OPINION: UAA Debaters Become an International Power
By Beth Bragg, Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Jan. 17–The UAA debate team is fresh off the world championships, where it knocked off the brain trust from Cambridge on its way to the semifinals.
The temptation is to say this accomplishment is akin to the school’s hockey team beating the reigning Stanley Cup champions. Except it’s not. Such an assessment presumes we should be surprised that a couple of guys who grew up in Alaska outwitted the best minds from one of the world’s most prestigious universities.
Truth is, if debate were a sport — and maybe it should be — putting money on UAA is a safe bet.
In college football, the dependable powerhouses include Ohio State, Florida and USC. In debate, the juggernauts come from Yale, Stanford — and UAA. The debaters are arguably the most successful team on campus.
“Arguably?” coach Steve Johnson said, argumentatively. “How many national championships do the other teams have?”
Point taken. None of UAA’s athletic teams boast a national team championship. The debate team took the national title in 2002, and soon after took its game to the next level.
No, not professional debate. That would require law degrees. Two years ago, UAA dropped out of the collegiate scene it was dominating and ascended to international debate, where the competition is more fierce and the game is more entertaining.
The Seawolves switched from the American Style debate common at most U.S. universities — intense exercises in logic filled with fast talk and mind-numbing jargon — to the British Parliamentary style more popular internationally and at Ivy League schools.
Johnson said he knew he’d had enough of the former while at a meet two years ago. “The person was speaking so quickly and using such technical language that it finally reached a breaking point,” he said. “I realized I couldn’t bring an intelligent person to a debate and (expect them) to understand what was going on.”
The international style of debate is far more accessible and engaging. Think of Britain’s often-raucous House of Commons. “It’s public discourse,” Johnson said, “and there’s far too little of that anymore.”
And it’s not just for eggheads.
“If we could get people to watch this, a lot of people would be attracted to it,” Johnson said. “It’s not exclusive to highbrowed intellectuals. Look at the history of oratory. We used to value people’s ability to speak extemporaneously.”
Indeed, for more than 100 years in London, crowds have flocked to Speaker’s Corner at Hyde Park, where anyone with a voice and an opinion can hold court on Sunday mornings. And a recent New York Times article described the growing popularity of organized debate nights at pubs in Ireland, “capitalizing on two time-honored Irish traditions: drinking and arguing.”
At the World Universities Debating Championships two weeks ago in Vancouver, hundreds watched UAA’s A team — Chris Kolerok of Anchorage and Tom Lassen of Nikiski — compete in the final rounds.
UAA was one of 32 teams from a field of 336 (and one of only four American universities, along with Yale, Stanford and George Washington) to advance that far. At that level, crowds gather and punctuate the proceedings with cheers, groans and applause.
“You’re in front of an audience of hundreds,” Johnson said, “and you make a point that is just so clever and so perfect that the whole audience cheers for you — that’s what the final rounds are about. They’re all pounding on the tables, clapping and cheering. It’s fantastic.”
UAA kept winning to become the lone North American team in the eight-team semifinals. Along the way, the Seawolves upended the A team from Cambridge, the British university that produces Nobel Prize winners the way Duke produces NBA players.
UAA’s quest for world domination ended in the semifinals. The Seawolves finished in a tie for fifth place.
For Kolerok and Lassen, that’s like hitting a bases-loaded double in the final at-bat of their careers. Not quite a home run, but close. Both seniors, the men are retired from competition now, although they’ll take a curtain call this spring when UAA brings the Irish national champions to town for an exhibition.
Asked if UAA will retire Kolerok’s and Lassen’s coats and ties the way it has retired the jerseys of its biggest sports stars, Johnson laughed. “Their suits need to be retired,” he said.
Imagine that. Stars with more substance than style. No wonder they schooled the competition.
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