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After a year of sitting on the sidelines, the speech and debate team is back to fighting battles of the word and mind.
The speech and debate team, also known as the forensics team, had its first joint tournament in a year Sept. 21, after it was suspended at the end of the spring 2006 semester.
Some team members were unhappy about not competing for a year, but the suspension benefited the group, said Sue Peterson, who took over as the team's director this semester.
"Dealing with the situation with consequences sets up a better future for the team," she said. "Every team has their down years."
Chico State announced the suspension May 26, 2006, after the team reportedly used cocaine, marijuana and alcohol at tournaments and off-campus parties, according to a university statement.
The forensics team competes throughout California and the United States in debate and individual events such as persuasive, impromptu and literature-interpretive speaking.
Team members enroll in forensics as a class for one to three units, depending on how many tournaments they compete in.
Members competing in individual events were only suspended for the fall 2006 semester. The debate team had to wait until this semester to begin competing again.
Nolan Cox has been a member of the team for three years. The group is back and ready to compete with its new rules, director and members, he said.
"Debate expands your knowledge of the world," Cox said. "Never before has my brain been packed full with excellent information."
Team members spent last year doing community outreach, teaching debate in classes and hosting open forums, he said.
Now that the team can compete again, Peterson plans to increase membership and send members to nationals. She wants to use this year to rebuild, she said.
The entire team took a hit and fall because of the actions of a couple of people, and it's going to ruin it for generations to come, said member Jeff Kell.
This semester, 90 percent of team members are new and have a lot of enthusiasm and willingness to work, Peterson said.
She set tournament and long-term goals and hopes to see everyone participate in elimination rounds.
The team is focusing on recruitment to increase membership, Peterson said.
Last year the team consisted of about seven people. The current team has 20 members.
Three graduate assistant coaches were added to its staff and the team expanded the number of tournaments members will attend to 17, Peterson said.
The team will travel to Santa Rosa Junior College this weekend for a joint tournament.
At the first tournament, junior Jeremy Benintende received one of the top speaker awards in debate.
He enjoys being on the team.
"You can't get in trouble for beating someone's ass verbally," Benintende said.
Maegan Martens can be reached at mmartens@theorion.com
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