UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Friday, March 11, 1994
6
DEBATING: TRIPS, TOURNAMENTS ALL PART OF THE FUN
Continued from Page 1.
coach, I work on their skills, and as a counselor, I'm a friend. The hardest part of coaching is balancing those roles. And my approach is a laid-back and a sort of closeness."
Above: Scott Harris sits in the KU debate team's room, which is decorated with the many trophies the team has won in past years. This year's squad currently ranks in the top 10 nationally.
Harris attributes it to what he calls his "laid-back" style.
Left: Angie Lettis, Lincoln, Neb., junior, presents her argument for nuclear weapons' safety measures to KU debate coach Scott Harris.
The 35-year-old Harris sits in his third-floor Wescoe and puts his feet up on his desk. It is a concentrated mess of four walls, covered desks, post-ft notes and pictures.
"I tend to be a little less organized." Harris said as he rummaged through piles of papers. "I don't do anything different than anyone else except for what my personality allows."
But what he has to do is more than what his personality will allow. As an assistant professor of communication studies and debate coach, Harris has plenty of responsibilities.
"He's a faculty member first," said Howard Sypher, chair of communication studies. "They have the same expectations for Harris as they do for the rest of the faculty: research, teaching and service."
But debate is what consumes him. Although he teaches three classes and researches in environmental rhetoric, debate is what Scott Harris is about.
Even at 5:30 on a Saturday morning.
--tion. He attended Northwestern University in Chicago, where he received a Ph.D. in communication studies.
It's Saturday about 10 a.m. Once again Scott Harris is being a leader.
But this time he he's not at work. He's playing basketball at Robinson Center.
He's wearing an Orlando Magic basketball jersey with "Scott" on the back — both his and Magic's guard Dennis Scott's name.
He calls to his teammates, and he calls for the ball. He gets it. He shoots a high-arcing 18-foot jump shot. Two points.
"He was always very competitive," recalled his father, Virgil Harris. "With he and his four brothers, we could beat any team in the neighborhood."
Harris was the fourth of five sons born to Virgil and Barbara Harris.
"He was the best athlete of all the kids," Virgil Harris said, "but he was very shy."
His mother remembers that well
"This boy didn't speak when he was little," she said. "He was always able to be taken in with his older brothers because he kept quiet. I remember when he used to go over to his grand-
But his shyness didn't keep him from a career in public speaking and becoming a successful debater.
"When I went to see him debate for the first time in high school, I sat there with my mouth open," Barbara Harris said. "I couldn't believe he was talking. Thinking back, I was afraid he wouldn't be outgoing."
Virgil Harris also remembers the beginning of his son's debate career.
"He wasshy up until high school," he said. "Then you couldn't keep his mouth shut. He would argue anything."
From Ferndale, a suburb of Detroit, Harris went on to Wayne State University in Detroit, unsure if he wanted to continue his debate career.
But that's when he found Richard Nixon.
"I saw a poster that the debate team had put up," Harris said. "It said: 'Richard Nixon debated, so should you.'"
Harris was on his way to 411 career victories.
"That's not bad coming from not knowing anything," he said.
As a senior, Harris made it to the quarterfinals of the National Debate Tournament.
After his collegiate career ended, he earned a bachelor's degree in speech and a master's degree in communication. He attended Northwestern University in Chicago, where he received a Ph.D. in communication studies.
But throughout his schooling, Harris was coaching.
He was an assistant coach for two years while he attended Wayne State as a graduate student. He then he became an assistant coach at Northwestern. From there, he got his first head coaching job at Louisville University. He stayed there for five years before Kansas hired him.
"We did a national search," Sypher said. "In the minds of the faculty, he had the experience and the intellectual and academic background we were looking for."
Harris said he was ready for a change and that Kansas was an excellent opportunity.
Now he is contributing to Kansas with an intense drive and personality. His desire to win still consumes him.
Harris has been a part of 480 Jayhawk victories and has coached three different debaters who have moved into the top 25 in career victories at Kansas.
The first thing he did when he got to Kansas was organize a softball team. He didn't coach — he played. Many of his debaters played on the same team.
"He has argument insight like no one I know," said Benn Voth, assistant debate coach. "He has an incredible zeal for debate."
His debaters also see it.
ketball, or a stupid game, he'll play to win," Zive said. "He'll spend $20 on a game until he gets his stuffed bear.
"He'll do anything in his power to help the team. If he sleeps five hours during a four-day tournament, then he's relaxing. He's more committed than any one member of our team."
"Whether it's winning in debate, bas-
It's not uncommon to see Harris talking to his debaters at a tournament, coaching them up until the last minute before a big round. Not unlike a basketball or football coach on game day, Harris is continually teaching.
"His competitiveness is why he's successful today," Virgil Harris said. "Nothing can deter him."
That desire stemmed from his childhood, his father said.
--boring guy."
Harris pulls some portraits of debaters out of his desk. Taken on the road while the team was traveling to another tournament, the portraits show 6 a.m. faces. Most debaters are asleep.
Harris could tell about the time when he got into a shouting match at a tournament with the Northwestern coach, or the times that he has shouted at his debaters out of disappointment.
And he could tell about what a debate tournament does to him.
But he doesn't tell much.
And he's a bit chagrined about how he acts when it comes to debate.
"When you get too intense you do things you shouldn't do," Harris said. "Especially if you don't sleep for four days. By the end of a tournament I emotionally unravel."
Even though Kansas has qualified at least two teams in the last 20 years for the National Debate Tournament, the equivalent of the NCAA basketball championships, every debate does not come out well.
"Im an introvert," he said. "I'm a
At last year's championships at Northern Iowa University, the debate team lost in the round of 16.
"I hadn't slept in a week, and I just cried. It hit me at once that the season was over. It was a huge emotional let-down."
But at 6 a.m. in the van with the team, when he's got plenty of sleep and the trip is just starting — that's the time he loves the most.
"I love those 6 a.m. trips," Harris said. "I see those trips as part of the goal. I learn so much about what students think. They often stun and amaze me."
Harris thumbs through the photographs of these van trips. Pillows, blankets and headphones fill the inside of the van. Some of the debaters mouths are open, their heads tilted back in slumber. Others are reading. Many are laughing.
"This is the way every trip is," he said. "I love it."
Scott Harris
Age:35
Education:
Family: wife, Amy, 28; a child expected in August.
Wavne State. Detroit
wayne State, Detroit
Earned a bachelor's degree in speech and master's degree in communication.
Northwestern, Chicago Earned a Ph.D in communication studies.
What he wanted to be when he was a child: A veterinarian.
was a child: A veterinarian.
"I always liked horses. I never saw a horse growing up in Detroit, but for some reason I liked them."
Last book read: "Burden of Proof" by Scott Turrow.
Favorite professional basketball team: Detroit Pistons.
if he wasn't a debate coach and teacher: "I would want to be a basketball coach."
Four greatest experiences, in no particular order:
Being in the "zone" on the basketball court.
Making love with his wife.
- Making love with his wife.
- Giving a great speech in a very intense debate.
Communicating with God in church.
"I'm sure a fifth great experience will be when my child is born in August."
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7:30 p.m., Wednesday & Thursday March 16 &17, 1994 Lied Center
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