With Union President Samuel “Dub” Oliver in attendance, the Union University Debate Team won the national tournament for the second consecutive year and the season-long title for the fifth consecutive year in a competition held on March 24-27 in Spokane, Washington.
The season-long title, called the Founders’ Award, is given to the team with the most points from its top six tournaments earned over the entire season. Because Union only attended six tournaments prior to nationals, every tournament counted toward the title. Union was one of 124 teams competing for the title.
The national tournament victory is the team’s fifth in eight years. While about 20-25 students normally go to tournaments throughout the season, fifteen Union students competed in the national tournament against 55 other teams.
Debate cultivates skills such as public speaking, critical thinking, teamwork, social skills, social maturity and the ability to deal with wins and losses, as well as a broader knowledge in a wide variety of subjects. Union’s debate team has won more tournaments at the national level than any other national competitor in the past eight years.
Dr. Web Drake, head coach of Union’s debate team and department chair of the communication arts department, has been coaching collegiate debate since 1998. Drake notes that, despite its growth throughout the year, the team faced some challenges.
“We integrated a lot of new people onto the team this year, so we had a little bit of a culture shift this year,” Drake said. “The young folks, the novices, and the JV folks really stepped up and did a great job. This year was more about maintenance, maintaining the area that we’re in. Sometimes staying on the top of the mountain can be just as difficult as getting to the top.”
Drake says that having Oliver travel with the team to the tournament was a “delight” and that Drake is content with the team’s accomplishments.
“We just had a really successful run,” Drake said. “It was a really close tournament. We only won by three points. It was really, really close. It was a nail-biter right down to the very end. Great competition. Great kids. They really represented themselves, they represented Union, they represented their Savior really, really well. I was very proud of the work that they did.”
Juliana White, freshman TESOL major and debate team member, was one of the competitors in the tournament. White, who won second place in the novice division, was instrumental in securing the team’s national championship.
The tournament is based on a point system. White, who debated the rise and fall of the stock market and argued that the stock market’s volatility is a sign of things to come, gained two points from winning her semifinal round and one point from competing in her final round. The team won the tournament by three points.
White, who had no prior experience in debate before coming to Union last fall, says that she has grown in teamwork, knowledge and presentation skills since joining the team.
“It’s just been really helpful to learn from my teammates and their different areas of expertise and different walks of life and just grow in knowledge and hear other people’s opinions and experiences,” White said. “I’ve also grown in my ability to present myself and present ideas in a way that is concise and coherent in order to just present an argument and formulate ideas. That’s something that’s really important to do in just any way of life, to be able to present information well.”
White says that one of the biggest blessings about competing in the debate circuit is the opportunity to develop relationships with students from other schools.
“I’ve made several friends within the circuit already this year, and I know that other teammates have friends from other schools that they’ve debated against for years,” White said. “It’s really awesome to be able to be salt and light. That’s something that we say as a debate team, we want to be salt and light among the circuit and among our fellow debaters. It’s just been really a blessing to be able to do that this year.”
To recognize and celebrate the team’s achievements, Jackson Mayor Jerry Gist proclaimed April 5 to be Union University Debate Team Day last week.
