Debate team among top three in nation
By Nicklaus Spruill
Contributing Reporter

> February 1, 2001

Although the national spotlight focuses almost exclusively on the men’s basketball team, one of the lesser known teams has held a much better ranking all year. The campus is home to arguably the number one debate team in the country, and the common student has no idea.

Allen Louden, an associate professor of communications and the director of the debate team, attributes the success of this year’s team to the leadership of two experienced seniors who simply “know more of how the world works.” These standouts are seniors Jarrod Atchison and Wesley Lotz.

Lotz said Atchison is “rhetorical, he brings analogies and humor.”

“He is the technical machine,” said Atchison of Lotz. Atchison created a “good cop/bad cop” analogy for his partner and himself. He considers himself to be the good cop because he lightens the mood and his partner Lotz takes on the role of the bad cop with his cold and technical demeanor.
In regards to he and Lotz’s partnership, Atchison said “my job is to put the persuasive spin to all of the ground work he lays. He does the nuts and bolts, and I wrap the picture up.” Lotz feels that the two work so well together because of the time they spend discussing strategies and simply spending their free time together.

According to Louden, an associate professor of communications and director of debate, the other two universities that could vie for the top ranking in the nation are the University of California-Berkley and Dartmouth College. This season the debate team is 5-0 against Berkley and came in second place behind Dartmouth at the Dartmouth Round Robin Tournament last weekend. “They slept in their own beds,” Louden said in regards to a clear advantage held by the Dartmouth squad over his team.

Becoming one of the nation’s elite was a dream that had to be believed by the team before it would become a reality according to Atchison. “It is something that is hoped for, but not expected,” he said.

The team is most proud of their performance at the Kentucky Round Robin Tournament, which took place Sept. 27 and 28. At this tournament the debate team was tied for first with six victories and defeated Emory, the eventual winner, in a head to head match-up.

“We knew we could run with the others,” Atchison said. “We thought we were good before that, now we actually knew pretty well that we were good.”

The team carried on their newfound confidence through the winter break where they went undefeated at two tournaments. Another important statistic is Atchison and Lotz’s 92 percent preliminary winning percentage this season.

“They are doing all this against winners. Seventy percent is good but 92 percent is amazing!” Louden said.

In a tournament this weekend at Navy, senior Mark Yopp and sophomore Andrea Will went 4-2 in preliminary rounds. They then moved on to defeat Cornell 2-1 in the Round of 16. But eventually were beaten by Harvard in the quarterfinals.