‘EVERYBODY LOVES A GOOD COMEBACK’

Central Michigan University team qualifies for the March Madness of debate

Natalie Brant started the Pi Kappa Delta national debate championship losing her first two preliminary round matches.

The Central Michigan University freshman from Wichita, Kansas, said she texted her brother to tell him she thought she was finished. He offered encouragement. “Everybody loves a good comeback,” she said he texted.

A good comeback is what happened. Brant won out the rest of her matches in the preliminary round, qualifying for the elimination-based final bracket.

She continued winning, until she reached the final round and fellow Chippewa Tyler Tobias, a junior who’d gone undefeated in the preliminaries. They don’t make you debate your teammates, they said Wednesday, so they closed out the tournament national co-champions of the Pi Kappa Delta national debate tournament.

Pi Kappa Delta is the oldest debate organization in the country, said their coach, Joe Packer. Packer is a professor in CMU’S communications department. He also said the tournament at which Brant and Tobias were crowned cochampions might also be the oldest continuous tournament.

Preparation for the Pi Kappa Delta tournament started as soon as the organization settles on its topic for this year. This year, it was immigration reform.

Much of the year is spent testing and honing their argument during test runs

with teammates or in tournaments, Brant, who hopes her experience will benefit her during a career in international law, said. That includes getting input from Packer, their head coach. She rewrote her speech three times over Christmas break.

This year also brought challenges from COVID-19. Instead of getting together for tournaments, they were held virtually. There were technical issues. Although she spent four years in high school debate, Brant said that going online was a bit intimidating.

“It’s been weird all year debating online,” she said.

Tobias, a junior from Natchez, Mississippi, didn’t come to CMU to study a field traditionally associated with debate. He came with a passion for the environment to study biology. He also walked onto the debate team and competed a bit last year after the pandemic started.

While the format wasn’t exactly new, he said one thing missing this year was the social element of the tournaments. Like any other activity, there’s a core community in college debate.

“Everybody is friends with someone,” he said.

Their performances in mid-march netted both of them championship trophies and speakers awards. The entire team also qualified to compete at the National Forensic Association tournament, which Tobias described as debate’s equivalent to March Madness, from April 16-20. That, too, will be virtual.

ERIC BAERREN — MORNING SUN CMU students Natalie Brant and Tyler Tobias were recently named co-champions in the Pi Kappa Delta national competition. CMU’S entire five-person team qualified to compete in debate’s version of March Madness. Both wore masks during the interview and removed them briefly for the photo.