Busy October for the Trojan Debate Squad

November 7, 2002 — As the last of the competitors left USC this past weekend, the Trojan Debate squad was able to reflect on another tremendous month for Trojan Debate; a month that ended with the Trojans ranked third nationally in two prominent polls.

The busy October included the Trojan policy squad competing at the University of Kentucky and Pepperdine University while the parliamentary team competed at Claremont College and then the squad hosted Trojan Championships, a high school speech and debate tournament that featured over one thousand competitors, coaches and judges representing sixty-five schools from eight states.

At the prestigious University of Kentucky Henry Clay debates, seniors Corey Turoff and Erik Holland advanced to the Sweet 16. At the Pepperdine Ray Buchanan Invitational, the Trojans continued their string of impressive regional performances by qualifying six teams for the elimination rounds. The Trojans battled on with Turoff and Holland finishing as the second place team. Four Trojans were recognized as outstanding speakers, including sophomores Sameer Asad and Mitchell Tsai.

On the first weekend of November, the Trojans hosted the annual Trojan Championships, a high school speech and debate tournament that draws schools from all over the nation. This year's tournament was the largest in two decades and featured outstanding performances from a number of students. Glennbrook North High School (Chicago, Il) finished both first and second in varsity team debate while Phoenix County Day (Phoenix, Az) won the junior varsity division in a close debate over West High School (Salt Lake City, Ut). Harker High School (San Jose, CA) was recognized as the overall sweepstakes award winner.

The Trojans yearlong success is visible in new national rankings. In recently released ranking reports, the Trojans are currently 3rd in both the varsity and overall divisions of the National Debate Tournament programmatic rankings. The Cross Examination Debate Association has USC ranked 7th in its most recent report. These rankings reflect performances by multiple two-person teams from the same school and are a reflection of the squad's hard work.

November promises to be another exciting month. This coming Monday, November 11th, the Trojan squad will debate a traveling team from Great Britain on the question of war with Iraq.

This weekend the policy and parliamentary Trojans can be found competing at Cal State Northridge tournament, hosted by USC alum Becky Opsata. Next weekend the squad travels to Winston-Salem, NC for the Wake Forest Debate tournament before taking a break for Thanksgiving.

To learn more about the Trojan Debate Squad, visit our virtual home http://annenberg.usc.edu/debate or email Gordon Stables at stables@usc.edu.