OXFORD, Miss. — Of the 22 colleges and universities that sent
\nforensics teams to the recent Tri-State Championship Tournament, the
\nUniversity of Mississippi had one of the smallest, composed of students
\nDerek Barham, Evan McCarley and Taylor Wood.<\/p>\n
But it was the UM team’s versatility that won them championships in the
\npublic speaking competition, held at Louisiana State University. The
\nteam won the Mississippi State Individual Events Championship and the
\nTri-State Individual Speaker Championship.<\/p>\n
“I am extremely proud of them,” said JoAnn Edwards, director of the UM Forensics Program. “Other programs brought teams that were three or four times larger than ours, but we have established a tradition of being small but powerful.”<\/p>\n
McCarley, a political science and philosophy major from Jackson, was named Pentathlon Champion for winning five events, including first place in persuasive speaking, dramatic duo interpretation and informative speaking.<\/p>\n
“For our whole team, this tournament was about making a name for ourselves,” said McCarley, who delved into quantum physics and Buddhism for his informative speech. “We don’t have numbers, but we’re very competitive, and we’re all proud of it.”<\/p>\n
Other UM winners were senior theatre arts major Barham, who won first place in poetry interpretation and duo interpretation with McCarley; and Wood, a freshman theatre major from Collierville, who won second place in dramatic interpretation and third place in poetry interpretation. A fourth team member, Brian Tichnell, was ill and did not attend.<\/p>\n
Edwards, who teaches a speech class, said that the team’s strength is its versatility. She requires her students to stretch beyond their natural talents to develop other aspects of their public speaking skills. “It’s an indication of their depth and their ability to think critically beyond just what comes easy to them,” she said.<\/p>\n
Wood credits Edwards for bringing out the best in the forensics team.<\/p>\n
“Dr. Edwards is a wonderful coach,” Wood said. “I’m looking forward to three more years on the forensics team. I hope to get better with every single tournament I go to. I really want to get better so I can learn as much as I can. I love this program.”<\/p>\n
From here, the UM team plans to compete for a Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha National Championship in March at the University of Florida. DSR-TKA is the national forensics honor society. The UM team is also slated to compete in an American Forensics Association national tournament in April.<\/p>\n
The university has had a forensics team off and on for more than 100 years, Edwards said. After a hiatus in the 1990s, Edwards re-launched the program in 2001. Since then, the team has won one AFA national championship and seven DSR-TKA national championships.<\/p>\n
For more information about the UM Forensics Program, go to http:\/\/www.olemiss.edu\/forensics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"