As the culmination of its successful year, the JCCC debate team was awarded the prestigious McClintock Award, presented to the national champion community college team, at the Cross-Examination Debate Association (CEDA) National Tournament held at the University of California-Berkeley in March.

The CEDA national championship is based on the team's earned points during the entire season in competition with four-year colleges and universities as well as other community colleges.

This is the first championship title for JCCC in eight years and the fourth year in a row JCCC has been in the top three in community college sweepstakes.

The award caps a string of wins and high rankings for the JCCC debate team. During the 2009-2010 season, the team traveled to 12 tournaments, winning awards at all, making seven final-round appearances and earning five tournament championships at the Vegas Invitational, KCKCC, Emporia State University, Kansas State University, and Novice Nationals. 

Throughout the year, the JCCC debate team was consistently ranked as the top community college, maintained since November a top 20 national ranking that includes four-year colleges and finished in the top 25 nationwide for the year, ranking higher than schools like the University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, Georgetown and Baylor universities, Dartmouth College and University of Kentucky.

The 2009-2010 college debate topic was "The United States federal government should substantially reduce the size of its nuclear weapons arsenal and/or substantially reduce and restrict the role and/or missions of its nuclear weapons arsenal." Teams are required to debate both sides of an issue - affirmative and negative.

Team members invest hours into research, practice rounds, one-on-one speaking drills and tournaments. Debate coach Terri Easley and assistant debate coach Justin Stanley can spend up to 14-16 hours a day with students during the competition season. In the fall, there were four-day back-to-back tournaments on consecutive weekends plus travel time. There is also preparation on Saturdays and Sundays where students and coaches spend from eight- to 12-hour days in extra practice rounds and conducting research.

Easley says the most common major among debaters is pre-law or political science, but debate students' majors vary from nursing to electrical engineering. "I think everything you learn in debate translates into every day life, skills you can translate to any job. Debaters have to critically analyze and process information very quickly, learn how to research a subject, and become better citizens in general as they consider both sides of an issue," Easley said.

JCCC offers four sections of debate, and all students enrolled in debate participate with the team. Two-thirds of the current debate team is expected to return in the fall. Using electronic databases, books, journals and law reviews, students will begin research on next year's topic as soon as it announced in July.

At the CEDA National Tournament at Berkeley, JCCC debaters were awarded several national recognitions. Emily Umphrey was awarded with the "Outstanding New Competitor Award" for debaters in their first year of competition without prior debate experience who show growth and participation in the activity. Caitlin Breslin  and Dalton Lawson were selected to the All-American Debate Team. The award is given to 30 debaters who represent the best of intercollegiate debate.

Debate team members are (sitting left to right) Rebekah Rauckman, Terri Easley (coach), Justin Stanley (assistant coach), Caitlin Breslin, Andrew Salzmann, Amanda Brown. Standing (left to right) are Dalton Lawson, Kristin Brandt, Ben Cuellar, Emily Umphrey, Brandie Shepherd, Tyler Kowalewski, Sarah Elliott, Cate Garmeavea, and Keith Alexander-Arceneaux.