By ALAN HOSKINS
Just when it looks like Kansas City Kansas Community College debate
can’t reach any higher peaks, Coach Darren Elliott’s team makes more
history.
“For the first time in the history of KCKCC, we have earned a bid to
the AFA National Debate Tournament (NDT), the oldest national debate
tournament in the country and the debate equivalent to the NCAA
basketball tournament,” said Elliott, whose team already has a record
eight straight national Phi Rho Pi championships.
“Only five other community college teams since 1941 have qualified for
the NDT so we are now the sixth. To qualify is an amazing accomplishment
as the NDT is an elite tournament dominated by the top juniors and
seniors from the nation’s best universities.”
The KCKCC team of Thomas Garvey and Ryan McFarland were advised of their invitation at ‘Selection Monday.’
“Only the top 78 teams in the nation are invited and the last 16 spots,
known as second-round bids, were announced on Monday,” said Elliott.
The national tournament will be held this weekend in Duluth, Ga., a
suburb of Atlanta.
KCKCC joins an impressive group of universities who were also among the
final 16 selected including Kansas, Kansas State, Iowa, Michigan,
Michigan State, Wake Forest, West Georgia, Arizona State, Baylor,
Harvard, Northwestern, Texas, Missouri State and Trinity.
The selection of the duo of McFarland and Garvey comes on the heels of
the Blue Devils winning a seventh CEDA (Cross Examination Debate
Association) Community College national championship held last weekend
at the University of Oklahoma.
The CEDA national championship is based on season-long success and
KCKCC nearly doubled the point totals of runnerup Los Rios College and
third place Johnson County.
Both McFarland and Garvey were named CEDA All-Americans.
“Only 30 debaters in the entire country are chosen for this honor and
to have two from KCKCC named All-Americans is a great accomplishment,”
said Elliott.
Three KCKCC teams reached the elimination rounds of the national CEDA
tournament, the varsity duos of McFarland and Garvey and freshman combo
of Josh Miller and Evan Johnson and the novice team of Marin Loken and
Justin Parks. A field of 157 teams were in the varsity field, which was
then trimmed to 54 teams.
Garvey and McFarland were eliminated in the first round in a narrow 2-1
decision to Missouri State while Miller and Johnson lost in the first
round to last year’s returning champions from Kansas State.
Miller and Johnson compiled a 5-3 record in the preliminaries
highlighted by a win over No. 5 ranked Kansas, one of only two losses
for the Jayhawks in the tournament. Loken and Parks were eliminated in
the Novice quarterfinals by Florida.
The Blue Devils will wrap up the 2011-12 season April 9-14 when they’ll
go after a record ninth straight national Phi Rho Pi championship in
the national tourney hosted by Moraine Valley Community College in
Schaumburg, Ill., 35 miles outside of Chicago.
