Top of the WorldFourth Place, Semi Finalist Awards Go to Northwest Debate
Congratulations to Kevin Botterbusch and Nathan Chambers for reaching the final round of World Style debate at the Willamette University tournament Sunday February 26. The men were the only team out of 28 to win all of their pre-elimination rounds. Team captain Jordan Goddard and his partner Casey Digennaro also brought home a semi finalist plague. In addition to debate awards, each student is judged for speaking ability. Jordan received a wood gavel and engraved pen for ranking as the fifth best speaker out of 56. Nathan Chambers also received a gavel and pen for ranking as the seventh best speaker against some of the best debaters in the country. Nine colleges and universities including the University of Alaska, University of Utah, Oregon State, Occidental, George Fox and the Claremont Colleges brought their brightest students to spar over current event controversies at the one day event featuring a four team per round format of debate known in Great Britain as World's Style. American debaters are taking an interest in the World's format because the World Championships will be held at the University of British Columbia during winter break next year and many American teams plan to compete. John Meany, coach of the Claremont debate team and author of a textbook on World's Style debating, told Northwest professor and debate coach Gary Gillespie that he was very impressed by Botterbusch and Chambers and predicted that the men could be quite successful next year in Canada for the World’s meet. He mentioned that the Northwest University students possessed an outstanding understanding of philosophy which gave them an edge over their opponents. Kevin remarked that he used information about post modernism learned form Professor Smith at the Pentecostal lectureship series earlier this month on campus that helped him win two debates. Of the four teams in the final round, Botterbusch and Chambers were ranked fourth and were given the fourth place plaque. The University of Alaska won first, the University of Utah second and Willamette University placed third according to the ruling of the three judges. Northwest lead the four teams, being assigned to argue the opening proposition side favoring the resolution -- announced fifteen minutes before the round -- "The U.S. federal government should reduced its role in public education." Observers, coaches and students packed into the lecture hall to watch the final debate Sunday night. Every chair was taken and some had to sit on the floor or listen in the hall way outside the room. The Northwest students were quite impressive but they were assigned a difficult topic and the other teams were outstanding. Other topics debated at the contest included teaching intelligent design in public schools, upholding privacy rights for celebrities, tax dollars for faith based initiatives and capital punishment. The next tournament is an international competition in Prague, Czech Republic next week. The national championships tournament will be at Oregon State University the end of March when more than 600 students will attend. |