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Tracy Frederick admitted telling Cowley administrators during the summer of 1 996 not to expect muchfrom her first-year debate/forensics team. She was serious.But a successful fall1996 turned into an incredible spring 1997 as the team surpassed all expectations,captured several individual and team awards, and earned the respect of two- and four-year schools fromacross the nation."It has been a phenomenal year," Frederick said.That could go down as the understatement of the year. Here's a list of some of the squad's most notoriousaccomplishments in its first year:• fifth in the state in Open (experienced) Division, even though Cowley had no experienced students.• second in the state in Novice Division behind two-time national debate champion Kansas StateUniversity.A list of individual honors:• Damon Young, fifth in Impromptu Speaking; honorable mention All-Kansas and honorable mentionAll-Kansas Novice Team.• Young, 16th in Prose Interpretation; honorable mention All-Kansas Novice Team; Young and Kara Fry,16th in Duo Interpretation; honorable mention All-Kansas Novice Team.• Heather Bollinger and Jim Nethercott, fifth in Duo Interpretation; honorable mention All-KansasTeam and first-team All-Kansas Novice Team.• Nethercott, 1 1th in Prose Interpretation; honorable mention All-Kansas Novice Team.• Bollinger, seventh in Dramatic Interpretation; second-team All-Kansas Novice Team.• Trent Pappan, 1 8th in Dramatic Interpretation.• Pappan and Ryan Kane, 9th in Duo Interpretation.• Pappan and Clayton Stacy, 14th in Duo Interpretation; honorable mention All-Kansas Novice Team.And to top itYear award.off, Frederick received the National Education Debate Association's New Member of the"For a squad that had no experience, the students did an incredible job," Frederick said. "I could nothave asked for any better effort. We really turned heads at tournaments we competed in."And in many of those tournaments, Cowley was the lone community college. Most of the competitionwas against four-year universities with established debate/forensics programs. Cowley was not intimidated."If anything I think that kind of inspired us to do better," Frederick said. "The students met each andevery challenge head-on."Frederick was quick to point out that while it's nice to win, it's not important."The skills the students have acquired are those that will allow them to be successful for the rest of theirlives," she said. "Communication is the key to success. They have become effective communicators and willbe able to accomplish any goals set for them."