Qualifiers Colin Etnire ’12, Cat Djang ’13 and Ian Mahmud ’12. (Photo credit: Joseph Kibe)

Qualifying for Nationals - the most competitive debate tournament in the country - requires consistent success in varsity breaks at major tournaments. This year, members of the BQDC won Vassar and broke at Williams, Columbia, Providence College, University of Maryland, and Tufts. Colin Etnire, Catherine Djang, and I have all qualified for Nationals this year.

The process of qualifying is difficult for any team. To simplify a baroque system of APDA rules, the metric for qualifying is point based. Points are mostly determined by the number of teams at a tournament and how far a breaking team advances. It wasn’t until mid-season that Colin and Cat qualified, after consecutive breaks at Providence College and Tufts. The commitment of both Colin and Cat to their team and activity serves as an excellent model for novices aspiring for success at a varsity level.

I qualified subsequently afterward, breaking at Williams. Until then, I had been only a half point away from qualifying, out of a necessary fourteen. I greatly appreciate both the encouragement of the team and my partner Colin during the early months of the season, which were characterized by near misses, bad luck, and worse judging.

There are a number of advantages from qualifying. Firstly, at each tournament, qualified debaters gain a first round advantage because of their seeding. Secondly, Bates can send more teams to Nationals. All schools which are members of APDA are entitled to send one team. However, qualified debaters can attend in addition to the usual school delegation. This year, Bates will be able to send three teams. Having a qualified team greatly increases our chances of breaking. Breaking at Nationals is notoriously difficult, but doing so again will immensely increase the prestige of the BQDC. The last Bates team to break at Nationals, Brendan Jarboe and Matthew Marienthal, did so in 2008.

Matching the effort of the varsity members, our highly competitive first-years are now consistently in the novice break at major tournaments. I congratulate the entire BQDC for both competitive successes and remarkable improvements so far this year.