Debate program leads national rankings after La. tournaments

The SHSU Speech and Debate team now leads the national rankings after several awards in Shreveport, La. over the weekend.

Freshman Steve Sears and coach Adam Key lead the varsity and professional divisions respectively after surviving deep into the Red River Swing Tournament hosted by the Louisiana State University-Shreveport.

Sears was finished in second place at the tournament, but passed up Union University's Emily Welborn and University of Arkansas-Pine Bluff's Travis Adams to take the lead in the season long rankings in the International Public Debate Association.

 Last year, SHSU's Clayton Goss was both season-long champion as well as national tournament champion. It marked the second year in a row that SHSU captured both the season-long award and the national tournament in the same year.

Coach Adam Key was a semi-finalist in the tournament, extending his lead over the professional division of the organization. If he retains the title, it will mark the second consecutive year he will have won the award. He won the national tournament title as well in the 2009-2010 season.

As a whole, the team won first place debate sweepstakes and 5th place overall sweepstakes for the tournament. This marks the third, first place sweepstakes of the season and the second tournament in a row where the team won first place debate sweepstakes. This is also the second year in a row the team has taken first place sweepstakes at the Red River Swing, traditionally the largest regular season tournament each year.

In the Team division, Sam Houston was the only program to advance more than one team to elimination rounds. The team of junior Fabiola Sanchez and freshman Stacy Hood and the team of Sears and junior Zachary Bonno were quarterfinalists. Sanchez, also a team captain, was the first place speaker while Sears was third.

Individually, sophomore Bekka Frizzell was an octafinalist in the novice division.

SHSU will host a local tournament Feb. 3-4 and was awarded the opportunity to host the national tournament in March.

The team will take a well-deserved break until returning to competition December 2-3 at Mississippi College in Clinton, MS. Students interested in joining the team are encouraged to come to the weekly meeting on Thursdays at 6pm in Dan Rather 125 or contact the coaches at debate@shsu.edu.