WKU Forensic Team Looking To Retain Major Championships

March 05, 2007

Bowling Green, Ky. -March madness isn’t limited to the basketball court. Western Kentucky University’s international and national champion forensic team is gearing up for March -- and April -- madness.

For WKU’s award-winning speech and debate teams, the major season-ending tournaments for 2006-07 begin next week at the International Forensic Association World Championship (March 10-18) in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“We have a big target on our backs again this year,” said Judy Woodring, forensic director.
WKU will be seeking its eighth IFA championship in the past nine years and will be looking to repeat as national champions at the American Forensic Association National Individual Events Tournament on April 6-9 at Minnesota State in Mankato, Minn., and at the National Forensic Association National Tournament on April 19-23 at Berry College in Rome, Ga.

Last year, WKU became the first school to win the NFA’s Lincoln-Douglas debate award in three consecutive years. This year, WKU is seeking to add parliamentary debate titles in two national tournaments.

Woodring credits debate coach Glenn Prince, a former national champion, with bolstering WKU’s parliamentary debate teams. Four WKU teams are ranked in nation’s top 10 and will compete in the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence March 17-18 at the University of Wyoming.

“We’ve had a very good year so far,” Prince said. “We have a very good chance to win.”
As of March 1, WKU’s team of Joelle Perry and Thomas Schally was ranked No. 2 in the 2007 NPTE rankings out of 995 debate teams nationwide. Perry and Schally, who have spent most of the year ranked first or second, are followed by the WKU teams of Chad Meadows/Lauren Nelson at No. 3, Kasey Gardner/Keyon Shokraie at No. 4 and Joe Allen/Rachel Mosley at No. 7.

Those four teams and four more will compete March 22-25 in the National Parliamentary Debate Association tournament at Colorado College. Last year, Perry was named the NPDA’s top speaker and the WKU debate team placed third.

“We’ve made great strides in both parliamentary debate and Lincoln-Douglas debate the past two years,” Prince said.

In Lincoln-Douglas debate, competitors research and prepare for the same debate topic for the season (this year’s topic is renewable energy). In parliamentary debate, competitors are given their topic 15 to 20 minutes before their event. That means students have to be well-read and be able to discuss any topic, Woodring said.
 
While it’s hard to predict how well the WKU teams will do in international and national tournaments, Woodring is sure of one thing: “We’ve got an absolutely phenomenal group of coaches and students who will represent WKU well.”
               
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For information, contact Judy Woodring at (270) 745-6340.