Team Spotlight: Grapevine High School

GRAPEVINE, TX – Victory Briefs Daily exists to foster a community that brings together debaters, coaches, parents, and alumni from across the country. Team Spotlight features programs from across the country — schools that compete locally, statewide, and/or nationally — and celebrates the great students, great coaches, and great teams that make this activity possible. I cannot think of a more appropriate school to feature than one that is serving as co-host of Nationals. Accordingly, for today’s piece, I was able to chat with Jane Boyd to learn more about the forensics program at Grapevine High School.

PROGRAM: Grapevine High School
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Grapevine, TX

DIRECTOR OF FORENSICS: Jane Boyd
ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR OF FORENSICS: Jason Sykes (Policy)
ASSISTANT COACHES: Jennifer Miller (LD), Eric Melin (LD, Volunteer)

NUMBER OF ACTIVE MEMBERS: 50
EVENTS: Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, Student Congress, Extemporaneous Speaking

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CURRENT STRENGTH OF NFL CHAPTER: 291 Degrees
DEGREES LAST YEAR: 109
DEGREES THIS YEAR: 108
DISTRICT: Lone Star

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Jon Cruz: What has been your proudest achievement as a coach?

Jane Boyd: When I had a special education student after sticking with debate for four years finally broke to octafinals. My proudest moments come when students achieve beyond expectations, such as David Harkin winning top speaker at TOC, or Orjit Ghoshal getting third place at NFL Nationals, or Alex Riefenstahl breaking to octas.

JC: What is the most important issue facing the debate community today?

JB: The major issue in my mind is lack of professional coaches. People are not choosing to be debate coaches as a profession. We have a huge number of newly graduated students who come back and want to coach. This is great, except there is no stability or experienced guidance. We need to recruit professional debate coaches more who are in for the long hall and not just until they go to law school.

JC: If you could change one thing about forensics, what would it be?

JB: Keeping varied communication in debate is another issue. It isn’t about fast or slow, traditional arguments or “progressive” arguments — it is about communication with a variety of people. Judge adaptation — that is missing right now.

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A BRIEF HISTORY OF FORENSICS AT GRAPEVINE

Jane Boyd began the Grapevine High School Debate Program in the 1988-1989 school year with just three students. Since then, membership has grown to almost 50! Grapevine Debate participates in policy debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and Student Congress. In 1989, the school signed the NFL charter, securing Grapevine’s place in the National Forensic League. The first time the team qualified for the NFL National Tournament was 1991. Since then, Grapevine has had over thirty qualifications, two top ten LD debaters (1999), two seventh place LD debaters (1996, 1999), and a third place LD debater (2000). Grapevine has also been a member of the Top 200 club five times!

The Grapevine Debate team is also active in the Texas Forensic Association. Over the years, the team has qualified over 120 students for the prestigious TFA State Tournament. Grapevine has had third place policy team, third place LD debaters, third, sixth, and eighth place Student Congress delegates, two LD state champions (1997, 1999) and a second place Foreign Extemporaneous speaker. Grapevine has been in the top ten TFA schools five times and won the fourth place sweepstakes award this year (2006).

The team also participates in the University Interscholastic League (UIL). Grapevine has had students in the semifinals and finals of this tournament many times. In 1994, two Grapevine students made up the UIL 5A policy debate state championship team. Grapevine has had semifinalists and finalists in Lincoln-Douglas debate three times.

The Grapevine Debate Team was named by the National Debate Coaches Association as a “Top 10 School of the Decade” for the 1990s.

Jason Sykes joined the staff as an assistant coach in 1999, and then joined the full-time teaching staff in 2003. Sykes is primarily coaching policy but also works with the LDers, congress, and extempores.

Grapevine has been awarded a member chair of the Emory University Barkley Forum, and Jane Boyd has been named to the Key Coach Society. This year, the Grapevine Debate Team is playing an integral part in hosting the 2006 Texas Bluebonnet Nationals.

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Rae Minyard ‘06 is now past president of the Grapevine Debate Team and recently graduated from Grapevine High School. She participated in NFL Nationals last year in Philadelphia in Student Congress and will be representing the Lone Star District and Grapevine High School in Congress at the 2006 Texas Bluebonnet Nationals. She reflects:

“The best things about being on the Grapevine Debate team are the friendships which are made and cultivated and the opportunities to be the best you can be in the event of your choosing. The coaching staff works hard to make sure we are ready to compete not just on the local level but on the national level as well. We are a family that works together and achieves together.”

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