ROGERS — How does a high school debate team defeat college students four and five years their senior? The answer includes some very bright students and great leadership from Heritage High Senior Jordan Martin, Debate Coach Don Dancer said.

Martin is the team’s former captain, this year’s assistant coach and a third year competitor with an uncanny knack for leadership.

“Jordan is one of the very few students I’ve worked with over the years with a natural ability for leadership,” Dancer said. “Jordan takes everything that I’ve managed to teach him, plus all of the knowledge from his other instructors, and condenses that information into something the novice students can understand andemploy.”

Last weekend the Heritage Debate Team put Martin’s leadership and their knowledge to the test against senior students from 18 Southern universities and won. They traveled to the University of Arkansas at Monticello and spent three full days in competition against undergraduate debate programs from Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana and Texas.

The topics for the debates covered economics, politics, religion, education, technology, philosophy, art, sports, ethics, foreign policy, the environment and a variety of social issues.

“It wasn’t the type of debate where you spend months preparing your position,” Dance explained.

“Students had to be wellschooled in a variety of subjects, and what one student did not know, their teammates provided.”

Martin spent the entire weekend working with every student, Dancer said, comparing him to a general in the midst of a conflict.

Dancer also praised his fellow faculty members at Heritage.

“It is my opinion that our students performed so brilliantly because they are used to doing so on a daily basis,” he said. The Heritage students not only knew what they needed to know, but were prepared to function on a higher cognitive level than typically expected of a sophomore or junior in high school, he said. They have developed the habit of critical thinking and cannot only reason and communicate well, but can analyze, critique, defend, explain and judge the logical from the illogical.

Dancer added, “As the old saying goes, the proof is in the pudding! When our kids took their minds and skills into the debates with kids four and five years their senior - with a universitylevel education - our kids won. What that tells me is that my hard work is paying off. My seniors have developed some outstanding leadership skills and the Heritage faculty has our kids functioning on a level surpassing any national standards.”

Senior debater Mason Reynolds went undefeated in the preliminary rounds, won the first round of finals but lost to a debater from Louisiana State University.

Junior Bethany Bishop also made it to the finals. Sophomore Dylan Parker went undefeated in team debate prelims, lost to Mississippi College, and finished in the top eight.

The remainder of the Heritage team did exceptionally well, winning enough team points to garner a 13th place finish out of more than 170 teams, and receiving a great many compliments from the attending university coaches.

Dancer also noted that, “Although the individual students won the debate rounds,without Martin spearheading the effort, there would have been a very different ending to the story. I’m very proud of Jordan.” Coaches from U of A Monticello, HendersonState University and the University of Central Arkansas approached Martin about joining their program after graduation.

The remaining membersof the award-winning Heritage team are Mason Moser, LeAllen Creekmore, George Nelson, Liz Henry, Carley Thompson, Sean Rogers and the youngest of the group,freshman Kaila Buck.

The team plans to compete in Boston in the spring, and hopes to bring home a national title from Harvard University.

Community, Pages 3 on 11/04/2009

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