Forensics team takes fifth at nationals

Mt. Hood’s Forensics team went up against fierce competition at the Phi Rho Pi Community College Nationals held in Denver, Colo., last week, but did so in stride, placing fifth overall for its total season’s work.

Counting all the events entered this year, including the Denver event, the team as a whole placed fifth in the National Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA), or group debates.

MHCC debaters were at a bit of a disadvantage in Denver, considering most debates they attend follow International Public Debate Association (IPDA) rules, which are different, said team coach Shannon Valdivia, forensics and speech instructor at Mt. Hood.

Karasalla Fale, a second-year student at Mt. Hood, competed along with Chris Josi, a freshman who debated in the novice division at the event. Fale had to argue the affirmative for cutting trade ties (import/export) with Russia, which turned out a bit frustrating since her competitors had little foreign affairs knowledge, she said.

The Saints would prevail, however. Tyler Garcia and Josi both advanced to the Sweet 16 Sweepstakes, along with Fala, who competed in the professional division.

“I don’t think any of us expected to be fifth overall. Not like we couldn’t do it, but (we) just didn’t think that it would happen,” said Fale.

With Fale the only MHCC debater to return from last year, all other Saints had to debate in thte novice division. Valdivia said she was pleased with the season results.

“I feel for a team of mostly first-year competitors, we did fantastic!” she exclaimed. “We finished in the top three at most of our tournaments, earned a Silver Team Sweepstakes for the Northwest Forensics Conference, a fifth-place IPDA Season Sweeps and numerous individual event and debate awards.

“However, we are not done yet,” she said.

On April 26, the team heads to Lower Columbia Community College to participate in IPDA regionals. There, they won’t encounter any handicaps with the format of their debate.

How IPDA or one-on-one debates normally take place is for one person to have the affirmative (who is in charge of providing evidence in favor of the topic and concluding the debate) and one person to have the negative (who is in charge of refuting the other persons evidence). Beginning with the person who is for the negative, both players begin taking turns eliminating topics, out of five possible topics until one is left.

Fale said, “You have to have both sides of the argument and be able to argue for both sides well.”

After a topic is chosen, the debaters have 30 minutes to prepare their argument. The debate itself only lasts 26 minutes — giving the debaters 13 minutes a piece — going back and forth between debaters who present various arguments off of their prepared readings.

Fale and her fellow debaters are getting ready by learning new philosophies, and philosophical theories, but mostly by keeping updated on the news and current events.

Even though this year is almost over, Valdivia has high hopes for next year: “I look forward to next year and what it has to bring.”