This year’s Speech and Debate team has many awards and qualifications under their belt: there are 23 state qualifiers, four national qualifiers and the coaches Shelby and Jimmy Miller have received their first diamond award for coaching 15,000 points.
Junior Evan Updegraff, a Public Forum participant–where two people debate against another set of two people about political policies and events–has been in Speech and Debate for three years. This is his second year qualifying for States. He and his partner, senior Alaina Sayre, were debating whether or not to repeal Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act; however, they received their first bid while debating student loan forgiveness.
“[Alaina and I] think fairly similarly as debaters, so we tend to agree on how to approach arguments and brainstorming,” Updegraff explained of his partnership. “When there are disagreements, we usually just argue our respective sides until we figure out what arguments/responses are better than others.”
Senior Tyler Jones is another state qualifier; she participates in the Humor event, and her qualifying speech was about vampires. Jones had never participated in a Speech and Debate tournament before, and she joined because she had friends who were also members of the team.
“The day before the event I was really nervous because I was still working on memorization, and I wasn’t sure if I would even be able to actually compete,” Jones said, “but when I heard my name get called out during the awards ceremony for a State qualifier, I was more than shocked.”
Jimmy has been a coach since 2013. He was once a participant in Speech and Debate, and he came back to coach because four freshmen joined his event, Duo-Interpretation. He took over from former coach, Suzanne Theisen, who retired.
Jimmy joined “to impress a girl–I guess that worked out because we’ve been married for five years now.” Last year the team won the Akron District for the first time. This year’s team is younger than last years, but the team was able to win second in the Akron District.
“I’m really proud to say we have more state qualifiers this year than last, and so far in our national qualifying series, we have four students who are going to Des Moines, Iowa, with us in June,” Jimmy said.
National qualifiers include seniors Penelope Covey and Lauren Garfield for Duo-Interpretation and sophomores Cece Lattime and Otis Schoenberg also for Duo-Interpretation.

Jimmy and Shelby have won a prestigious award in their coaching career: a diamond award for coaching 15,000 points. Jimmy feels thankful for the students he has coached through the years, as they all led to his award.
“Every student contributes to points earned toward a diamond. Some of them place high every weekend and come away with trophies. Some are just there to learn new skills and meet new people,” Jimmy said. “They’re all wonderful to have as part of our program, and I can’t thank them enough for their dedication to this activity.”
Qualifying for States was a relief for Updegraff. Not having to participate in more competitions to receive the bid
was something for which he was very grateful. “Neither Lainey nor I really wanted to go to the state-qualifying tournament, so qualifying gave us a lot more breathing room in terms of qualifying,” Updegraff explained.
Coaches have had a large hand in the success of the team and the individuals. None of the members could have been so successful without the guidance of their mentors.
“I wouldn’t be working so hard if my fantastic coaches weren’t working alongside me through the whole process to make me feel ready for each tournament,” Jones said. “They give me great advice and critiques and are always easy to reach out to when I need help.”
Many of the members are feeling nervous about their State Tournament. This tournament can be seen as more difficult and rigorous than typical tournaments.
“States is a much harder tournament than usual, and we don’t have as much time to prepare, which leaves
everyone less comfortable with our arguments and the topic,” Updegraff said.
Typically, the topics of events are released a month prior to the first debate on the topic. This gives the debaters time to prepare their arguments and defenses, States can be daunting with less time to ready their defenses.
Jimmy has created a bond with numerous people throughout his years in the program–both as a debater and a coach. His advice and guidance has influenced many people.
“That’s honestly the hardest thing about coaching is that you have this amazing bond with these people–in some cases just for one season and in others, it’s for four straight years, and then it’s over,” Jimmy described. “It’s a bittersweet feeling that some of my former students are starting families or moving around the world. I miss them often, but it’s so fulfilling to know they’re living their best lives.”