Meet the fast-talking students visiting Spokane from across the nation for a college tourney of a different kind: debate

At first listen, it’s hard to believe the stream of sound drifting from the Centennial Hotel ballrooms Monday were human beings speaking.

Debate competitions can seem like an alien world in that way. Speakers are incentivized to make as many arguments as possible in the timed competition, leading the contestants to speak at virtually incomprehensible speeds.

“One thing that might shock you if you’ve never seen this kind of debate, is the delivery,” said Glen Frappier, director of debate and communication studies lecturer for Gonzaga University. “Back in the ’70s, people realized ‘If I talk a lot faster, I can get out more,’ so they’re probably talking at 350 words per minute.”

Spokane was host to another collegiate championship tournament last weekend, just a week after hosting one of two regionals for the NCAA women’s March Madness tournament. Instead of basketballs, arm sleeves and Nikes, the competitors in the National Debate Tournament at Gonzaga University brought cough drops, energy drinks and research papers by the binder-full.

The focus of this year’s National Debate Tournament, and season, was everything under the wide umbrella of energy policy. Teams worked on their arguments in the category year round, not just in their rounds of debates at Gonzaga University and nearby Centennial Hotel over the weekend. Frappier said debaters can spend 40 to 60 hours a week honing their arguments, on top of being full time students.

The 79th National Debate Tournament marks the third time Gonzaga has hosted the nation’s premier and oldest collegiate debate championship. University alum and former Speaker of the House Tom Foley represented the school in the first ever iteration held at West Point Military Academy in 1947, and previously hosted in 1985 and 2005.

The school also alternates hosting the only major West Coast regular -season tournament with Harvard University, Frappier said. That competition is one of a handful where teams display their fortitude with the eventual hope of being one of 78 invited to compete for the national championship.

Competition got underway Friday, with each two-person team taking on pairs from other schools in eight preliminary rounds that stretched over the weekend. Monday marked the beginning of elimination debates, after the bracket was set with the top 32 teams. A team must win five of their preliminary debates to qualify, but only 28 reached that benchmark this year, which meant the top four seeds had a bye.

The tournament is a lengthy, grueling ordeal, Frappier said. The first elimination debates began around 8 a.m., but a winner won’t be crowned until around 2 a.m. Tuesday – well after the publishing deadline. The championship debate began around 10:30 p.m., and it can take hours for judges to choose a winner after what’s typically a two-hour affair.

“It takes on a little more significance for everyone, especially the seniors, you know, who have been doing this since they were in middle school,” Frappier said. “They’re about to end their debate career. There’s no professional debate now, other than, maybe, being a lawyer.”

While they may not be speaking as fast in a courtroom, as a member of Congress or in a corporate boardroom, Frappier said debate builds a unique skill set for future leaders. They’re able to synthesize information quickly, respond with well-articulated arguments and “find answers to life’s big questions,” he said.

“Because they’re trained to do this at such high rates of speed, whenever they find themselves in a normal public speaking situation, it’s like taking off the ankle weights, you know?” Frappier said.

Participants, and teammates of qualifying pairs for the elimination rounds attending to show support, overwhelmingly cited the relationships formed in the debate community as one of the greatest takeaways.

Claire Ain, a freshman from the perennial national title contending Kansas University, said as much as her teammates Graham Revare and John Marshall competed in the quarterfinals Monday afternoon.

Revare and Marshall entered the tournament as the top team in the nation, and the senior and junior, respectively, were honored with the Rex Copeland Award at a ceremony before the tournament began. Named for a Samford University student who died in 1989 before his senior year of competition, the distinction is granted to the first-ranked collegiate team every year.

“Some of your best friends come out of this activity, regardless of school or competition,” Ain said. “Everyone knows everyone.”

Ain, who’s studying political science and economics as part of an accelerated law degree program, said the connections go well beyond the familiar faces they run into at competitions throughout the year. Alumni of the team, and the broader community, stay in touch and tend to lend a helping hand later in life. She and her teammates at the event all cited the university’s storied program as being one of the reasons they became a Jayhawk.

“It could be attributed to the coaching staff and the culture at KU,” said sophomore Owen Williams. “There is a winning culture that draws people in.”

Revare is part of that culture, as a former national champion at the high school level and one half of the team that took second place at the National Debate Tournament last year.

The Midwest and East Coast were well-represented at the tournament, which may be due to the larger number of schools, population and debate programs in those areas, said Josh Mitchell, an assistant coach for the University of Wyoming.

Wyoming debate team member Saimaa Widi did not compete, but played a key role in getting the university’s pairing prepared and ensuring rounds moved forward smoothly. Widi acted as a “scout” for most of the tournament, ensuring all contestants were uploading their evidence, arguments and associated documents to a portal for all to review and prepare for potential matchups.

It often takes a whole team for a school’s single pairing to succeed, Frappier said. Larger programs like Kansas have vast resources and people at their disposal to research a topic, opposing teams and the judges. The only uncertainty on the day of elimination debates is who the judges will be, as those assignments are not made public till an hour before a round begins.

Each judge has certain tastes and perspectives, which they detail for the teams in written judging philosophies, Frappier said.

“I guarantee they’ve had people up all night long strategizing for every potential matchup they can have,” Frappier said. “We call it cutting cards: researching, putting together briefs, blocks, arguments, preparing for all the possible contingency debates they can have today.”

Mitchell said the tournament was well run, and that he hoped to see a bit more of Spokane before the team set off for Laramie, Wyoming, on Tuesday. Widi said she greatly enjoyed the Gonzaga campus, Riverfront Park and the love of the outdoors shared by her college town.

“But Wyoming is just so brown, while everything here is so green,” Widi said.

It was University of Michigan freshman Avi Shah’s first time at the tournament, but he and partner Connon Shih managed to advance to the round of 16 before being eliminated by the top-seeded duo of Revare and Marshall.

Shah said he “fell in love” with the university for nondebate reasons and that joining the debate program was the cherry on top. He started in high school and quickly developed a passion for it.

“It’s really cool that you get to explore a lot of different topics,” Shah said. “I mean, climate policy, national security, economic policies. You delve into a lot.”

Shah looks forward to returning to the tournament over the span of his collegiate career. He’s not sure what will come next; he’s considered a pre-law track, or joining the business world. For the time being, he’s leaning towards joining a think tank, or another group advocating for change at the national level.

“I’m really into research, because debate has sort of exposed me to a lot of different topics about the world,” Shah said. “I want to do something that feels worthwhile.”