USU's Debate Team Completes Competition Year

Utah State University’s Speech and Debate team closed out the season placing 19th at the Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament in Portland, Oregon, in March. The team entered the event looking to repeat its success from 2009-10 by capturing both the conference and national titles in debate. After winning the conference for the seventh consecutive year, the Aggies fell short in the national competition March 24-26.

The tournament was held at Mt. Hood Community College between 83 teams competing in more than 1,400 speech entries and nearly 500 debate entries. Individuals compete in categories such as broadcast journalism, impromptu speaking, persuasive speaking and dramatic interpretation. Eight Aggies competed in several types of debate, preparing speeches around advancements in medicine, diploma mills and the misuse of emergency services. They returned with 11 individual awards.

“We didn’t do as well as we hoped as a team, but we had a lot of individual success,” said senior Tim Worthen. “We have limited funding. We don’t have money for scholarships. It’s been hard paying for travel with the state budget cuts, but it’s a real testament to what we can do.”

The team’s top performer was freshman Jared Arnell. He placed third in NFA-LD debate, a category where two competitors use evidence to debate one another. Arnell, an aerospace engineer, also earned Superior awards in both persuasive speaking and broadcast journalism, meaning he placed in the top 10 percent in speaker points.

“For me, one of the main deciding factors about where to go to college was that the school had a good debate team,” he said. “I checked out USU and saw that they were national champions last year. I thought, ‘that’s a good team for me to join.’”

The USU Speech and Debate team is based in the Department of Languages, Philosophy and Speech Communication in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. It competes against 30 schools and programs from the states of Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana in the Northwest Forensic Conference. The team was established seven years ago by volunteer coach Tom Worthen and has won the Northwest Forensic Conference every year since. Worthen stepped down before the 2010-11 season due to scheduling conflicts with work. His son, Tim, is a veteran team member studying secondary education. He placed 5th in the IPDA category where two competitors debate using logical arguments without evidence.

Worthen also scored in the top 20 percent for persuasive speaking.

Additional awards went to team members Justin Hinh who was recognized as a top presiding officer in legislative debate; John Kimball and Andy Bouwman who were top scorers in the editorial impromptu category; and Jeff Denison who earned top marks for dramatic interpretation.

After their strong tournament performance, the team is eager to begin preparations for next season — particularly those members who enjoy introducing speech and debate to new members.

“More than competing, I love teaching debate and sharing it with others,” Bouwman said. “In speech and debate we have conversations about real-world events; we talk about things that really matter.”

Students who are interested in participating on next year’s team should contact Tim Worthen at tim.w@aggiemail.usu.edu.

Complete results from the tournament are online.

USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Writer: Kristen Munson, (435) 797-0267, kristen.munson@usu.edu

Contact: Tim Worthen, tim.w@aggiemail.usu.edu