Tennessee Speech and Debate Society Wraps up First Year at CCI with Several Wins

Nine members of the Tennessee Speech and Debate Society, along with the team's director, Abbey Barnes, pose with trophies and medals they won in the 2023-24 season.

The Tennessee Speech and Debate Society (TSDS) had a successful year competing under the direction of their first-ever faculty coach and with the support of their new home, the School of Communication Studies. The varsity squad had qualifiers advance to the final round at every competition below the national tournament level.

“I was more than pleased. I’ve always had the utmost respect for the Tennessee Speech and Debate Society, because just the amount of intrinsic motivation they have to be good leaders and good teammates to each other,” said Assistant Professor of Practice Abbey Barnes, the group’s coach and director. 

She said TSDS hit the ground running last summer when she started working at the College of Communication and Information in her new role, and expectations were set both for her role as well as for the student leaders. Previously a student-led organization, the group was happy to relinquish administrative duties to Barnes so they could focus solely on practicing and competing. 

Besides leading practices and lecturing the members about best practices in speech and debate, Barnes also formulated a strategy for member recruitment. She was already impressed with TSDS’s social media presence even before she started—which in this modern era is a great recruitment tool—so she helped focus efforts on events at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where incoming freshman and current students could be recruited. Barnes plans to continue her recruitment efforts, including tabling at the fall student organization fair to answer any prospective member questions.

Abbey Barnes stands at a podium, wearing all black.
Tennessee Speech and Debate Society Director Abbey Barnes speaks at an alumni reception for TSDS former members.

Once the team started competing, it was a grueling travel schedule that took them all over the state and eventually to the International Public Debate Association (IPDA) National Tournament this past April in Starkville, Miss. 

New debaters are called novices, and they compete at a different level than more seasoned members of TSDS. The format of these debates—which are called rounds—is that an individual competitor is given a topic and thirty minutes to build a case and build their strategy before they debate another individual in front of a judge. Participants typically complete six preliminary rounds before they can advance to an elimination round, which is based on their record. 

In addition to the debate competitors, there is another type of competition called individual events. 

“When you go into an individual event round, you’re not directly arguing; you’re choosing a topic you’re passionate about and it can be through an eight-to-ten-minute memorized speech, a dramatic interpretation of a text that represents their topic, or a limited prep speech competition,” Barnes explained.

The individual events are where TSDS had two novices shine. Maggie West came in as a first-year student and jumped right into the individual events, eventually becoming the reigning Tennessee state champion in persuasive speaking and qualifying for the National Speech Tournament in Eua Claire, Wisconsin. Daniella Martin, who had previously competed in debate, also qualified for the National Speech Tournament in extemporaneous speaking.  

“It’s a year-long process to qualify for the national tournament,” Barnes said, noting it’s no small feat for either West or Martin to accomplish what they did. “We were in Eua Claire for about five nights and then we came back and had nationals practice for debate and left right after that for the national competition in Starkville.”

Eight students competed in Mississippi, and three students went along as traveling judges as they joined TSDS late in the season and want to compete this next season for a full year as novices. This gave them an opportunity to understand the structure of competitions and to scope out who they would be up against. 

Overall, Barnes said she is happy with the team’s efforts and hopes to continue building it up both in numbers and skill in the 2024-25 season.

“They’re dedicated not only to the activity, but to leadership and to each other. I’m excited to see how that grows, especially under the School of Communication Studies,” she said.

Next year, UT will host the Tennessee State Speech and Debate Championship (also known as the TIFA State Championship Tournament) in February 2025.

MTSU Pejaver Tournament

  • Team IPDA Quarterfinalists: Cam Richards and Eli Habersetzer
  • Team IPDA Quarterfinalists: Elijah Jarrell and Owen Thurber
  • Fifth place Speaker Team IPDA: Owen Thurber
  • Third place Speaker Team IPDA: Eli Habersetzer
  • IPDA Quarterfinalist: Cam Richards 
  • Fifth place Varsity IPDA Speaker: Cam Richards
  • Champion first place JV Speaker: Eli Habersetzer 
  • Sweepstakes: UT was the third place overall TIPDA school 

LSUS Red River Classic 

  • Second place Varsity IPDA Debater: Brayton Moloney. 

USM Hub City Classic 

IDPA:

  • Co-champions Novice IDPA Debate:  Cisco Soto and Maggie West
  • Champion first place Novice IPDA Speaker: Maggie West 
  • Varsity IPDA Semifinalist: Brayton Moloney
  • Second place Varsity IPDA Debater: Cam Richards
  • Fifth place Varsity IPDA Speaker: Brayton Moloney
  • Fourth place Varsity IPDA Speaker: Cam Richards

Team IPDA: 

  • Team IPDA Semifinalists: Elijah Jarrell and Owen Thurber
  • Second place TEAM IPDA debaters: Cam Richards and Brayton Moloney 
  • Sixth place TEAM IPDA speaker: Cam Richards

Speech Events: 

  • Second place and top novice Persuasive  (Tournament #1): Maggie West
  • Champion in Persuasive & top novice (Tournament #2): Maggie West
  • Second place Editorial Impromptu  (Tournament #1): Daniella Martin 
  • Second place Editorial Impromptu (Tournament #2): Daniella Martin 
  • Fourth place Editorial Impromptu (Tournament #2): Owen Thurber 
  • Third place Extemporaneous (Tournament #1): Daniella Martin
  • Fourth place Extemporaneous  (Tournament #2): Daniella Martin 
  • Third place Impromptu (Tournament #2): Owen Thurber 
  • Fifth place Radio Broadcasting (Tournament #2): Owen Thurber 

Sweepstakes: 

  • First Place Overall Debate Team
  • Third Place Overall Comprehensive Team (Speech and Debate)
  • Debate Tournament Power Award: This is the award given to the school with the highest win percentage in the preliminary rounds of IPDA Debate and TIPDA. UT had a 65-percent win record.