of the spring semester drove the team to work really hard in preparation for the CEDA championship.
The team has already begun training for next year by doing things like watching videos of other debates and studying what it means to debate some unbiblical topics while staying grounded in the truth.
The team has ranked highly in tournaments since the early 2000s, while ranking in the CEDA championships for three years in a row now.
“We have a strong group of returning debaters, and I expect us to be strong again next year,” Hall said.
Many strong debaters are moving up from novice to junior varsity and junior varsity to varsity, but the team will also be losing several strong varsity seniors when they graduate this May, Hall said.
“This season was the most fun that I have had on the debate team yet,” Dabney said.
“The difference between this season compared to other seasons was the drive and motivation that each debater had towards perfecting their own arguments and desire to fight for every win, especially near the end of the season.
Laughlin is a news reporter.