High School Today: Aligning Systems with Purpose in Speech and Debate

Article appears in the November edition of the High School Today magazine.

Coaching speech and debate is one of the most rewarding roles in education. It is also one of the most demanding. With packed schedules, constant competition, and the day-to-day work of managing students, it’s easy for coaches, new or veteran, to focus only on what’s right in front of them: ballots, rankings and trophies.

But programs that last, and students who flourish, require more than a scoreboard mentality. To truly serve students, we must regularly pause, step back, and ask: What might I be missing? What systems am I reinforcing, and what are they producing for the young people in my care?

Systems Produce Results
Every program runs on a system, whether it is designed intentionally or not. Our speech and debate programs generate results, based on a system that has been proven to give them the results they desire.

Systems are powerful because they deliver what they’re built to deliver. If your system emphasizes competition alone, you may develop technically skilled debaters but risk disengaged or burnedout students. If your system emphasizes belonging but neglects competitive rigor, students may feel included but lack opportunities to stretch themselves at higher levels.

The most successful programs balance both, using competition as a tool, not the end goal. The question for coaches is not, “Do I have a system?” but, “What is my system producing, and is it aligned with what I value?”

Rethinking How We Measure Success
Traditional metrics – win-loss records, trophies and judge feedback – are easy to count. But they don’t tell the whole story. Coaches who build lasting programs measure what matters most, even when it’s harder to quantify:

• Resilience: Do students bounce back from tough losses with determination?
• ?Leadership: Are veteran competitors mentoring and inspiring younger teammates?
• Confidence: Are students finding their voices not just in rounds, but in classrooms and communities?
• ?Equitable opportunity: Are all students, regardless of background, getting access to the activity?

When we broaden the scope of what we measure, we shift the culture. We send the message that growth, leadership and courage matter just as much as hardware.

Conducting a Program Audit
One of the most valuable exercises any coach can undertake is an audit – not of ballots, but of participation and culture.

Look at your roster. Who’s on the team? More importantly, who isn’t?

Too often, our programs unintentionally replicate the inequities present in schools. Transportation costs, scheduling conflicts, and cultural assumptions about who “fits” can exclude students before they ever step into a round.

Questions worth asking:

• Are we welcoming students from all corners of the school, or just the ones who self-select?
• Do fees or fundraising requirements limit participation?
• Are leadership roles equitably distributed, or do the same students dominate every year?

Auditing isn’t about blame, it’s about awareness. Access and inclusion start with identifying program gaps clearly.

From Program to Purpose
It’s easy to mistake running programs for fulfilling purpose. Programs, or activities, are the how – the steps, tasks and processes – while purpose is the why – the reason for existence and the overall vision.

Speech and debate offers something rare in education: a chance to provide access, voice and belonging. That purpose must guide every practice, tournament and decision.

• Access: Are opportunities available to every student in your school, not just the loudest or most connected?
• Voice: Do students feel empowered to speak authentically, not just conform to competitive expectations?
• ?Belonging: Does every student, win or lose, feel like a valued member of your team?

Purpose doesn’t happen by accident. It must be built into your norms, reinforced in traditions, and modeled in how coaches respond to both triumph and failure.

Creating Brave Spaces
Many coaches pride themselves on creating safe spaces, where students feel protected and supported, but speech and debate demands something more: brave spaces.

A brave space challenges students to sit with discomfort, to tackle complex and controversial topics, and to listen deeply to perspectives unlike their own. It requires mutual accountability, empathy and respect.

Safe spaces prevent harm. Brave spaces foster growth. In speech and debate, both are essential.

The Role of Tradition
Tradition is one of the great strengths of our activity. Rituals, like team dinners, warm-up chants or senior speeches, help students feel part of something bigger than themselves.

But traditions must evolve. Coaches should ask regularly:

• Does this tradition serve today’s students, or only yesterday’s?
• Does it include everyone, or does it unintentionally exclude?
• Does it connect to our larger purpose, or is it just habit?

Some traditions may be worth preserving forever. Others may need to be reimagined or retired. Evaluating traditions with fresh eyes helps keep your program both rooted and relevant.

Hidden Rules and Belonging
Every activity has “hidden rules” – the unwritten expectations that some students know instinctively, and others never learn.

Examples include knowing how to dress for tournaments, understanding how to request leniency from a coach, or navigating the cost of travel. For some students, these lessons are obvious; for others, they are barriers.

Coaches can level the playing field by making the hidden visible. Spell out expectations clearly. Teach the “why” behind rules. Provide inclusive solutions for financial or logistical barriers. Inclusion thrives when rules are transparent.

The Hidden Curriculum
As coaches, we tend to teach two curricula: the explicit (how to research, construct cases, and deliver speeches) and the hidden (how to lead, how to recover from setbacks, how to listen, how to belong).

The hidden curriculum is often the most transformative. Students may forget their win-loss record, but they will remember the confidence they built, the mentor who believed in them, and the sense of belonging they carried forward.

Coaches who attend to both curriculums create programs that outlast any scoreboard.

Looking at the Big Picture
At its best, speech and debate is more than an activity, it is a culture. It produces young people who are articulate, resilient, empathetic, and prepared to lead in classrooms, careers and communities.

But that only happens if coaches, regardless of experience level, continue to ask:

• What am I measuring, and why?
• Who is missing from my program, and how can I bring them in?
• Do my traditions serve purpose, or just nostalgia?
• What hidden lessons am I teaching every day?

Systems give us what we design them to give. When we build with intention (aligning systems, measures, traditions and curriculum with our deeper purpose), we create programs that are not only competitive, but transformative.

That is the real scoreboard.