Katie Bergus and her partner Megan Gaffney@@http://duxdebate.wordpress.com/@@ are ranked ninth in the country for debate, and in the next few weeks they aim to become number one.
As the debate season comes to its close, two tournaments remain for this duo to prove themselves: The National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, which only accepts the top 60 teams@@http://www.acu.edu/news/2011/110216-parliamentary-debate.html@@ in the country, and the National Parliamentary Debate Association’s national tournament.@@http://www.parlidebate.org/@@
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“Obviously, my partner and I would love to win both tournaments, but it’s hard to say that we will with any certainty. We’ll see,” Bergus said. “We’ll have some hard debates, but hard debate is good debate.”
The duo finds themselves at an advantage because of their friendship outside of the debate team.
“Being friends with Katie helps to fuel the success of the competition. It makes it much more relaxed and much less tense,” Gaffney said.
For Bergus, debate is one of her passions. She began freshman year in high school with an unorthodox motive.
“One day my friend got me to attend one of the debate classes and I saw this guy in there. He was just the cutest guy I had ever seen and I was like ‘Okay, I’ll sign up for this,’” Bergus said.
Bergus eventually went on to win and receive best speaker at Washington’s state debate tournament.
In her sophomore year of college, Bergus transferred to the University from the University of Washington after being recruited by several schools when she and her partner performed well at nationals.
For Gaffney, her passion for debate became apparent after joining a debate club her freshman year. She lists the reputation of the University’s debate programs as a deciding factor in her college decision.
Bergus and Gaffney have some large shoes to fill. Last year, graduated seniors Matt Gander and Hank Fields@@http://champions.uoregon.edu/uo-debaters-bring-home-two-national-championships@@ earned first place in both competitions, a feat that’s only occurred once before. The team of 2011 was recognized as the hardest-working debate team in the nation.
“There was a large graduating senior class last year, so it would be an outstanding accomplishment for us being able to be national competitive with a younger team this year,” debate team head coach Thomas Schally said.@@http://blogs.dailyemerald.com/live/2010/10/06/university-debate-and-speech-team-wins-national-competition/@@
Currently, every debate partnership on the team has at least a 3-3 win to loss record going into the National Parliamentary Debate Association’s National Tournament.
Kehl Van Winkle and his partner James Miller@@http://duxdebate.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/201112-ducks-dont-miss-a-beat/@@ are ranked 44th in the country and will be competing as the second University team in both national tournaments.
Bergus and Gaffney hope to combine their already-developed debate skills with tireless research of the tournament’s topics to come out as the victors.
“We are constantly getting better, so being ninth right now isn’t entirely reflective of the team that we will be at the tournament,” Bergus said. “I don’t think we’ll get ninth — I think we’ll do better than that.”
Despite debating for six years, Gaffney still finds herself nervous.
“I’m nervous. I’m always nervous when we go into debate competitions, but we’ve done well throughout the year and we’ll continue to do well. We’ve put in the work and I think it will pay off,” Gaffney said.