The little team, with the little office, that’s beating everyone

Operating out of their cramped 10 x 10 ft. office space in Campion, the eight members of St. Joe’s Villiger Debate Society recently competed at the national speech and debate tournaments in Ohio and Wisconsin. For the 11th time in 13 years, the tiny team bested the scores of competitors, finishing in the top 10 overall in the second competition.

The team finished ninth at the National Forensic Association (NFA) and 15th at the American Forensic Association (AFA) debate tournaments.

The team also brought home two individual national championship titles, both of which were acquired by James McGraw, ’10, president of the debate team. The titles are the 14th and 15th acquired by Saint Joseph’s University in the history of Villiger competition.

In addition to McGraw’s strong finish, Joe Dineen, ’11, quarter-finaled in both Rhetorical Criticism and Impromptu Speaking. Dineen began preparing for his debates during the summer by researching possible topics for Impromptu Speaking.

“One of the biggest strategies for [Impromptu Speaking] is thinking of different ways that you can analyze different examples that might be relevant,” Dineen said. “So for practice, aside from giving speech after speech after speech, I went online to find different philosophers, different interesting things that I could talk about.”

Dineen also said that McGraw had helped with his performances throughout the course of the year.   

“I’ve worked with him for the last three years,” said Dineen. “He’s always been that one person to say, ‘This doesn’t work, you have to try something different with this one,’ and I respect that; it has been very effective.”

According to McGraw, the AFA is only attended by the members of the St. Joe’s debate team who feel prepared to compete by its arrival during the first weekend in April. The team usually concentrates its efforts on the second of the two national competitions, the NFA.

Debaters score by advancing through preliminary stages as well as ranking from one to six in a given event. Kate Hardy, ’12, contributed scores of two and three by placing in the preliminary events of the NFA.

“I only compete in the limited preps, which means you don’t go in with a prepared speech,” Hardy said.

Next to McGraw’s desk stood several large blue storage bins—file cabinets for the thousands of research documents compiled by the team. In events such as Hardy’s, the debaters are given 30 minutes in which to prepare a response to a question concerning a broad range of global affairs. During this time, the team scours the blue bins, cramming as much relevant information into their heads as possible before facing the judges.

“For nationals, we had six of them and they were 40 pounds each. For some of them we had to pay money just to take them on the airline, because they were over the 50 pound limit,” McGraw said pointing to the recently emptied crates.

McGraw and the other members of the team each spend three to four hours a week compiling data for the makeshift catalogue, a task that other teams divvy up among much larger groups.

“There are teams that are just powerhouses,” McGraw said. “You know, funded well, just hundred of thousands of dollars pumped into their program, who get the best people out of high school and have 100 people on their team. There are a lot of big programs that are always at the top.”

At St. Joe’s, the team has a hard time even fitting comfortably in their office, and frequently resorts to holding team practices in a separate venue, sometimes disturbing other student organizations.

"We used to have a big office upstairs, but Mary Beth Mallowe was supposed to be moving up there, so we got moved down here, but then she ended up going to The Perch,” said McGraw

McGraw listed Western Kentucky, George Mason, Bradley University, and the University of Texas in Austin, whom St. Joe’s bested at the second nationals competition this year, among the debate program powerhouses. McGraw also said that the deficit in manpower at St. Joe’s is compensated for by team versatility.

“Some schools have kids that are running just one event. Whereas when we compete, we’re a very demanding team,” he said. “At the first nationals there were a bunch of us running six, and there were a bunch of us at the second nationals running eight slots. That’s unheard of at a big program. We’re a small team so have to make up weight by each competitor doing as much as they can.”

While the members of the small group are each charged with extra responsibilities to make up for numbers, McGraw commented on several of the benefits of a tight-knit team.

“I just saw that one person who has been on the team at Western Kentucky is now Facebook friends with somebody else on their team. How can you not be friends with someone who you have competed with for nine months? Not that Facebook friendship is a big deal,” he said, “ but that’s a big team. We know each other really well, and that keeps a close atmosphere, which is really necessary.”

For McGraw, carrying extra weight on the St. Joe’s debate team meant performing each speech 32 times over the course of the weekend.

According to McGraw, the small team has contributed to the well-rounded performances of each individual member. The eight-member team is not entirely conducive to a division of labor or specialization of events. As a result, members frequently switch debate categories, toggling between skills that are necessary to wow judges in different categories.

Other programs such as the George Mason debate team, boast the benefit of paid speech professors and graduate assistants who coach students through debate activities during classes, as well as administrators charged with registering the team for national tournaments and providing transportation. At St. Joe’s, the students handle most of these responsibilities. While the student group receives counsel and support from Robb Del Casale,’85, the off-campus adviser, and a network of alumni that volunteer their help, there is no full-time faculty moderator on campus.

When asked about the odds that were stacked against them, McGraw just said that the struggle contributes to the quality of the St. Joe’s team.

“I think that a lot of programs produce great competitors; I think that we produce great people,” McGraw said.