Team and Individual Highlights of the 1996-97 season

  • Details and photos of each tournament.

    • Participation and learning: highest ever

    We set a new record of 31 students competing in at least one tournament during the year -- since Bethany has an enrollment of about 380, that means we had more than 8% of our student body on the Speech Team, a little bit higher than last year. Our team members competed in 20 tournaments (another team record), speaking in a total of 702 rounds, more than 120 hours of competitive speaking. That's a lot of learning, and that's always what we are most proud of.

    Major Accomplishments This Year

    31 students active on the team!
    A new record of thirty-one students gained the experience of speech preparation and competition.
    We hosted our own tournament once again!
    The "Vocal Viking" has become a standard fall tournament for many teams in the Midwest.
    We won some team trophies!
    In three tournaments we came home with a team award, once in debate.
    We competed in the Big Schools Division!
    In both state and national tournaments, the size of our entry put us into the Open Divisions, with the big schools, even though we are undoubtedly the smallest school there. That's OK - we have a Big Schools Team.
    We produced two ITs!
    It's tough enough to put one Interpreters' Theatre together. This year we did two different ones, involving 8 speakers.
    We had a tough and competitive National Tournament Team!
    Every team member gave performances there that they could remember and be proud of forever. The numbers showed it: every speaker was in the top half of a round at least once.
    We took two national medals!
    One in IMP, one in DI.
    We co-hosted the National Tournament!
    Together with our friends at Normandale CC, we brought the National Tournament to St. Paul.

    Bethany becomes a regional leader in debate!

    With the leadership especially of Sarah and Sally, Bethany has positioned itself as a leader in Parliamentary style debating in the Midwest.

    Sally and Sarah started the season with a winning effort at the Creighton-UNO tournament, where they missed advancing to octos by one point.

    We offered Parli at our own Vocal Viking tournament, attracting enough teams to break to semi-finals. Sally and Sarah won the Parli event at the Vocal Viking with a final round in the YFAC auditorium that drew a crowd of curious, appreciative observers.

    We traveled to debate country three times - twice to Colorado during the regular season (the Regis-Red Rocks Swing in Denver, and the Warm-up in Boulder), where we learned we could compete on the national debate circuit. And then we competed at the NPDA National Tournament in Colorado Springs, where Sally and Sarah compiled a respectable 3-5 record. Finally, we sent two teams to the Phi Rho Pi National Tournament in St. Paul. Sally and Sarah, and Candy and Britta both won 2 and lost 4.

    Sally and Sarah debated a total of 67 rounds, finishing with an outstanding 38-29 record (.567). The team overall had a 49-59 record (.454). In all, 12 speakers competed for Bethany during the season. Their names and records:


    Team members: 31 -- Total rounds: 702 -- Total breaks: 60

    Special Team Awards 1997

    Return to Speech Team home page.

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    Most recent update 14 July 1997
    Send comments or suggestions to tkuster@blc.edu