Debate team hopes to make waves at Georgia State

The University of Miami Debate Team will be competing in its first tournament of the year at Georgia State University the weekend of September 16 to 19.

The Varsity team includes, Adaeze Ajoku, Tristan Montaque, Robert Hupf and Alicia Ortiz. All of the team members, except for Ajoku who is a junior, are seniors and have been diligently preparing for the Canes first competition.

David Steinberg is the team’s coach. Steinberg has been an integral part of the communications school since 1990 and has been the Director of Debate since then. “I anticipate a successful tournament at GSU in Atlanta. This is one of the biggest tournaments of the year,” Steinberg said. “Most of the best debate teams in the country will be there.”

Along with Steinberg is Cale Halley, the returning Assistant Coach. This year the debate team also has two new coaches, Randall Martinez and Joe Graziano. Prior to coming to UM Martinez was a high school teacher at Lake Mary Prep in Orlando and also served as the Assistant Coach for the University of Central Florida’s debate team. Graziano joins the staff after being a debater at Appalachian State University in North Carolina. “What is great about debate is that it empowers students to compete against the nation's best and the brightest. The confidence that comes from that is vital, not only in tournaments, but also in the classroom,” said Martinez. “We have a promising team this year and they are incredibly dedicated.”

Each year a national committee gets together to pick a policy debate topic, and that topic becomes the topic debated by every university in the country. This year’s topic deals with whether or not the United States should provide democracy assistance to nations in the Middle East and North Africa. 

Aside from the policy debate tournaments, the team has been working on a public debate team. Ajoku is heading up a group of students to organize at least three public debate events to be held during the fall semester.To show your support for the debaters, meetings take place every Monday and Wednesday from 3p.m. to 5 p.m. in CIB 4053.

For more information about debate contact dave@miami.edu.

by CRISTIAN ANDRES BENAVIDES

Posted in: tournament