Debate team competes in national tournament

Zack Quaintance
Daily Egyptian

While sports fans were glued to their televisions watching the NCAA Tournament, the SIUC debate team was having some March Madness of its own. The team finished in the top 32 of nearly 200 teams at the 2005 Cross Examination Debate Association Tournament, which took place last week at San Francisco State University. SIUC shocked the competition when it beat a team from the University of California at Berkley. "In that round, everything was clicking," said Paul Bellinger, a senior from Omaha, Neb., studying political science. "They weren't prepared for our argument. We pretty much wailed on them."

The annual debate competition has a lot in common with the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, Bellinger said. Qualifying teams are given a seed, placed in a bracket and eliminated after one loss. Teams score points with skilled arguments instead of lay ups or open jumpers. Just like in basketball, defeat is hard for debaters to handle. "The CEDA National Tournament, people cry when they lose," Bellinger said. "For a lot of people, it's their last chance." Bellinger, a four-year debate team veteran, wasn't reaching for a tissue when the tournament ended. Even though the team was knocked out a round short of the debate equivalent of the Sweet 16, Bellinger's speaking earned him the title of 18th best debater in the nation.

"It's great to be in the top 20 speakers," Bellinger said. "After working this hard for four years, it's nice to be recognized as one of the best in the country." Bellinger said it's rare to see schools with smaller debate programs, such as SIUC, beat bigger programs like Berkley. Berkley fielded three different teams. SIUC had three team members total. "We're always an underdog team simply because of lack of resources," Bellinger said. Justin Hingtgen, a junior from Des Moines, Iowa, studying business management, is the other half of the national-qualifying team. Hingtgen said not having as many resources for researching as well as judges who favor better known schools is an obstacle the team faces every year.

"A team like us, that only has two debaters and a coach, is already facing an uphill battle to compete at the level we do," Hingtgen said. "Paul and I could beat any team on the circuit this year. I'm very confident. Judges vote against us because we're not a big-name school." After the duo beat Berkley, the team faced the University of West Georgia, a team Hingtgen said was known for jokes at the expense of opposing team's arguments. "West Georgia is the funniest team in debate," Hingtgen said. "They're really hilarious. The place was packed with people wanting to see their jokes." Hingtgen said they knew they were going to lose to West Georgia, so they used their round to make a point. "Instead of engaging them in their debate about jokes and humor, we decided to take a stance against racism."

Hingtgen said West Georgia opened the round with the humor for which it is known. Instead of responding with a normal argument, Bellinger and Hingtgen read from a book about racism titled "The Possessive Investment in Whiteness." Hingtgen said the reading moved a judge to tears. "There was no laughing after that," Hingtgen said. "A lot of people got up and left, everyone of them being white. It was better to go out that way instead of losing on some debate jargon." Hingtgen said they were happy they did this well because it was Bellinger's last year.

Todd Graham, the team's head coach, is out of town this week doing his best to recruit a replacement for Bellinger. "He was pretty much the leader of the team," Graham said. "It's hard to replace someone like that." Bellinger said he isn't bitter that thousands of offices around the country are betting on college basketball, while only 40 people are considered a capacity crowd at a debate tournament. "What would you rather watch?" Bellinger said. "It's a lot more exciting for a spectator to watch basketball than two hours of people arguing, but this is pretty exciting if you're heavily involved in debate."