MCC-Longview debater moves toward April’s national tournament with a successful season.

The team brought home victories in multiple events, including the Webster University tournament in St. Louis, one of the largest tournaments of the year.

“We used this tournament as an opportunity to put our nationals team in place so that we could start playing with new strategies,” coach Kris Stroup said.

Debaters Natalie Reeves and Jonathan Stacey partnered to compete in parliamentary debate for the first time as a team.

“Although the team did not advance to the elimination rounds of the Webster tournament, the outing there gave both debaters a lot of experience, collaborating with debaters from Truman State University, as they prepare for the national tournament in April,” Stroup Stroup.

All the experience gained at the Webster match seems to have paid off for Reeves and Stacey. In the next event, the team crossed state lines to win the Kansas Wesleyan tournament, where Reeves and Stacey brought home victories as individuals and as a parliamentary debate team, and advanced all the way to the quarterfinals, which is as far as any community college team advanced.

Rebecca Burandt, a new student, competed in her first college level debate had a round win over University of Central Missouri’s varsity competitors.

Longview’s highly successful debate team, like any successful franchise, has changed hands. Speech and Debate Instructor Kris Stroup, who left Truman State University to take over Longview debate, has taken over for 10-year leader Bill Cue.

What does it mean to be part of a championship debate team?

“Debate is 90 percent looking like you know what you’re doing, and 10 percent make the judges think you do,” Stroup says. He looks like he knows what he’s doing, so it must be true…right?

The team will host a major tournament on the Longview campus October 29-30.

Academic Achievement
Letisha Atkinson, Jakobb Baldwin, Neil Bradshaw, Valarie Butler, Leslie Byrd, Richard Dellheim, Jason Demar, Sarah Gates, Jennifer Goodale, Kelly Hawkins, Brenda Higginbotham, Nancy Hill, Janet Kinnaird, Lisa LeGrande, Dustin Nicolaisen, Amanda Piskuric, Hannah Ray, Justine Reece, Cassandra Reynolds, Michelle Rice, Dominic Schoenherr, Danielle Schreck, Joseph Sparks, Guy Spragg, Mary Switzer, Laura Teghtmeyer                                                                                                                                                    

Honors Program
Samantha McReynolds

PTK Enhanced Membership
Cynthia Bradley, JR Byers, Hajah Kamara, Nicole Maxwell, Samantha McReynolds,  Isaac Neal, Donna Swisher, Erin York

All-Missouri Academic Team Members
Samantha McReynolds, Erin York

Outstanding Student in Math, Physics, or Engineering
David Amaro

Shorelines Awards
Art/Photography: 1st Place–Noshaba Bakht,    2nd Place–Ruby Smith, 3rd Place–Brenda Phillips.  Poetry: 1st Place–Mary Mayhugh, 2nd Place–Barbara Spencer, 3rd Place–Erin York.     Prose:   1st Place–Victoria Hadel, 2nd Place–Mark Rayhart

Crystal M. Field Award for Student Writing
Erin York

Outstanding Alumni Service
Sallie Mathis

Outstanding Alumni Achievement
Jay’Lynn Cullison

Debater of the Year
Chris Rodriguez

Individual Events Speaker of the Year
Jacob Harvey

Outstanding Baseball Athlete
Spiker Helms

Outstanding Cross Country Athlete
Stevie Katzer

Outstanding Volleyball Athlete
Meghan Stratton

Outstanding Student in Automotive Technology
Tom Finley

Breaking Traditions
Ysabel Arias

Outstanding Student Leader
Susan Long

Outstanding Contribution to the College
Erin York, Casey Reid

Outstanding Contribution to a Special Interest Group
Samanatha McReynolds, John O’Connell

Outstanding Student Advocate
Dorothy Hull

MCC-Longview hosted debaters from Manchester, England, who are touring the States and bring a totally unique variety and style of debate. The Englishmen debated Longview’s team October 1, 2009 in the Cultural Arts Center.

The English debaters are Dan Bradley and Andrew Tuffin, both graduates of the University of Manchester, and both veterans of the trade. For Bradley it wasn’t his first time in the United States. He studied in Idaho for a summer.

“Longview was one of the best audiences we’ve had so far,” he said. “It was a great turn out, and the audience seemed to enjoy the debate and actually paid attention.”

Tuffin said he is a newcomer. “This is my first time in America, and it’s totally wicked. We’re being well taken care of and the variety in America, it’s wicked. Just the variety is so amazing,” he said.

Debate team meet the King and Queen of Shreveport (Official Photo).

by Michael Bartlett

Longview’s debate and speech team finished up a trip to Shreveport, LA for Nationals with awards in multiple events.

Longview was named the “top community college competitor in three events,” according to debate team coordinator Bill Cue.

In the debate sweepstakes Longview’s Debate Team finished second in the nation along with finishing second in the nation in the Overall Sweepstakes.

• Joshua Greene finished the event with High Distinction-Impromptu and the top community college student in the nation. He also finished with Distinction in Informative Speaking.
• Danielle Fulmer finished with High Distinction in Oral Interpretation and finished second in the nation among community college students.
• Jon Cook finished with Distinction in Impromptu Speaking.
• Jon Cook and Joshua Greene finished in fourth place in the two year division as a debate team, and was named Top Community College debate team.
• Natalie Reeves and Tyler Wilson finished fourth place in the first year division in debate. They tied for Top Community College debate team.

MCC-Longview hosted the Missouri State debate and forensics tournament on April 20th and the 21st of March.

The statewide tournament, in addition to Longview, included Southwest Baptist University, the University of Central Missouri, Northwest Missouri State University, Evangel University, Drury University, Webster University, Truman State University, William Jewell College, Baptist Bible College and Midwest Baptist College.

“Traditionally, Longview holds a tournament in the fall,” said William Cue, Longview debate coach and state tournament director. “The state tournament rotates among schools throughout the state,” he said.

Cue was both in charge of hosting and was the administrative direction of the tournament. He was assisted by a tournament staff made up of competitors from Webster University, Missouri Southern and Truman State. While Cue was assisted by people from Webster University, Missouri Southern and Truman State, the judges of the tournament came from a larger backdrop.

“The judges are comprised of professors and graduates of attending schools as well as local judges,” Cue went on, “As the host, I contacted graduate students from Kansas University as well as having some Longview faculty members serving as judges.”

“I was really impressed with the level of competition of the competing schools,” said tournament judge and Longview professor of political science Kathryn Cochran.

Longview competed in both debate and individual events. The John Cook and Natalie Reeves duo went 3-0 in the preliminary rounds and Tyler Wilson and Steven Pollard went 3-1. Both teams eventually lost to overall state champion Southwest Baptist.

“While I am extremely pleased with the competitive success that we had, the large goal of our program is to develop effective communication skills for all students who participate,” Cue said. “This is an integral part of the educational goal of MCC, and forensics provides the opportunity for students to work on improving their communication skills through participation in the activity,” said Cue.

Longview finished the season with five competitors qualifying for the national tournament. John Cook, Natalie Reeves, Tyler Wilson, Danielle Fulmer and Josh Greene will travel to Shreveport, La. on March 14 to compete.

“No matter what we accomplish, we are proud of what happens because we can say we tried our hardest and have no regrets,” said Longview debater Tiffany Smith.

If Longview’s debate team qualifies for nationals this year, they wouldn’t be traveling to the Portland, Oregon competition on Longview’s dime.

Proving that MCCKC is not immune to economic woes, this year debate will be paying for their own trip if they qualify and raise enough money.

“We are trying to see if there are opportunities to get outside support,” said debate coach William Cue.

Funds are evidently less available than in years past. A recent traveling history included trips to cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia and most recently St. Louis last Thursday.

The debate squad will still compete in Phi Rho Delta, a tournament for junior colleges.

The stance taken by Cue was echoed by the debaters as well. “We are trying to avoid the whole bake sale theme,” said debater Jon Hokenson, when referring to possible fund raising strategies.

Fund raising is essentially more difficult for academic teams and groups as opposed to sports teams according to Cue.

“Students can’t devote huge amounts of time due to outside jobs,” said Cue. Not only that, but many outside jobs are devoted to paying for college, books, and living arrangements. Not much is left over for financing trips.

“It’s hard to find time outside of working and classes but debate is definitely well worth it,” said debater Josh Greene.

Despite feeling the weight of work, classes, and debate, students clearly take enjoyment out of competition whether it is practice or tournament. Practices, which often consist of debates within the team on a topic chosen by Cue, can be intense pitting teams of two against each other with little time to form an argument.

“Debate is the main reason I am still at Longview,” said Greene. “At least for me, debate has been the cornerstone.”

Cue understands and accepts the circumstances every team and group at Longview faces, as does his team. “How we react says a lot about who we are,” said Cue.

Outstanding Academic
Achievement:
Julia Black
Joel Boldrey
Patricia Clark
Ryan Crossland
Tim Cunningham
Mia Dale
Jennifer Goodman
Stephen Howe
Gregg Kessler
Eric Lambert
Deborah Emelee Liggett
Erin Jackson
Jill Lomonte
Ginger Martens
George Martin
Ryan McGee
Juliet Peel
Richard Rathbone
Francine Roberts
Sara Sampson
Natalie Smith
Audrey Swope
Heather Vanderpool
Tiffany Wallace
Benjamin Zibers
Deborah Zimmerman

Honors Program Graduates:
Douglas Bergman
David Griswold

PTK Enhanced Membership:
Allison Coontz
Karen Fletcher
Chris Palmer
Laura Robbins
Melissa VanderWal

All-Missouri Academic Team Members:
Andrew W. Morton
Chris Palmer

Outstanding Students in Math, Physics or Engineering:
Luke Harmon
Audrey Swope

Crystal M. Field Award
for Student Writing:
Danielle Hays

Outstanding Alumni
Achievement:
Denise Farris

Outstanding Alumni Service:
Carma Dodd

Debater of the Year:
Calvin Anderson

Outstanding Baseball Athlete:
Nick Basham
Rhett Rigby

Outstanding Cross Country/Track Athlete:
Krystal Porter

Outstanding Volleyball Athletes:
Marissa Bartolotta
Stefanie Williams

General Motors World Class Technician:
Rory Perrodin

Outstanding Student in Automotive Technology:
Micah Klausen

Outstanding Student Leader:
Austin Graham

Outstanding Contribution to a Special Interest Group:
Student – Andrew W. Morton
Employee – Bridget Gold

Outstanding Contribution to the College:
Student – Nicholas Basham
Employee – Jim McGraw

Outstanding Student Advocate:
Jan Rog

The Longview Speech and Debate Central States Tourney was held on Friday, Oct 24 and Sat Oct 25. There were 175 students from 22 different schools participating in the competition including CMSU, Northwest Missouri and Texas Southern.

This was the largest debate tournament in Missouri this fall and everyone, especially Bill Cue (the head of the Longview Debate department), was extremely happy that the tournament ran so well. Judges came from all over to judge the different events that the students participated in. Meals were also provided by Longview.

Longview had a very successful weekend, not only in hosting but in competition as well. Longview’s John Cardarella and Chris Rodrigez took first place in parlimentary debate. They were also the top speakers in that competition. Mike Spruill also did very well, taking first in poetry.

Overall, Texas Southern placed first in the debate and Creighton place first in individual events, and overall competition.

Longview did very well but were not eligible for the team awards. “I was very happy with how well our team did,” said Bill Cue.

Other schools enjoyed the campus very much, finding the tournament to be one of the best they’ve ever been too.

“Each student had two jobs, they had their job during the tournament to help out and they also had to prepare for their own competition,” said Bill Cue. Each student had to make sure that the tournament ran smoothly, and that all the different events stayed on schedule.

In the end, the Longview Debate Team showed everyone how to run a great, organized tournament that stayed on schedule and ran very smoothly.

Shakira Washington knows a thing or two about debating. By the time she joined Longview’s debate team, she already had two years of debate and forensics under her belt at Bishop Miege High School.

Washington, who wishes to live in England one day, had the opportunity to debate with world debate finalist Tom Hamilton and Oxford graduate Tom Hay, both from England. She carried on intriguing conversations with each of them. “They’re so smart,” said Shakira.

An aspiring lawyer, Washington attended the University of Kansas last year. She transferred to Longview so she would be closer to home. Washington plans to major in political science. In addition to debate, she takes courses in European history and biology.

She encourages new debaters to join the team. Washington’s advice to new debaters, “You have to be open-minded about everything.”

“Shakira is the best debater on the team,” said Brandi Cole.

Washington enjoys babysitting, playing the piano, watching movies with friends and listening to musicals.

She lives by the motto, “Don’t dream it, be it.”