Fort Scott debaters place at state, close season

The 2010-11 debate season came to a close on Jan. 13-14 at the state tournament in Kansas City.

The Fort Scott's four-speaker team was one of eight qualifying teams competing after winning their regional tournament.

The round-robin format allows each team to face the others on both sides (affirmative and negative) of the topic.

The Tigers had a rough start on Friday as the Affirmative team (Matt Carrillo/ Chase Rooks) dropped all three of their opening debates, while the negative team (Daniel Lyon/ Baker Weilert) picked up on all three. The 3-3 start put the team in a rough situation going into Saturday.

However, on Saturday, the affirmative side got going with a perfect 4-0 day and the negative team dropped just one round for a 3-1 finish. The 10-4 record was good enough for a third-place state finish.

Coach Brian Weilert commented, "I was very proud of how we came back on Saturday. There was some disappointed with the final finish from the team, but I tried to put it in perspective. I let them know that state trophies are hard to come by in any activity and that Fort Scott had managed to win five debate four-speaker trophies in a row."

At the two-speaker state tournament, Fort Scott also found success with three teams earning medals. Coming out of the 63-team pack and earning a spots in octo-finals (top 16) were: Reed Ramsey/ Tony Jackson and Megan Midkiff/ Austin Bailey. Here, both teams dropped.

Jeff Durbin/Leah Casselman advanced through octos but dropped in quarter-finals. Weilert wrapped up, "To make out-rounds of a tournament with so many competing is tough. The fact that on top of the success of our 4-speaker team, we were still able to place three additional teams in the two-speaker side, just shows the depth of the squad. This is the most teams we have had advance at this tournament. It was a great finish to a great season."