The University of Oregon debate team likes to brag about how good it is. In fact, its members will tell you about it any chance they get, complete with flourish, hard facts and
rhetorical grace.
But given the team’s long list of awards and accolades, the braggadocio seems both justified and rather foolish to get in an argument over. 
The debate team added another point to its argument last weekend when it won a regional tournament at Lewis & Clark College. A pair of Oregon debaters, Hank Fields and Matt Gander, beat out the competition, including Boise State, who Gander says they “Blounted” to take first place and set up the team for another run at national prominence.
Fields and Gander are two returning debaters. Hailey Sheldon, another veteran who is in a coaching role this year, said this year’s team is young, with five of its eight traveling members from last year graduated, but she is confident they can step up.
“They’ve got a lot of flair,” Sheldon said. “Often imitated, never replicated.”
It will be hard to top last year, though. Sheldon and Gander were debate partners, and they advanced to the final round of one of two national tournaments. Although they didn’t win, the team took first overall.
Like a swim or cross country meet, debate tournaments have both team and
individual scoring.
At the other tournament, which was invitational, Oregon was the top-seeded team, with three of its pairs seeded first, 14 and 28 out of a field of 1,084.
Although Sheldon said the team did not perform as well at the invitational, she said “the seeds are by far more important to us.” The first-seeded Oregon team set a record for most points won in a single season.
The debate team, it turns out, has even approached something like star status, or at least as close as one can get in the world of collegiate debate.
“We really do have fans,” Sheldon said. “I’m not joking. We have people come up to tournaments to hang out with us.”
Gander and Fields have been involved in debate for six and seven years, respectively. Sheldon has eight under her belt. They all chose to attend the University because of the strength of the debate team and the in-state tuition.
Unlike other top debate schools, the University does not offer scholarships to debaters.
“We’re all true competitors because we do it for love,” Fields said. “We don’t get scrilla like teams at other schools.”
Sheldon, Gander and Fields are also all alumni of the Oregon Debate Institute, a summer debate camp for high schoolers that the University team holds every year. Not surprisingly, the team gets many of its best and brightest recruits from the camp.
The team holds five practice debates a week, along with hours of individual research. Gander said debate topics usually involve the modern issues of the day, such as health care, the war in Afghanistan and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Fields said good research skills and a motivation to self-educate, as well a nice sense of righteous indignation are all essential.
Consummate debaters must know both sides of an argument, pro and con, and convincingly argue them. The debaters work in pairs, playing off each other’s strengths
and leads.
“We’re all very communal and familial,” Gander said.
Fields said the team’s greatest strength is the depth of its research. During tournaments, the Oregon team members who are not in a debate gather together and research for each other. Gander described it as being “like a big think tank.”
Creativity is a plus, too. Over the years, Sheldon, Gander and Fields said they have seen people dance, sing and even rap at debates. They pleaded the fifth when asked what the weirdest debate tactic they had ever seen was.
With its win at the Lewis & Clark tournament, the debate team will give itself a solid base to build its season on and likely be ranked first in the nation.
Next on the team’s schedule is an invitational round-robin tournament at the University of Puget Sound. There are only eight spots at the tournament, usually some of the strongest teams in the nation.
“The winner of the round-robin is a huge juggernaut of debate,” Sheldon said.
In 2007, Oregon made it to the final round. In 2008, the final four. This year, Sheldon said with typical assurance and aplomb, “We’re going to win.”
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