Led by Ryan Creighton of Lyme, N.H., and Mike Neville-O'Neill of Rowley, Mass., Bates College debaters swept the 2003 American Parliamentary Debate Association's Novice Championships, held Sept. 12 and 13 at Columbia University.

Steamrolling through a field of approximately 20 teams from 82 universities, including those of Yale, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania, Creighton and Neville-O'Neill, both members of the class of 2007, defeated Johns Hopkins in the final round to win the tournament's first-place team standing. Getting the best of the Penn team in a debate about abortion, Creighton and Neville-O'Neill moved into the finals, arguing that Iraqi Baath party loyalists should not be allowed to play a role in the country's new government.

As Creighton and Neville-O'Neil advanced through the various stages of competition, they became the first Bates team ever to reach the semi-finals of the 8-year-old novice championships. Reserved for students in their first year of college debate, the tournament also presented demonstration rounds featuring experienced debaters as well as seminars on debating techniques.
Like many of their novice teammates, Creighton and Neville O'Neill had little debate experience before arriving at Bates. Creighton began policy debate during his senior year of high school, while Neville-O'Neill had never done any previous public speaking.

Under the direction of debate coach Bryan Brito, Bates' Brooks Quimby Debate Council took a large novice group to Columbia this year, with 18 members composing seven teams with four judges.

Other novice Bates competitors also posted excellent results, including members of the class of 2007 Dylan Morris of Bloomington, Minn., and Chris Abbott of Hancock who finished with an impressive 3-1 record, and classmates Kristine Goulding of West Suffield, Conn., and Rakhshan Zahid of Karachi, Pakistan, who finished as the 11th and 12th place speakers respectively out of 172 debaters.

The real significance of the team's performance, said Brito, was to discover the superlative talents of his team's newest members. "They succeeded against enormous competition," he said.

Beginning its regular season at Williams College Sept. 20, the Bates debate team will travel to England and Malaysia this semester. Closer to home, the team will host an Oct. 25 high school debate tournament, the first in almost 15 years, and a college tournament during the winter semester, the first at Bates in almost six years.

The Brooks Quimby squad ranked among the top 25 of the 68 best teams in the nation competing at the APDA nationals, held at Brandeis University in April.