What do Western’s forensics team and the hit TV show “C.S.I.” have in common?

Absolutely nothing, said Judy Woodring, director of the forensics team.

But Woodring still finds herself explaining the differences between the fictional show and Western’s champion team.

She once fibbed to escape the long explanation, telling someone that the forensics team dissected cadavers and identified the organs as part of their tournaments, she said.

“Sometimes that’s easier than actually explaining forensics to folks,” Woodring said.

Forensics team members deliver persuasive speeches, interpret literature and debate the merits of national and international events at tournaments across the country and around the world, Woodring said.

“Forensics” means “search for the truth,” she said.

The team has been searching and discovering more than just the truth – they have been on quests for national and international acclaim.

Western’s forensics team has overcome hardships in the past to become an internationally known program for the past few years. The students practice year-round for their events while balancing school responsibilities and finding friendship along the way.

The team won the Kentucky Forensics Association, National Forensics Association, American Forensics Association and the International Forensics Association championships this year, according to the forensics team’s Web site.

They have won the IFA championship seven times and the KFA championship 17 times.

Many forensics team members train for tournaments with the focus of a NCAA Division I sports team, Woodring said.

Preparing for these tournaments requires almost year-round practice and research – 40 hours a week during the September to April season, she said.

Students also collect information for speeches from the Internet and newspapers all year, Woodring said.

Forensics team members like Danville sophomore Logan Scisco are already doing some background reading, even though their season is finished, she said.

Scisco remembers information from newspaper articles published years ago. It’s part of his training in extemporaneous speaking, an event at forensics tournaments.

Scisco gets 30 minutes at the event to write a seven-minute speech on a current event he’s researched beforehand.

He spends months studying international and domestic news so he can be ready for his event, he said.

Scisco was a quarterfinalist at the AFA tournament this year.

The forensics program hasn’t always been a championship team, even though it’s the oldest student organization on campus.

The program has roots in the Ogden College debate team, Woodring said.

Henry Hardin Cherry’s sister-in-law helped create the debate team early in the school’s history, she said. It was common for colleges and universities to have a debate team in the 1910s.

There was no forensics program between 1978 and 1988, Woodring said.

When William Bivin, Western’s general council, died unexpectedly, he donated enough money to restart the forensics team, she said.

The Kentucky High School Speech League moved from the University of Kentucky to Western in 1989.

Woodring became involved with forensics when the program was out of commission.

Trying to restart the program when there was no money to travel to tournaments was difficult, Woodring said.

The forensics team’s financial situation reversed when Provost Barbara Burch came to Western.

Burch was a theater major and debater when she was at Western, Woodring said. She helped provide the money the team needed to be successful, Woodring said.

If Western was going to support a program with a history of distinction, such as the forensics team, they would need money to pay coaches and to travel to tournaments, among other things, Burch said.

President Gary Ransdell has also been supportive of the forensics team since his introduction to the team when he became president in 1998, Woodring said.

Woodring invited him to a forensics meeting soon after his inauguration.

“My immediate reaction was ‘We’ve got national and international potential here,’” Ransdell said.

The forensics team has capitalized on Western’s strong communication curriculum to become an internationally known program, he said.

Attracting students to the forensics team was also Western’s priority, Ransdell said.

One of the biggest parts of Woodring’s job is recruiting new members from high school speech teams, she said.

Like a college basketball coach going to high school games looking for talent, Woodring searches high school debate and forensics tournaments for rookies ready to work to increase their skill level and compete at the college level.

Team members hold onto their talents past graduation.

Travis Holtrey is a civil lawyer in Owensboro. He was on the forensics team from 1988 to 1992.

Holtrey didn’t even know what forensics was when he came to Western, but stumbled upon the program after leaving a fraternity.

By the time Holtrey graduated, the team had gone from nonexistence to fourth in the nation, he said.

Being a forensics member was the best thing Holtrey did in college, he said.

Corey Alderdice agrees. He’s a graduate assistant and rhetorical critiques coach for the forensics team. He spent four years competing with the team before becoming a coach.

The members do warm-ups, such as dancing or singing, before an event, Alderdice said.

The warm-ups help keep the team motivated and bring them together, Alderdice said.

Forensics members are a tightly-knit group because of the long hours on the road.

Sometimes they forge lifelong relationships.

Fulton senior Chris Brasfield met his wife Ashley in forensics. The couple got married on Aug. 14, 2004. Many forensics members were in attendance at the wedding, Brasfield said.

Brasfield wanted to come to Western because he’d heard of the forensics team’s championship reputation.

He and his wife participated in many of the same events at tournaments, he said.

Brasfield’s mathematics major is a little different than other forensics members. Being in forensics will help him capture the attention of students in his classes when he becomes a math professor, he said.

Burch said one of the forensics team’s strengths is the diversity of the majors involved with the program.

“We’re all hams,” Brasfield said about forensics. “It gives us an opportunity to be hammy in front of other people.”