Debate doesn’t happen without Coaches. These excellent leaders were the tip of the iceberg this season as supportive leaders. 

American League

Coach of the Year: Marci Kanstoroom, Redlands Middle School

 Coach Kanstoroom has done her homework. And everyone else’s homework too. Dedicated to improving her craft, Marci came to every day of summer camp, sat in the back of a range of classrooms, and absorbed all of the knowledge and ideas for lesson plans that she could. It’s been working, as she’s led Redlands Middle School, one of the furthest from most competitions, from a school with 2-3 kids, sometimes, to a multi-division powerhouse. One of her students was named Middle School Debater of the Year for their conference. 

New Coach of the Year: Alex Montgomery, KIPP Shaw / Digital Pioneers

Alumni Alex Montgomery decided to take a gap year and help out around WUDL. They started the season with a – “I’ll be around a bit, how can I help out”  and ended up picking up not one, but two teams whose initial coaches didn’t pan out. By the end of the year, Alex had teams competing for MS and HS nationals, folks participating at regionals that had never done that before. Students that Alex coached were named Middle School Debater of the Year, and Judge’s Choice Award winners.  

National League

Coach of the Year: Christine Miller, Oyster Adams

Coach Miller was recruited to step in to coach her own child after the previous coach went off to get a Fulbright. She hasn’t looked back, tripling the size of the team, leading them back to Middle School Nationals and regional competition, and being a big champion of Debate en Espanol. She arranged for Oyster to host our season opening workshop at Oyster Adams’ newly renovated campus, and has also been a champion of debate to city leaders, encouraging city council members to support the program. We are excited and thankful that Coach Miller will be back next season, recruited by popular demand from her squad. 

New Coaches of the Year:

Normally, we choose just one choice for this award, but with such great candidates, we wanted to highlight each for their great contributions to the community, and for the different traits they highlight.  

Karl Pederson, Francis Hammond

WUDL was excited to cross the Potomac and expand south to the many Title 1 schools that exist in Virginia too! We were excited to pilot at an Alexandria middle school as a starting point for future growth. The future came a lot faster thanks to Coach Karl Pederson. He got his squad at Francis Hammond up and running early in the season, and recruited the other middle schools in the county to participate as well, including their feeder high school for the end of the season too.  Oh, and did I mention his kids stormed into competition, winning wagons full of trophies? As a first year team, they jumped into the MS Qualifying pool. While some struggled, Fares and Elias made an incredible run, finishing as our first runners up to qualify. He’s already planning for next season, making sure his students get to participate in summer programming.  

Collins Lopez, Hyattsville

Collins, along with co-coaches Amber and Zaria have been team-building for most of the season. County bureaucracy delayed their debut but they persevered, helping their students build skills and confidence. Once they debuted, they caught the league by storm, winning piles of trophies and preparing for Debate en Espanol next season as well. They were so eager to make up for lost time, they attended both American and National League competitions to make up for lost time. They’ve got a bunch of students signed up for camp already, and were the first coaches inquiring about when coach training will occur.  

SimmieRay Souleymane Niang-Dinkins, Kettering

Coach Dinkins signed up to coach after nobody else at his school would, taking over a resurgent Kettering team that had competitive aspirations. Last year’s Middle School Debater of the Year, Koromoko Kourouma and a host of other debaters were chomping at the bit to get involved. Dr. Dinkins led the team forward, recruited a bunch of new debaters, and had students participating across three levels. As qualifiers neared, he helped several partnerships jump up from debating in a closed packet environment to their first qualification to Middle School Nationals. 

Principal of the Year: Principal Cooper – BASIS DC

There are many principals who are avid supporters of Washington Urban Debate, recognizing the impact is has on their students. There is only one that moved heaven and earth to host a ToC qualifying regional competition with 24 hours notice. Principal Cooper has been a strong supporter of BASIS DC’s great debate program she assumed the corner office @ BASIS, giving Coach Yigletu the support and flexibility he needs to go above and beyond for his kiddos. WUDL rests easier knowing that there are great administrators like Principal Cooper out there who have our backs when things go wrong so that adults don’t get in the way of student learning. 

National League: 

Principal Strother, Kettering

A strong advocate for debate for years, Principal Strother re-built the Kettering Debate Team post COVID, and has recruited several strong coaches over the years. This year, she found Coach Dinkins after an exhaustive search, consistently advocates for debate across Prince George’s County, and eagerly hosted the first WUDL Tournament in Prince George’s County since COVID. We couldn’t ask for a better partner. 

Volunteers of the Year: American League:

Eric Clarke, School Without Walls Coach, Jokim Bryant, Richard Wright Coach

Chosen by the popular vote of our students, these are both reflective of a great year, and a reflection of a multi-year legacy of service. 

Eric has been a part of the WUDL Community for 10 years now – 3 years as a student at Columbia Heights, 4 years as as college student @ Georgetown University, coaching Capitol Hill Montessori and now, School Without Walls. Eric is now the first alum on the WUDL Advisory Board. He was named the Keoni Scott-Reid Outstanding Instructor at summer camp two years ago. He’s coached teams to the UDNC for the last 3 years, and supports the Travel Team more broadly as a coach and judge. In truth, his contributions to the community are hard to calculate given the multitude of ways he’s been involved over the last decade, but we’ll shout out this year in particular. Eric started grad school, and increased the size of the Walls team at the same time. He still made time to come on almost all of the regionals, all of the locals, and is working on some evergreen training materials for students and coaches.  

Jokim first interacted with WUDL by beating us. As a Los Angeles Urban Debate League alumni, he knocked Emmanuel Makinde / Nathaniel Banjo (Flowers) out of the Urban Debate National Championship in the Quarterfinals, on route to winning the tournament. In his four years at Howard University since, Jokim has been an engaged volunteer, first judging and helping out with the Travel Team, but the last few years, he’s stepped in to help coach Richard Wright. A long-time partner, Richard Wright has never had one of the strongest teams in the league. The way the current squad is going, that’s gonna change. Richard Wright’s team has tripled in size, and not only started winning in Novice, but they’re winning in JV too, readying a jump to Varsity. We couldn’t be more excited. We wish him the best upon graduation and hope to work with Jokim for many more years to come. 

National League: Grace Blackwell, Coach, KIPP College Prep

Grace Blackwell walked onto her college debate team at Samford and became a member of an elite cadre – qualifiers to the NDT without any previous HS experience. She spent part of her time at Samford working with what has just become the newest Urban Debate League in the country. When she moved to D.C., we were very excited to have her involved. KIPP DC College Prep has been one of the toughest nuts to crack, so we made sure to send one of our best. The team hasn’t been huge this season, but Dutchess has won several awards, jumping straight to JV, and Grace quickly became a popular judge and mentor in the community.