Since 1994 forensics has been what gets me out of bed in the morning. Yes, I am reaching all the way to being a little 7th grade extemper and 8th grade orator, but it’s true. I can’t imagine life without the people of this activity and the excitement of its competition. We are all lucky and better for the lessons and relationships forged through forensics.
Growing up sitting around our dinner table my parents said they’d do to their best to send me to college to be anything I wanted to be except a teacher (for the record, they’re both retired teachers now and they did love their work). So of course in high school I realized that I wanted to be a forensics coach, which also pretty much guaranteed that I’d be teaching. I still can’t say exactly why. Maybe it was the profound impact that my two coaches at South View High School - Mrs. Jackie Foote and Ms. Rebecca Shepherd – had on my growth. Maybe it was the thrill of standing on the NFL Nationals awards stage in 1999 to collect 7th place honors in Senate. But I suspect it’s really the anticipation I feel each weekend when we pull up to the tournament site and I know that I will see so many of my friends again.
In college at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, I decided to go ahead and jump into coaching. A couple of other really motivated UNC students had worked to build a team at East Chapel Hill High School, but they had graduated and the team was basically dead. So, I spent two years as an assistant coach helping out the six or so kids who were on the team then as best I could. We were under the direction of a well-meaning faculty sponsor who really didn’t like to go to tournaments. And then by some miracle, in the fall of 2002 the administration decided to let a college junior be the new head coach. A little shocked, I started filling out the field trip applications, keeping track of the budget, and entering the NFL points. I loved it.
It wasn’t long before my passion for forensics started spreading, and pretty soon I was riding a wave of enthusiasm that I had only dreamed was possible. Our team grew to 90 members. Parents responded in droves to organize a booster club and come along to judge. And the real secret to our success was my friends from UNC and Duke who realized how much fun coaching was and who gave up their afternoons and weekends to be our kids’ coaches. By 2005 the hard work of all these folks that made up the East Chapel Hill forensics family had culminated in an NFL Nationals School of Excellence award in debate. By 2007 we had notched a the North Carolina overall school state championship and qualified 32 students to NFL Nationals over a five-year period.
But you can’t go on coaching on just dreams forever. East Chapel Hill wasn’t interested in creating a teaching position for forensics and it was getting to be a long time since my graduation from UNC in 2004. I needed a real, full-time teaching job. So in the spring of 2007 I sent out some resumes and was lucky enough to get my a shot at Manchester Essex Regional High School in Massachusetts. We were able to do some good things there in my two years. I’m especially proud of the shift in the program towards offering all events and not just debate. Thanks to accreditation prep, I learned a lot about writing forensics curricula and the pressures of translating an activity like forensics into a classroom setting.
I wasn’t looking for a change late last spring when Harker came calling, but the opportunity that my friends Carol Green and Adam Nelson pitched to me out here sounded great. Being here has reminded me how essential it is to have the close support of other coaches. It’s exciting work to be program building again, this time specifically focused on Congressional Debate and Individual Events. Admittedly I’m a long way now from some of the hurdles I faced at East Chapel Hill. More than ever I draw on the different circumstances, people, and places I’ve known to inform my decision-making as a coach. I’ve seen this activity from an awful lot of perspectives, and I’m prepared to tackle the next challenge of being a voice for all coaches on the NFL Board of Directors.
Growing up sitting around our dinner table my parents said they’d do to their best to send me to college to be anything I wanted to be except a teacher (for the record, they’re both retired teachers now and they did love their work). So of course in high school I realized that I wanted to be a forensics coach, which also pretty much guaranteed that I’d be teaching. I still can’t say exactly why. Maybe it was the profound impact that my two coaches at South View High School - Mrs. Jackie Foote and Ms. Rebecca Shepherd – had on my growth. Maybe it was the thrill of standing on the NFL Nationals awards stage in 1999 to collect 7th place honors in Senate. But I suspect it’s really the anticipation I feel each weekend when we pull up to the tournament site and I know that I will see so many of my friends again.
In college at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, I decided to go ahead and jump into coaching. A couple of other really motivated UNC students had worked to build a team at East Chapel Hill High School, but they had graduated and the team was basically dead. So, I spent two years as an assistant coach helping out the six or so kids who were on the team then as best I could. We were under the direction of a well-meaning faculty sponsor who really didn’t like to go to tournaments. And then by some miracle, in the fall of 2002 the administration decided to let a college junior be the new head coach. A little shocked, I started filling out the field trip applications, keeping track of the budget, and entering the NFL points. I loved it.
It wasn’t long before my passion for forensics started spreading, and pretty soon I was riding a wave of enthusiasm that I had only dreamed was possible. Our team grew to 90 members. Parents responded in droves to organize a booster club and come along to judge. And the real secret to our success was my friends from UNC and Duke who realized how much fun coaching was and who gave up their afternoons and weekends to be our kids’ coaches. By 2005 the hard work of all these folks that made up the East Chapel Hill forensics family had culminated in an NFL Nationals School of Excellence award in debate. By 2007 we had notched a the North Carolina overall school state championship and qualified 32 students to NFL Nationals over a five-year period.
But you can’t go on coaching on just dreams forever. East Chapel Hill wasn’t interested in creating a teaching position for forensics and it was getting to be a long time since my graduation from UNC in 2004. I needed a real, full-time teaching job. So in the spring of 2007 I sent out some resumes and was lucky enough to get my a shot at Manchester Essex Regional High School in Massachusetts. We were able to do some good things there in my two years. I’m especially proud of the shift in the program towards offering all events and not just debate. Thanks to accreditation prep, I learned a lot about writing forensics curricula and the pressures of translating an activity like forensics into a classroom setting.
I wasn’t looking for a change late last spring when Harker came calling, but the opportunity that my friends Carol Green and Adam Nelson pitched to me out here sounded great. Being here has reminded me how essential it is to have the close support of other coaches. It’s exciting work to be program building again, this time specifically focused on Congressional Debate and Individual Events. Admittedly I’m a long way now from some of the hurdles I faced at East Chapel Hill. More than ever I draw on the different circumstances, people, and places I’ve known to inform my decision-making as a coach. I’ve seen this activity from an awful lot of perspectives, and I’m prepared to tackle the next challenge of being a voice for all coaches on the NFL Board of Directors.
Forensics Biography