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Bradley Speech Team Wins 2 in ’12

Teams Wins National Forensic Association Tournament – first dual national titles since 1998

05/31/2012 5:50 PM

By Frank Radosevich II

The Bradley University Speech Team is on a winning streak.

After taking first place last week at the National Forensic Association tournament in Athens, Ohio, the team has cinched both national speech championships in 2012. The victory tops off a year’s worth of hard work and is the perfect ending to a demanding season.

“It was really emotional because it was my last one,” said Dan Smith, director of forensics, who is stepping down as head coach. He said the win over the weekend gives the team 14 national titles under his tenure, tying Smith with the number of wins racked up by the late George Armstrong, a former coach and assistant professor of communication beloved by alumni.

“To be at the same number with him is just amazing,” Smith said, adding that the students ultimately deserve credit for the titles.

The University beat out rival Western Kentucky University by 19.5 points with a total score of 608.5 points. Two weeks before, the team swept the competition at the national American Forensic Association tournament, placing first in both the overall team and individual categories. This is the first year since 1998 that Bradley has won both AFA and NFA competitions.

The team’s mantra this year was “Two in ’12”, meaning the students sought to win the two major national speech tournaments hosted in 2012. Seeing that goal through was a sweet reward.

“It makes me excited to go back for the next year,” said team member Cecil Blutcher, a junior studying political science. “It’s a lot of work but it’s not hard if you love it.”

Junior Jacoby Cochran won the national championship for an individual speaker, earning him three consecutive national titles. He also won the NFA title in 2011 and the AFA individual title in early April. Cochran, a philosophy major, won first place in rhetorical criticism, as well.

“I don’t want to say it was easy but it was easy to do with the motivation we had this year,” Cochran said, describing the team’s victory as a weight lifted off their shoulders. “This particular team just united in a big way.”

Along with Cochran, two other Bradley students ranked in the individual sweepstakes: Camille Yameen, senior, individual champion in prose; and Blutcher, individual champion in poetry.

Six of the top 20 individual speakers at the tournament were from Bradley: Cochran in first place; Ryan Tinlin, junior, in eighth place; Yameen in 10th place; Rebi Roos, senior, in 11th place; Blake Longfellow, senior, in 13th place; and Blutcher in 14th place.

Posted Monday, April 23

The Bradley Speech Team won the 2012 National Forensic Association championship title.  The team scored 608.5 points to beat second place Western Kentucky University by 19.5 points.

The Bradley team is undefeated for the 2011-2012 season.   They won both American Forensic Association and National Forensic Association titles in 2012 – the first dual title win since 1998.   

Jacoby Cochran, junior, won the NFA National Individual Championship title. Jacoby won the AFA title earlier this month and the NFA championship title in 2011.  

Six team members placed in the top twenty Individual Championships:

#1 –   Jacoby Cochran

#8 –   Ryan Tinlin

#10 – Camille Yameen

#11 – Rebi Roos

#13 – Blake Longfellow

#14 – Cecil Blutcher

Winning National Individual Championship titles:

Camille Yameen, National Champion in Prose

Cecil Blutcher, National Champion in Poetry  

Jacoby Cochran, National Champion in Rhetorical Criticism.  

Team coaches are Dan Smith, DOF, and Michael Chen, Assistant DOF.

The NFA tournament was held at Ohio University April 19-23, 2012.