1 0 • GCU TODAY
talking to Christians and using our jargon and
vernacular. The mission of apologetics and
Christians is to reach the world and to share
our faith.”
Game on
Another huge club — actually, a
conglomeration of a bunch of smaller groups
— is club sports, which has grown to 22 teams
and 450 athletes in just a few years. Associate
Athletic Director Dan Nichols expects to have
even more teams and 200 more participants
for the 2016-17 academic year.
“We’ve got one of the top club programs in
the nation,” he said. “I’ve got people calling
me asking, ‘How are you doing it? What are
you doing?’ and really wanting to look at our
program.”
The program drew national attention last
year when GCU won the Men’s Collegiate
Lacrosse Association championship, but what
amazes Nichols is the interest in baseball
(there are three teams) and hockey and the
development of women’s lacrosse.
“Women’s lacrosse started with nine
When Ashlyn Tupper was a
freshman in 2012, Grand Canyon
University didn’t have a speech
and debate team, and that didn’t
faze her.
After all, she had logged four
years of speech and debate at
North Pointe Preparatory high
school in Phoenix, and she was
ready to end that chapter of
her life.
My, have things changed! Four
years later, not only does GCU
have a speech and debate team
that is rocking the competition,
but Tupper, the only senior, is one
of the keys to its success.
So what changed her mind?
In the spring of 2014,
six months after College of
Humanities and Social Sciences
instructor Barry Regan started
GCU’s first Speech and Debate
Team, Tupper found herself in his
public speaking class.
She had no idea he was the
team’s director. So when he
asked students to talk about
themselves, Tupper thought
nothing of discussing her years
competing in speech during
high school.
“He spent the rest of the
semester talking me into joining
the team,” Tupper said.
It wasn’t until the fall of 2014
— and after much prayer — that
Tupper attended a practice.
“I just felt suddenly this clarity
that this is where I belong and
need to be. It was a community I
hadn’t found in two years at GCU,”
Tupper said. “I found my peeps.”
Since then, the team has
grown from about a dozen
students to more than 20, and
the coaching staff has more than
doubled.
The team collected a
cornucopia of titles this year. It
finished No. 25 in the nation of out
199 in parliamentary debate. It
was Division III champion in the
2016 Christian College Forensic
Invitational. And, in perhaps
the highest honor, GCU was
selected to host the 2017 National
Christian College Forensics
Invitational.
Tupper believes GCU’s shiny
new national reputation will
attract students who want to
compete in speech and debate.
“I think people will come here
for us,” she said.
—LAURIE MERRILL
Speech and Debate Team is
talking point for GCU excellence
MatthewMittelberg speaks at
a Defenders Club meeting.
Ashlyn Tupper
