CONWAY — The University of Central Arkansas Debate Team is back for its 2009-2010 season, and its coaches are looking for students around campus to join in hopes of finishing higher than last season’s fourth-place national showing.

Members just started the season and placed third in debate sweepstakes at Henderson State’s “Reddie to Rumble” tournament and the Louisiana State University-Shreveport “Red River Classic” tournament as well as third for the “Wrecking Crew” award at the University of Arkansas at Monticello’s tournament. The “Wrecking Crew” award means the team had the third best overall winning percentage of 56.1 percent.

Co-coach and adjunct instructor Mark Lowery said the third-place finishes at Henderson State and Louisiana State University-Shreveport and the University of Arkansas at Monticello third-place “Wrecking Crew” award were great for the team but that there is always room for improvement. That improvement, he said, primarily depends on reaching more students to join the debate team, which currently has about 20 members.

“That tells us that if we had more debaters traveling with the UCA debate team, we would easily be one of the top two, top three programs in the division,” Lowery said. “Last year we came in fourth overall for the season, and the only schools that were ahead of us were those who brought more debaters. We really feel like if you just look at winning percentage, we really would be part of the top two [teams].”

Although the team has about 20 members, sometimes only 10 or 11 students can travel on certain weekends to debate tournaments, depending on different work and school commitments, Lowery said.

“We’ve been trying to emphasize to students that if we could get a solid core of students every time we go to a tournament that we would be more consistent in being able to compete for top honors,” Lowery said.

The team is coached by Mc-Mullen, an adjunct instructor in the College of Business, and Lowery, a Department of Speech and Public Relations adjunct instructor. The debate team is an approved university activity based out of the Department of Speech and Public Relations.

The team meets at 7:30 p.m. every Monday in Thompson Hall room 211. Students can attend a practice to see if they want to join the team, but they will not be thrown into a debate, Lowery said. The debate team season lasts until late March and ends with the national tournament, which will be hosted at the University of Central Arkansas this year.

For more information, contact Lowery at (501) 837-5221 or e-mail mlowery@uca.edu or amcmullen@uca.edu.

River Valley Ozark, Pages 66 on 11/19/2009