2008 Woodie Awards
Debaters split national competitions
After taking title in Kansas, Love and Cooper bounced by Missouri
Nick DiMarco
News | 4/6/08
Dayvon Love and Deven Cooper made history by winning the Cross Examination Debate Association national tournament, before falling short at the National Debate Tournament in California on March 30.
They were the first team from Towson to accomplish this feat as well the first all-black team in CEDA to come away with the national title.
After a weekend of constant competition, Love and Cooper defeated the top-seeded University of Kansas Monday night in a 7-4 decision. The next step was the National Debate Tournament across the country at California State University, Fullerton.
In the first elimination round Love and Cooper lost to Missouri State University in a 4-1 decision.
"It was interesting, fun, a lot of intensity," Love said. "It's hard to put into words…it sent a lot of shockwaves through the debate community."
The duo's success was satisfying to Cooper, however, not all parties involved were pleased with the results.
"I was happy, very surprised, given the arguments that we made," he said. "A lot of people are unhappy with us winning, not using a traditional style of debate."
Love and Cooper incorporated the use of audio clips from hip-hop and spoken word artists to illustrate their criticisms of particular facets of the debate community.
Cooper explained the three main things he and Love debated were the sole reliance of traditional authors, an objection to disconnect narrative-not using personal experiences to make arguments, and not recognizing white privilege.
"We think that debate in general relies on traditional academic qualifications to make arguments," Love said. "We pulled out particular practices in the debate community that bolster white supremacy."
Love and Cooper were disappointed with their loss to Missouri State, attributing the judges' decision to their opposing team members' senior status.
"It was like, they didn't want their debate career to end," Cooper said.
"That whole round was a cop out. We were clearly beating this team…they found these obscure reasons to vote for them."
As juniors, Love and Cooper plan to compete in national debate tournaments again next year.
"We definitely want to get further next year in the NDT, and win CEDA again or have another one of our teams win CEDA," Cooper said.
For more information about Towson's speech and debate team, visit http://www.towson.edu/speechanddebate.
They were the first team from Towson to accomplish this feat as well the first all-black team in CEDA to come away with the national title.
After a weekend of constant competition, Love and Cooper defeated the top-seeded University of Kansas Monday night in a 7-4 decision. The next step was the National Debate Tournament across the country at California State University, Fullerton.
In the first elimination round Love and Cooper lost to Missouri State University in a 4-1 decision.
"It was interesting, fun, a lot of intensity," Love said. "It's hard to put into words…it sent a lot of shockwaves through the debate community."
The duo's success was satisfying to Cooper, however, not all parties involved were pleased with the results.
"I was happy, very surprised, given the arguments that we made," he said. "A lot of people are unhappy with us winning, not using a traditional style of debate."
Love and Cooper incorporated the use of audio clips from hip-hop and spoken word artists to illustrate their criticisms of particular facets of the debate community.
Cooper explained the three main things he and Love debated were the sole reliance of traditional authors, an objection to disconnect narrative-not using personal experiences to make arguments, and not recognizing white privilege.
"We think that debate in general relies on traditional academic qualifications to make arguments," Love said. "We pulled out particular practices in the debate community that bolster white supremacy."
Love and Cooper were disappointed with their loss to Missouri State, attributing the judges' decision to their opposing team members' senior status.
"It was like, they didn't want their debate career to end," Cooper said.
"That whole round was a cop out. We were clearly beating this team…they found these obscure reasons to vote for them."
As juniors, Love and Cooper plan to compete in national debate tournaments again next year.
"We definitely want to get further next year in the NDT, and win CEDA again or have another one of our teams win CEDA," Cooper said.
For more information about Towson's speech and debate team, visit http://www.towson.edu/speechanddebate.
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