By Lezlee Gutierrez, Student Reporter

The debate team is giving itself a big pat on the back this semester as it wraps up a great year. The team members have had a successful year despite the challenges they had to face. The debate team had no returns from last year so it had to construct a new team with mostly freshmen and a few sophomores.

“The debate team was nationally recognized last year, so we had to try our hardest to do the best we could with a completely new team, but we did well despite all obstacles,” said Jason Allen, co-coach and communications graduate student.

The debate team consists of eight members divided into teams of two. Each team is given a topic that is either policy-oriented or value-oriented 15 minutes before the debate. ACU were able to compete in 10 tournaments this year in many places including Houston, Lubbock, Nebraska, Mississippi, Louisiana and California.

“Our main goal this year was to rebuild our team and put the community back into the program,” said Jeff Craig, sophomore print journalism major.

Craig partnered with Keri Gray to compete in the parliamentary debate in Stockton, Calif., where they came in second place. It is rare that sophomores or freshmen reach nationals, which is comprised of over 200 teams, but Jeff and Keri were able to attend and placed 80th in the nation.

This was Dena Counts’ first time to coach, as well as Jason Allen’s first time to co-coach, but given the situation they did well and are proud of the goals they have accomplished. Some of Allen’s responsibilities as co-coach included traveling with the team, attending meetings and judging rounds.

The team is currently in transition from reaping the rewards to making sure next year’s team is even better.

“Next semester we hope to build from the foundation we have set this year and gain success with our original goals in mind,” Craig said.

The team is working on recruiting solid members for next semester so that it may have a variety of talents in each division.

“It is more difficult for a smaller university to have a such a successful program,” Allen said. “It is more important for us to focus on the quality of the mew members, not just the quantity.”