LSUS Debate captures team state title, two individual state championships

LSUS Debate captures team state title, two individual state championships

SHREVEPORT - The LSU Shreveport Debate team can call themselves Louisiana champions after their performance at the Southern Forensics Championship Tournament this past weekend.

The Pilots finished as the top Louisiana team in a field that included squads from Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas and Tennessee.

The team championship was highlighted by individual state titles from C.J. Longino (professional division) and Josephine Moore (novice division).

Both debaters also captured speaker titles, which judge the debater on speaking style and not just on the speech's content.

"A state title is a huge deal for our students because this is one of the largest and most competitive tournaments the team attends all season," said LSUS coach Lindsay Duede, who is in her first season leading the program. "We secured three of the five state debate titles up for grabs, so this is a great way to start our spring semester.

"This debate was supposed to be in person at Arkansas State University's campus, but with the ice still on the ground across the region, the format shifted to remote with just 36 hours notice. I'm proud of how our students made the adjustment."

Longino advanced to the professional division semifinals while Moore made the novice octofinals after winning all six rounds of the preliminary debates, earning the No. 1 seed.

Novice teammate Micah Bolden also pushed through to the octofinals.

Moore earned fifth-place persuasive speaker and reached the impromptu semifinals, where she was joined by teammate Jasmine Forck.

Duede, who was voted as the tournament coach of the year, was also elected to the tournament board where she'll serve a two-year term representing Louisiana teams.