When Thinkfast doesn't cut it: Part deax
Briana Gapsis
Issue date: 2/7/07 Section: News
Last week, you met W&L's Mock Trial Team, which, in its short three-year history, has gone from unknown start-up to a successful competitor. This year, they've even earned the right to send two teams to the Silver National Competition in St. Paul, Minnesota this March. Though the Mock Trial Team is quite venerable, some of W&L's other intellectually competitive teams started just this year. This week, you get to meet our fledgling Quiz Bowl and Parliamentary Debate Teams.
The origins of the Quiz Bowl Team were less than auspicious. "We saw a campus notice about an information session for the W&L Quiz Bowl team," said freshman co-founder Matthew Pagano, "At the meeting, we learned that there actually wasn't a team at all and that we would have to start it ourselves." Well, that they did. Pagano and his fellow freshmen Suzanne Hange and Neville Fogarty held open preliminary matches in January, in which the entire campus was invited to compete. Pagano, Hange, and Fogarty plan on using the results to select the team that will represent W&L in the regional competition on February 23. "If we do well enough there, we might go to nationals as well," said Hange, "but who knows? After regionals, we want to put a couple more campus-wide tournaments together." So, if you're in the mood for some trivia and Thinkfast isn't cutting it for you, keep an eye on Campus Notices for another round of Quiz Bowl. In the meantime, wish our new team luck.
While the founding of Quiz Bowl was a group endeavor, the bringing of Parliamentary Debate to W&L's campus were largely a one-man effort. Senior Ryne Duchmann spent the fall studying at Columbia where he had the opportunity to re-invigorate his high school love of debate on their Parliamentary Debate Team, a love so strong he brought it back to campus. "I wanted to show other schools that W&L has smart, rhetorically gifted kids," said Duchmann. "It will raise our reputation amongst our peers, as well as bring more kids to our campus--if I knew we had a competitive debate team, it would have made coming here a lock." Since then, Duchmann has delegated responsibility as the teams prepare for competition. Currently, they are planning to debate at Columbia over Feb Break and later at UVA and Princeton. Though the competition will be tough, especially since our teams have only had a few weeks to prepare, the team is realistically optimistic. Duchmann expects us to be able to keep up, though, by now, "even the novices now have an additional half a year of experience."
The Quiz Bowl and Parliamentary Debate Teams are new, but they appreciate your support. While they don't expect to have rabid fans following them to matches, the teams do greatly appreciate enthusiasm and encouragement on campus, especially of the tangible sort. Competitions generally have entry fees, and our teams won't be able to show off our mad skills if they can't afford to compete. This very week, the Parliamentary Debate Team will be selling Valentine's E-Cards in the commons. Buy one. Or two. Or even a dozen. Spread the love. Maybe even send a card to one of those Mock Trial hotties. Or to the Trident staff…
The origins of the Quiz Bowl Team were less than auspicious. "We saw a campus notice about an information session for the W&L Quiz Bowl team," said freshman co-founder Matthew Pagano, "At the meeting, we learned that there actually wasn't a team at all and that we would have to start it ourselves." Well, that they did. Pagano and his fellow freshmen Suzanne Hange and Neville Fogarty held open preliminary matches in January, in which the entire campus was invited to compete. Pagano, Hange, and Fogarty plan on using the results to select the team that will represent W&L in the regional competition on February 23. "If we do well enough there, we might go to nationals as well," said Hange, "but who knows? After regionals, we want to put a couple more campus-wide tournaments together." So, if you're in the mood for some trivia and Thinkfast isn't cutting it for you, keep an eye on Campus Notices for another round of Quiz Bowl. In the meantime, wish our new team luck.
While the founding of Quiz Bowl was a group endeavor, the bringing of Parliamentary Debate to W&L's campus were largely a one-man effort. Senior Ryne Duchmann spent the fall studying at Columbia where he had the opportunity to re-invigorate his high school love of debate on their Parliamentary Debate Team, a love so strong he brought it back to campus. "I wanted to show other schools that W&L has smart, rhetorically gifted kids," said Duchmann. "It will raise our reputation amongst our peers, as well as bring more kids to our campus--if I knew we had a competitive debate team, it would have made coming here a lock." Since then, Duchmann has delegated responsibility as the teams prepare for competition. Currently, they are planning to debate at Columbia over Feb Break and later at UVA and Princeton. Though the competition will be tough, especially since our teams have only had a few weeks to prepare, the team is realistically optimistic. Duchmann expects us to be able to keep up, though, by now, "even the novices now have an additional half a year of experience."
The Quiz Bowl and Parliamentary Debate Teams are new, but they appreciate your support. While they don't expect to have rabid fans following them to matches, the teams do greatly appreciate enthusiasm and encouragement on campus, especially of the tangible sort. Competitions generally have entry fees, and our teams won't be able to show off our mad skills if they can't afford to compete. This very week, the Parliamentary Debate Team will be selling Valentine's E-Cards in the commons. Buy one. Or two. Or even a dozen. Spread the love. Maybe even send a card to one of those Mock Trial hotties. Or to the Trident staff…
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