Month: May 2015

With three national championships, a visit to the final four and numerous other awards, the Kansas City Kansas Community College Debate and Forensics Team has just ended perhaps one of the most successful seasons in the program’s history.

To kick-off this year’s round of national tournaments, the team of Matt Casas and Anthony Joseph won the 2015 National Parliamentary Debate Tournament, held by KCKCC in March.

Not only was the duo the first team from a community college to make it to the final round of the NPDA National Tournament, they won in a close 5-4 decision against Southern Illinois University, whose team won the tournament in 2014.

KCKCC’s second national title came at the Cross-Examination Debate Association Tournament in April where KCKCC won its 10th Community College National Title in 12 years. Nicole Nave and John Williams secured a third national title at Phi Rho Pi, making it 12 years in a row KCKCC has won at least one debate event at that national tournament exclusively for community colleges.

“I think a lot of it has to do with the commitment each of these students puts into the team,” said Darren Elliott, KCKCC debate coach. “They work hard to prove themselves. It takes a little bit more to compete against these four-year universities, and I think that determination is what gives them their drive.”

With a handful of national tournaments in just a matter of a few weeks, KCKCC racked up additional qualifications and awards. Among these are:
• National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence – Alex Glanzman and John Williams attended the tournament and qualified for elimination rounds where they were eliminated in the second elimination round, finishing in the top 32.
• CEDA – Casas and his partner Nicole Nave placed third at the tournament. KCKCC is the first community college in the tournament’s history to finish in the final four. The team of Brian Gonzaba and Anthony Joseph placed in the top 32. In addition, Nave placed third and Casas placed 15th in the Top Speaker Awards and both were named CEDA All-Americans.
• National Debate Tournament – Casas and Nave placed in the top 32 at the tournament. Gonzaba and Joseph originally qualified to the tournament as an alternate team, but were selected to go just two days before the tournament after another team dropped out. This is the first time that any community college has had two teams at the NDT in the same year in its 69-year history.
• American Forensics Association-National Individual Events Tournament – Tyler Rowe, John Williams and Nashon Thomas all qualified for the tournament. Rowe competed in duo interpretation with Williams as well as dramatic interpretation, program of oral interpretation and poetry; Williams competed in poetry, dramatic interpretation and program of oral interpretation and Thomas competed in impromptu speaking, poetry and program of oral interpretation. This is the first time in four years KCKCC has had qualifiers at the tournament.
• Phi Rho Pi – Nicole Nave and John Williams both placed first in Lincoln-Douglas Debate, while Anthony Joseph placed third. KCKCC placed second in Debate Sweepstakes.
“This has definitely been one of the most successful seasons we have ever had,” Elliott said. “In terms of winning a varsity national championship and how we did at the NDT and CEDA; no community college has ever gotten that far in either of those tournaments.”

With almost all of the KCKCC debate team leaving this year due to graduation, next season will be a bit of a rebuilding year. Nave said it is a bittersweet moment leaving the college where she has learned so much.

“To do so well at a community college really puts the pressure on as I look toward competing at a university,” she said. “But we are all onto bigger, better and beautiful things, and I am not sure what is more beautiful than this team.”

Both Casas and Joseph said the time they have spent at KCKCC has prepared them for whatever comes next.

“It feels good,” Casas said reflecting on the season. “I have gotten so much out of debate that I feel like even if I exit this activity, I have still been incredibly successful.”

Scott Elliott, assistant debate and forensics coach at KCKCC, attributes much of the success in policy debate to the help of Ryan Wash, an Emporia State graduate and former National Champion in CEDA and NDT. Wash served as an assistant coach during the spring semester.

“He played an integral part in what happened this season,” he said. “He was coaching, judging and really stepped up to get them ready.”

Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at Kansas City Kansas Community College.