Located in Gainesville, the University of
Florida has supported a competitive speech and debate program for well over 100
years. Although small, the
University of Florida Speech and Debate team is committed to open access and
competitive excellence. We are
well funded by Student Government and we are open to all students regardless of
debate background.
The
University of Florida competes in policy debate on the national and regional
NDT/CEDA circuits. Our squad is
normally comprised of 4-6 active debaters. The team travels to approximately 12
tournaments per year on both the national and regional level. These include Wake Forest University,
Georgia State University, West Georgia, Northwestern University, University of
Alabama, University of Miami, Las Vegas Round Robin , Pepperdine University,
CEDA Nationals and the NDT. In
most years we travel 1-2 teams on the national circuit and additional teams in
the region. While membership on the team is open to any undergraduate,
maintaining that membership requires hard work in debate and hard work in the
classroom.
The team has a
coaching staff of 2 full time faculty/staff members who direct the program and
coach and an assistant debate coach.
The current coaching staff is Kellie Roberts, Director of Forensics,
Frank Irizarry, Policy Debate Coach, and Marissa Silber, Graduate Assistant
Coach.
For more
information on the University of Florida Policy Debate Program please email
Frank at Gatordebate@aol.com.
News
CONGRATULATIONS TO BRIANNA COAKLEY AND MORGAN WEINSTEIN
FOR QUALIFYING TO THE NATIONAL DEBATE TOURNAMENT THIS IS THE SECOND TIME IN
THREE YEARS THAT FLORIDA HAS QUALIFIED!!!
The policy debate team had an exciting and successful first semester! Morgan Weinstein and Vince Binder started off the year at the Las Vegas Round Robin, competing against schools from all over the nation. After a successful run in Vegas (no pun intended), Morgan and Brianna Coakley attended the Georgia State University debate tournament, in which they went 4-4. Morgan and Brianna began the tournament 2-0 and then proceeded to lose two close debates to the top teams in the country (Harvard and Northwestern). Next stop was another trip to the West Coast. After going 3-3 at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, Morgan and Brianna had an incredibly successful weekend at the University of Alabama tournament. Not only did the team go 5-1 in the prelims and advance to the quarterfinals, but senior Morgan Weinstein was the top speaker at the tournament! This is a magnificent accomplishment! Morgan and Brianna finished the fall semester at the Wake Forest University tournament, which had over 140 teams in the field. The Gators, once again, were incredibly successful finishing within the top 50 teams after having a 5-3 preliminary record.
The spring semester is also busy and exciting for the policy debate squad! Tournaments attended in the spring of 2005 include the University of Miami, the State University of West Georgia, Northwestern University, District VI Championship, CEDA Nationals at San Francisco State University, and the NDT at Gonzaga University.
The University of Florida¹s debate program consists of students with all different debate experience students with several years of high school experience as well as college novice debaters receive opportunities to travel and debate with the program. Interested in joining the team or receiving more information? Contact Frank Irizarry, Director of Debate, at gatordebate@aol.com or Marissa Silber, Policy Debate Graduate Assistant, at silber@ufl.edu
Coaching Staff
Frank Irizarry, Director of Debate
Frank Irizarry has been involved in
policy debate as a competitor and coach for twenty years. Frank debated for
Marist College where he won the 1991 Pi Kappa Delta National Championship, the
1991 and 1992 CEDA East Regional Championship and he was Top Speaker at the
CEDA East Regionals in 1990, 1991, and 1992. Frank received his MA from
Northern Illinois University in 1995 and is currently finishing his PhD. At The
University of Florida. Frank has been a Director of Debate at Pace University,
Syracuse University and currently at The University of Florida. Frank has
qualified teams for the NDT at both Florida and Pace and in 2000, while at Pace
University, Frank was a coach for the fifth place finishers at the NDT and the
CEDA National Championship. Frank spent a number of years working for CDE as a
camp instructor and handbook researcher.
Marissa Silber, Policy Graduate Assistant
Marissa Silber is the Graduate Assistant for Policy Debate at the University of Florida while pursuing a graduate degree in Political Science. She is a former debater at the University of Southern California and Assistant at Notre Dame High School in Los Angeles. She was the two-time District One Champion (2003, 2004) and an elimination round participant at the Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament, Wake Forest, Georgia State, Fullerton, and several other national tournaments. This summer will be her third summer teaching at the University of Michigan High School Debate camp, and she formerly taught at the Southern California Urban Debate League Camp. She has been writing for Victory Briefs handbooks for five years.
Background on Policy Debate
What is policy debate?
Two teams (two persons per team) debate on opposite sides of an agreed-upon topic. The topic is decided nation-wide (all debaters in all states use the same topic), and it remains in force for an entire school year.
This year¹s topic is:
Resolved: the United States Federal Government should establish an energy policy requiring a substantial reduction in the total non-governmental consumption of fossil fuels in the United States.
The two sides in a debate are the Affirmative and Negative. In general, the
Affirmative team supports the statement of the resolution (in this case, they
would feel that the government should mandate a substantial reduction in the
total non-governmental consumption of fossil fuels), while the Negative argues
that a new program or new action in this area is either unnecessary or
undesirable, or both.
Both sides support and defend their arguments with research (evidence,
sometimes referred to as ³cards² by the debaters) from published sources
(books, periodicals, newspapers, etc.), and with logic and reasoning. Good
debaters are always on the lookout for new and better evidence to support their
arguments, but they are also always thinking about the logic of their arguments
and the arguments made by their opponents.
Links
National Debate Tournament Homepage http://www.wfu.edu/organizations/NDT/index.html
CEDA Homepage
Pictures
Not only was Morgan the top speaker at the University of
Alabama Tournament but Brianna and Morgan were quarter-finalists!
Director of Forensics, Kellie Roberts, and Director of
Debate, Frank Irizarry, celebrate the Policy team and Individual Events
squads success!
Vince and Vanessa had an extremely successful tournament
at the University of Miami in January. They were quarter-finalists and
Vince was the top speaker of the tournament!
UF coaches are so devoted to their debaters they are
even willing to push tubs! Frank and Marissa apparently have not realized
their debate careers have come to an end.
Brianna and Morgan in action, working hard to make it to
the quarter-finals of the University of Miami debate tournament.
Debate IS exhausting! At the airport returning from the
Northwestern Debate TournamentŠ Within a few months, the debate team has
traveled to Illinois, Georgia, Atlanta, California, Miami, and North
Carolina
Brianna with the Florida coaches/judges at districts
Gerald, Frank, Neil, and Marissa
Vegas Baby Vegas! Frank, Vince, and Morgan at the Vegas
Round Robin
Congrats to Brianna and Morgan for qualifying to the
NDT!
Celebrating Morgan and Brianna¹s bid to the National
Debate Tournament! Frank, Kellie, Marissa, Marna (an extremely loyal alum),
Brianna, and Morgan, out to dinner at the Melting Pot
