El Camino College Debate Team Ranked No. 1 in the Nation

From El Camino College: The El Camino College debate team recently returned from a successful showing at the Spring Championships staged at California State University, Sacramento as the top-ranked community college in the nation. The rankings, determined by theNational Parliamentary Debate Association (NPDA), also ranked El Camino College No. 4 among four-year college and universities.

A perennial powerhouse, the ECC debate team has dominated the competition this season. During the winter, the top team of Zara Andrabi and Curtis Wang traveled to the Mile High Swing tournament in Salt Lake City, and was the only community college team to advance to elimination rounds. The team won four elimination rounds, beating the No. 1 ranked team in the nation along the way, finally losing in the final round and taking second overall.

Curtis was named the top individual speaker at the tournament, and Zara and Curtis are the ninth-ranked debate pair in the nation. Most ranked debate teams are seniors or at least juniors – Zara and Curtis are an impressive pair of high-ranking sophomores.

The team also competed in the “Winter at the Beach 2017” debate tournament at California State University, Long Beach, an event that draws national competition. ECC’s junior-level debaters “closed out semi-finals,” meaning of the four teams that advanced to elimination rounds, all were from El Camino College. ECC’s top team finished second overall, beating the best teams from across the nation.

Last year El Camino College hosted the springtime National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence, becoming the first community college in the history of the tournament to host the prestigious competition. ECC surpasses all other community colleges year after year by having debaters qualify for prestigious tournaments. Team members consistently perform well at local and national circuit tournaments; many have been offered scholarships to some of the most competitive debate schools in the nation.

Debate students are coached by Professor Francesca Bishop, director of forensics, and debate professors Mark Crossman and Joseph Evans.

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