University of Richmond Debate Team Cracks Top 25
March 2, 2009
Should the federal government substantially reduce its agricultural supports? The University of Richmond's nationally ranked debate team has all the answers--pro and con.
Coached by Kevin Kuswa and Kelly Congdon, Richmond's eight-person debate team has broken into rankings at No. 24 among such traditional powerhouses as Harvard and defending national champion Wake Forest and earned a bid to the 2009 national championship tournament.
"The main accomplishment behind the rankings is that we have novice, J.V. and varsity teams all doing well at their respective levels," Kuswa says.
In college debate competition, two-person teams speak both for and against the proposition of the year in alternating matches. They also cross-examine, trying to undermine each other's arguments, and then sum up their positions with closing rebuttals.
Richmond's debaters began researching this year's proposition about agricultural supports last summer and have continued throughout the academic year.
The varsity duo--senior Liz Lauzon of Spotsylvania, Va., and sophomore Ashley Fortner of Addison, Texas--has won 32 of 63 matches at 11 major tournaments around the nation this year, among them university's own 100-team Jay Weinberg Autumn Debate Tournament last October.
At a fall tournament hosted by the U.S. Military Academy (West Point), Lauzon and Fortner placed second. Later at the Naval Academy's tournament, Lauzon and Fortner were named the 4th- and 10th- best speakers respectively, out of the 60 debaters competing. Their biggest accomplishment was earning the invitation to the 2009 National Debate Tournament (NDT), the most competitive collegiate debate experience, March 26-29 at the University of Texas at Austin.
Novice teams include debaters with up to one year of experience. Richmond's novice pair of junior Max Vanderheyden of Bartlett, Texas, and freshman Lucas Hakkenberg of Salem, Va., reached the finals of Liberty University's tournament last fall.
Lauzon attributes Richmond's success to its coaches, who were college debaters themselves. As a student at Georgetown University, Kuswa and a teammate won the 1992 NDT. Congdon qualified for NDT quarterfinals his junior year at the University of Texas, earning an automatic invitation to nationals the next year.
"We have coaches who are really enthusiastic, who could absolutely get us there," Lauzon says.
Before Kuswa began coaching in 2001, Richmond had not qualified a team for the NDT since the 1970s and had won bids only four other times in school history. Since Kuswa's first year, Richmond has sent a team to nationals every year, with two teams qualifying in 2006.
Richmond's debate reputation continues to grow. The University of Richmond National Debate Institute on campus each summer coaches high school debaters from around the country. They often become prospective recruits after working with the university's debater and coaches, and learning about Richmond's top academic ratings and seeing its campus facilities.
There is no post-college competition, but Kuswa says debate is excellent preparation for law school, graduate school, and professional careers because it teaches how to research, analyze and communicate all sides of an issue.