LSU Shreveport Debate Team

Earlier this week we hosted our end of season banquet to celebrate the team’s performance this season!

This season:
- We debated 781 individual IPDA rounds at tournaments.
- We won 377 of them (for a 48.3% win rate)
- We attended 12 tournaments
- We brought home 12 sweepstakes awards and 82 individual awards.
- We brought home 4 Louisiana State Titles and 3 National Titles.

Now excuse us while we take a little off time… The 2026-2027 season is bound to be here before we know it!

Congratulations to the winners and participants of the first ever Shreveport Speaks Persuasive Speaking Contest!!

These students performed their self written persuasive speeches and blew us all away!

Thank you to all who attended and to our wonderful panel of judges!

Thank you to the Ruth Herring Noel Endowed Chair for sponsoring this event and rewarding the hard work of these students!!

1st Place: Cyra Pratt
2nd Place: Cam Thoele
3rd Place: Jordan Dame
4th Place: Tori Mills
5th Place: Kayla Venable

This week is a big one!

Join us WEDNESDAY night for our first ever PUBLIC SPEAKING CONTEST! We will be giving out over $500 worth of prize money to participants. Students wrote their own speeches and applied for this opportunity. Our prestigious panel of judges cannot WAIT to hear what you have to say!

Join us for your chance to weigh in on the final decision and witness your classmates as they try to persuade a room full of people.

Then, join us FRIDAY for the debut of the Documentary that KTAL has made to celebrate the legacy of the LSUS Debate team! (All of our friends that attended this year's Red River Classic? Yeah, y'all might just be featured!)

We are excited to spend this week away from competition and giving back to campus!

LSUS is closing out the 2025-2026 Debate Season with not one, not two, but a total of THREE National Titles!

This weekend, we attended the International Public Debate Association National Tournament hosted by Middle Tennessee State University, our 2nd National competition of the year. Overall, the team had some pretty incredible success - including picking up two new National Titles!!

Before we get into results, we’ve gotta say.. this season has been hard. We’ve gone to ELEVEN tournaments. Soon, we will be reflecting on this season - but for now we are celebrating this moment. This is what it’s all for.

Not just for the wins and hardware - but for the recognition of our efforts and for the COMMUNITY. The best part of IPDA is the people we encounter at each and every one of these tournaments. Nationals gives us the unique opportunity to visit with our friends near and far.

THANK YOU to all members of this community for your camaraderie and kindness this weekend. We love you all 💜

RESULTS BELOW!

TOURNAMENT AWARDS:

Lindsey Brown - 1st Place Varsity IPDA Speaking National Champion
Addison Jacobsen - 4th Place Team IPDA Tournament Speaking Champion

Lindsey Brown -1st Place Varsity IPDA National Champion
Emily Dowd - Varsity Octofinalist
CJ Longino - Professional Octofinalist
Kaleb Schmidley - Junior Varsity Double Octofinalist
Jasmine Forck - Junior Varsity Double
Octofinalist

Addison Jacobsen and Lindsey Brown - Team IPDA Octofinalists

SEASON LONG AWARDS:

CJ Longino - 2nd Place Season Long Professional IPDA Competitor
CJ Longino - 3rd Place Season Long Professional Speaker

Lindsey Brown and Addison Jacobson - 9th Place Season Long Team IPDA Competitors
Heidi Tyler and Kaleb Schmidley - 10th Place Season Long Team IPDA Competitors

4th Place Season Long Professional Squad Sweepstakes
4th Place Season Long Team IPDA Squad Sweepstakes

(Note: Season Long Awards celebrate the consistent success of students throughout the course of a season by accumulating the points they’ve earned at each tournament.)

Edit: April Fools’!

Woah! We just got some breaking news!

LSU Shreveport Debate Team's Heidi Tyler and Kaleb Schmidley captured a national title in Team IPDA debate at the Pi Kappa Delta National Conference last weekend, rising to the top of a 50-team field.

LSUS finished 7th overall among 59 teams, with multiple Pilots earning recognition across a variety of events. Congrats to these outstanding debaters!

Next stop: nationals in April!

Read more: https://bit.ly/4bN40O7

Your LSUS Debate will be hosting a Persuasive Speaking Contest for any student registered to LSU Shreveport! Come compete for your chance to win big!

Scan the QR code or visit the link below for next steps to the application!

https://lsu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_aVnWFtThMyFs3zw