The Howard Payne University speech and debate team, Student Speaker Bureau, took second place in the overall sweepstakes at the Cameron Christmas Classic Tournament held December 3 and 4 at Cameron University in Lawton, Oklahoma. The debate team also took second place in the overall debate sweepstakes.

“I cannot express how proud of our team I am,” said Dr. Julie Welker, professor of communication and SSB coach. “These students are winners and it shows in their performance at every tournament.”

The SSB debate students took home several awards in the Parliamentary Debate category. Being named Junior Varsity Debate Co-Champions were the HPU teams of Charity Chambers, sophomore Academy and communication major from Derby, Kansas, and Ben Chambers, freshman Academy, political science and business major from Derby, Kansas; and Jake Aschmutat, sophomore Academy and political science major from Corpus Christi, Texas, and Ben Palmer, freshman Academy major from Van, Texas. The team of Adam Hardy, junior Academy, political science and biblical languages major from Corpus Christi, and Raquel Spencer, a junior communication major from Fritch, were open debate quarterfinalists. Individual Debate Speaker Awards for Junior Varsity went to Charity Chambers, 2nd place, and Ben Chambers, 9th place.

Individual Events Finalist awards were received by Tim Hardy, freshman Academy and history major from Corpus Christi, taking 2nd place for Program Oral Interpretation; Aschmutat, qualifying as semi-finalist in Impromptu Speaking; and the team of Aschmutat and Carlee Ammons, sophomore communication studies major from Katy, Texas, taking 4th place in Duo Interpretation.

Kelly Miller and Jessica Ramirez are also members of the SSB team.

Participating in the tournament were 27 schools from Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Washington and Missouri.

“This is a difficult tournament because we compete against teams that traditionally have very strong forensics programs,” said Welker. “I’m excited and proud that we did so well against such powerhouse teams.”

Student Speaker Bureau is coached by Welker; Kim Bryant, associate professor of communication; Elisha Nix, Brown County assistant attorney and volunteer assistant debate coach; and Robert Davis, student coach. Their next tournament will be the Texas Intercollegiate Forensics Association Spring Championships, held at Texas State University in February.

Photo identification:

Front row, l-r: Raquel Spencer, Charity Chambers, Kelley Miller, Jessica Ramirez, Jake Aschmutat, Tim Hardy and SSB Coach Dr. Julie Welker. Back Row L-R: SSB Coach Kim Bryant, Carlee Ammons, Ben Chambers, Adam Hardy, student coach Robert Davis and Ben Palmer.