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August 1, 2022
Dear Paly Speech & Debate, You’ve probably heard by now about our history-making conclusion to last season: Ethan Boneh won the first National Championship title in team history in Big Questions! Additionally in Big Questions, Mihir Menon advanced to quarterfinals; in Congressional Debate Lucas Guan advanced to semifinals, and although Benjamin Grimes didn’t break to elimination rounds, all of his teammates noted their appreciation for his selfless support. I couldn’t be prouder of these four leaders! Speaking of being proud of student leaders, we also wrapped up two successful weeks of Speech & Debate Camp, thanks to the superb leadership of student Camp Directors Drew Vetteth & Johannah Seah, and Assistant Directors Christie Hong & Mihir Menon. In April at the Annual Banquet, Jennie Savage announced her retirement and transition to Director Emeritus after a storied 18-year tenure. In her new role, Jennie will advise me as I become the new Program Director. Rest assured that Jennie’s warmth of personality, depth of intellect, and wellspring of wisdom will continue to benefit our team. Sarah Simon, Assistant Director and Head Coach of PF & Speech, also moves on to begin her career after graduating from Stanford Law School. I’m grateful for Sarah’s friendship, leadership, and mentorship this season. She leaves behind a high standard of excellence, both for future coaches and for our students. With so many fond memories behind us, it’s now time to look ahead. I’m unreservedly optimistic, confident, and enthusiastic about the future of our program. We enjoy generous support from parents/guardians (special thanks to Colleen Gormley who returns as Parent Coordinator; and Vikas Bhatia who joins as Parent Treasurer), alumni, and the school community. Our students are incredible: they pursue excellence; learn voraciously; take creative and intellectual risks; support and mentor their teammates; celebrate good times and commiserate through bad times. Simply put, they made stepping up to be the next Program Director a no-brainer for me. Many of you have asked about tournaments for the upcoming season; so here's our tentative tournament calendar! As of August 1st, I’ve brought aboard a record-setting 15 coaches for next season, bringing our projected coach:student ratio below 1:5. I intend to be proactive, visible, and accessible as we prepare for next season. Lincoln “acknowledged [himself] the servant of the people.” Inspired by his inimitable example, I welcome your feedback, questions, and ideas for our program–as I am here to serve you. I hope you enjoy the contents of this update and find it both exciting and informative as you, too, begin to look ahead to next season. I'll be reaching out later in August with details on the start of regular activities, like practices and info session. Enjoy the rest of your summers! I hope to hear from you soon and often as we begin the new season. Yours, Kyle Hietala [email protected] Program Director |
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Program Leadership & Management
I (Kyle Hietala) am stepping up to lead Paly Speech & Debate as Program Director. I’ll be responsible for the overall administration and operational leadership of the team, and will focus especially on managing & supporting the coaching staff, building relationships with the school community and parents, and ensuring cultural continuity of the program. I’ll also be responsible for the logistics of practice supervision, tournament registration & participation, and oversight of the program’s social and development activities. Jennie Savage is retiring and taking on a new role as Director Emeritus. Jennie will serve in an advisory capacity to me, helping to ensure a smooth transition and promote cultural continuity.
Growth & Goals
At the start of next season, students will work with their coaches to set 2-3 core goals for themselves, encompassing things such as competitive success, personal growth, leadership & mentorship, and volunteering & service. Moreover, team coaches will set goals for their own teams and work closely with me to measure progress. As a program, we’ll strive to achieve the following topline goals next year:
We’re retaining all current teams (LD, PF, Congressional, Speech) with at least two in-person coaches per team. I’m thrilled to share that we’re piloting a fifth team: Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp), led by returning Coach Michael Alisky! Michael’s passion for Extemp will allow us to reach even more students with a new, unique event offering, which blends the analytical depth of debate with the stylistic range of speech. A major part of my and Michael’s decision to offer Extemp is rooted in increasing equity in our program; Extemp is well-known for both its accessibility and breadth of relevance to contemporary events, two qualities which make it an ideal ‘expansion’ event offering.
Another change is that we’ll be adding some ‘remote support coaches’ (Maia Decker, Maddie Nagle, Tanay Krishna) to assist with judging practice rounds, running skill-based drills, providing case feedback, and giving focused mentorship. Our new remote coaches will augment our core in-person coaching staff, not only by offering students more individualized attention but also by being accessible on a flexible, on-demand basis beyond evening in-person team practices.
Learn more about our 2022-2023 coaching staff on our updated website.
Vision & Direction
My primary focus as Program Director will always be the growth & well-being of our students as young people. Our program has been and must remain something students are proud to be part of: a life-changing, memory-making, friendship-forming experience.
We anticipate that practices for all teams will be held next year in-person on weekday evenings, most likely Tuesday from 6-9PM. We will supplement in-person practices with many more flexible, individualized practice opportunities on a team basis, enabled by our larger coaching staff, including our new remote coaching support staff.
At the Banquet, I shared that in our program a student is always a person first; and always a debater or speechie second. That means my first priority is our students' well-being; how they’re feeling and belonging in our program.
Our signature strength, which I’ve heard so many of you describe, is the inclusivity and compassion throughout our program. I’m so grateful for Jennie’s leadership in instilling this positive culture, and I’m committed to carrying forth this legacy with your help and support.
I welcome opportunities to connect with you and meet you. I live in downtown Menlo Park and would love to meet anyone for coffee, lunch, or something in between in the surrounding area. No matter who you are in our program, I value your input and ideas.
Thank you for choosing to be part of Paly Speech & Debate. The future of our program is so bright because it involves all of you.
- Kyle Hietala
August 2022
Program Leadership & Management
I (Kyle Hietala) am stepping up to lead Paly Speech & Debate as Program Director. I’ll be responsible for the overall administration and operational leadership of the team, and will focus especially on managing & supporting the coaching staff, building relationships with the school community and parents, and ensuring cultural continuity of the program. I’ll also be responsible for the logistics of practice supervision, tournament registration & participation, and oversight of the program’s social and development activities. Jennie Savage is retiring and taking on a new role as Director Emeritus. Jennie will serve in an advisory capacity to me, helping to ensure a smooth transition and promote cultural continuity.
Growth & Goals
At the start of next season, students will work with their coaches to set 2-3 core goals for themselves, encompassing things such as competitive success, personal growth, leadership & mentorship, and volunteering & service. Moreover, team coaches will set goals for their own teams and work closely with me to measure progress. As a program, we’ll strive to achieve the following topline goals next year:
- Maintain and uphold our cultural strengths, especially our team’s inclusivity, sense of camaraderie, and beloved traditions.
- Enable our students to take on more impactful leadership roles within the team, beginning with a new approach to Team Officers.
- Foster collaboration and community between subteams, encouraging novices to explore their strengths and passions.
- Recruit and retain a diverse novice cohort across all events, focusing especially on groups of students historically underrepresented and underserved in speech & debate.
- Rank in the Top 5 schools for the overall Team Strength category in our California Coast NSDA District (this year, we ranked #7/49) and earn 150 NSDA Degrees (this year, we earned 94)
- Qualify at least 8 students to California State Championship with at least 1 student per team (this year, we qualified 5 students from 2/4 teams)
- Qualify at least 8 students to NSDA Nationals with at least 1 student per team (this year, we qualified 4 students from 2/4 teams)
We’re retaining all current teams (LD, PF, Congressional, Speech) with at least two in-person coaches per team. I’m thrilled to share that we’re piloting a fifth team: Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp), led by returning Coach Michael Alisky! Michael’s passion for Extemp will allow us to reach even more students with a new, unique event offering, which blends the analytical depth of debate with the stylistic range of speech. A major part of my and Michael’s decision to offer Extemp is rooted in increasing equity in our program; Extemp is well-known for both its accessibility and breadth of relevance to contemporary events, two qualities which make it an ideal ‘expansion’ event offering.
Another change is that we’ll be adding some ‘remote support coaches’ (Maia Decker, Maddie Nagle, Tanay Krishna) to assist with judging practice rounds, running skill-based drills, providing case feedback, and giving focused mentorship. Our new remote coaches will augment our core in-person coaching staff, not only by offering students more individualized attention but also by being accessible on a flexible, on-demand basis beyond evening in-person team practices.
Learn more about our 2022-2023 coaching staff on our updated website.
Vision & Direction
My primary focus as Program Director will always be the growth & well-being of our students as young people. Our program has been and must remain something students are proud to be part of: a life-changing, memory-making, friendship-forming experience.
We anticipate that practices for all teams will be held next year in-person on weekday evenings, most likely Tuesday from 6-9PM. We will supplement in-person practices with many more flexible, individualized practice opportunities on a team basis, enabled by our larger coaching staff, including our new remote coaching support staff.
- We will remain primarily a ‘flow-lay’ or ‘flay’ team: interested in developing strong technical skills, but focused predominantly on the transferability and applicability of more traditional/lay styles of speech & debate at the local level.
- We intend to offer opportunities to compete on the National Circuit next year, both remote and travel tournaments.
- In spring 2022, we implemented a team-wide application process for team captain positions and formally defined the qualities and responsibilities of team captains for the 2022-23 season.
- We recently elected Team Officers and updated the responsibilities of each role; we will be instituting regular check-ins with the Program Director next season to make the officerships a more structured experience.
- The Palo Alto Speech & Debate Camp will be student-led once again in 2023, with Mihir Menon and Christie Hong serving as Student Directors.
- We will continue our team tradition of recognizing one student per tournament with a Team Spirit Award.
- We continued this year and will continue next year our tradition of family dinners during practices on Tuesday evenings, made possible through the generosity of parents/guardians.
- We continued this year and will continue next year the long-standing, beloved tradition of recognizing student achievements with chocolate bars and hand-written notes.
- We created a new award in Jennie’s honor, The Jennie Savage Award for Leadership & Legacy, which went to seniors Rohan Suvarna & Jeffrey Tu. We’ll continue this new tradition next year.
- We enjoyed several teamwide in-person events this year, including the Speech Showcase and Team Banquet, both of which we plan to do next year; we are also exploring the possibility of a new ‘Season Kickoff’ get-together in early fall.
- Given the size and strength of our alumni network (thanks to Jennie’s leadership), we plan to pilot a new alumni volunteer mentorship program next year, with the goal of connecting current students with mentors who are pursuing relevant educational and/or professional goals.
At the Banquet, I shared that in our program a student is always a person first; and always a debater or speechie second. That means my first priority is our students' well-being; how they’re feeling and belonging in our program.
Our signature strength, which I’ve heard so many of you describe, is the inclusivity and compassion throughout our program. I’m so grateful for Jennie’s leadership in instilling this positive culture, and I’m committed to carrying forth this legacy with your help and support.
I welcome opportunities to connect with you and meet you. I live in downtown Menlo Park and would love to meet anyone for coffee, lunch, or something in between in the surrounding area. No matter who you are in our program, I value your input and ideas.
Thank you for choosing to be part of Paly Speech & Debate. The future of our program is so bright because it involves all of you.
- Kyle Hietala
August 2022