by Kelly Rogge
This was supposed to be a rebuilding year for the Kansas City Kansas Community College Debate Team.
After most of the team left after the 2014-2015 season, one of the most successful in program history, expectations were not high. But like KCKCC has done in the past, the debate team ignored those expectations and in spectacular fashion proved once again why it is a perennial powerhouse.
“I think some schools still think of us as ‘just a community college,’ but certainly many others know we are for real and mean business,” said Darren Elliott, KCKCC debate team coach. “The team works really hard, has amazing leadership from the advanced members of the squad, and we have great assistant coaches in Scott Elliott, Andy Montee and Sohail Jouya.”
KCKCC brought home multiple national championships this year including the National Forensics Association’s Lincoln Douglas Debate National Championship, won by sophomore Alex Glanzman. What makes this win even more important is that it marks the first time in tournament history that a community college has won this championship.
“We went into the NFA with only three people and took second place,” said Scott Elliott, assistant debate team coach. “I definitely think it is this group’s work ethic that has made them so successful – their determination and the amount of work they put into preparing for each tournament.”
Among the season honors and awards the debate team picked up this year:
• National Forensics Association – Alex Glanzman, Lincoln Douglas Debate National Champion; Nahshon Thomas, top 24 in poetry interpretation and second place overall in Debate Sweepstakes.
• CEDA – Community College National sweepstakes champions (12th time in 14 years).
• National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE) – Top Community College Team, Alex Glanzman and John Williams and 10th place overall.
• NPDA National Championships – Fifth place overall.
• Phi Rho Pi – Dylan Willett, National Champion Gold in Lincoln Douglas Debate; Dylan Willett and John Williams, National Champion Gold in Parliamentary Debate; Gold in Debate Sweepstakes; Silver in overall sweepstakes; John Williams, Maggie Unruh and Allen Easley, Silver in Lincoln Douglas Debate at Phi Rho Pi and Tyler Rowe, Silver in Dramatic Interpretation of Literature.
• Darren Elliott received Parliamentary Coach of the Year Award.
• Scott Elliott received Coaching Fellowship Award at Phi Rho Pi.
• Nahshon Thomas received Student Fellowship Award at Phi Rho Pi.
“This is a great program, especially for those who are willing to put the work into it,” said sophomore Nahshon Thomas. “You definitely get what you put into the program.”
Darren Elliott said what helps to make the program successful is the support from not only the administration, but from the KCKCC Board of Trustees, the college deans, faculty and support staff.
“I enjoy seeing how a young team has succeeded. That means a lot,” he said. “But watching Alex literally fall to his knees when he won the National Championship at NFA really was one of the highlights of the year.”
Glanzman said this has been a real year of success, breaking into the elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament, NPTE and NFA tournaments and earning speaker awards in all three types of debate (Policy, Parliamentary and Lincoln Douglas) – one of the only people in the nation to do so. He cites work ethic as the reason for not only his success, but the KCKCC debate team as a whole.
“My work ethic is the only reason I have been successful as an individual. I know walking into a room that I put more work into it than they do,” he said. “I don’t feel stressed when I am getting ready for a round. The moment I walk into it; I know I am going to win it.”
Willett, a freshman at KCKCC, said he was not expecting to do well this season. However, in his first tournament, he made it to finals. While he had fun in his first season as a Blue Devil, he said he sometimes felt the pressure of being part of such a successful program.
“I would feel relief when I would get to the end of the rounds, knowing I did what I was supposed to do to live up to KCKCC’s name,” he said. “We all got along, which I think fueled us to do better. I am very excited to think about what we can do as a team next year to continue that legacy.”
Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at Kansas City Kansas Community College.