August 1, 2024
Welcome back to the 2024-2025 season! Palo Alto High School Speech & Debate continues to thrive and reach higher levels of accomplishment. With 177 students on our roster across six squads/teams as of June, we achieved our big goal to break into the top 5 programs and also finished 25th nationally. For the first time ever, our school won a School of Excellence trophy at the National Speech & Debate Tournament, a testament to our students’ broad successes. Notably at the National Tournament, Maxwell Akash Tuteja ‘25 finished 3rd in Lincoln-Douglas Debate (the highest placement in LD in our program’s history), and Karthi Gottipati ‘25 placed 2nd in Extemporaneous Debate. Congratulations to our Nationals crew! Our 2023-2024 season wrapped up with two weeks of the Palo Alto Speech & Debate Camp (PASDC), which welcomed a staggering 425 campers, supported by a student-led staff of 69 volunteer counselors. Yet again, PASDC shattered every record – from the number of registrations, to total funds raised, to service points recorded, thanks to the extraordinary leadership of Holden Lee ‘25, Kelly Tanaka ‘25, Joseph Sun ‘26, and Motoko Iwata ‘26. I'm so excited to welcome you back for the 2024-2025 season. More details on logistics (e.g. practice schedules, tournament calendars, fall events, novice recruitment, etc.) will be posted soon – but for now, here are comprehensive updates about what to expect. Program Leadership & Management Kyle Hietala returns for his third year as the Program Director and Head Coach of Palo Alto High School Speech & Debate, with the continued mentorship of Jennie Savage, Program Director Emeritus. YuYu Yuan, our Platform Speech Coach, continues as Assistant Program Director. After a highly successful first season in her role, she’ll focus this year on supporting student leaders in shaping team culture. Erin Matheson Ritchie, previously the Head Coach of Speech & Debate at San Lorenzo Valley, joins us as our second Assistant Program Director! In her role, Erin will apply her skills as a trained teacher to support our incoming novice cohort, and strengthen curriculum and instruction across the program. Sophia Kim '24 returns as Operations Manager. In this new role, Sophia will continue to work on behind-the-scenes projects critical to the smooth functioning of our program, in addition to special projects and strategic initiatives. Holden Lee ‘25 steps up as our new Student Deputy Director. Beloved in our program for his work as our Head of Community, and the most successful Palo Alto Speech & Debate Camp Director in history, Holden will empower our Team Officers and Team Captains to help our program continue to thrive. Esther Yoo returns as our Parents & Families Director (thank you so much, Esther!). Additionally, we've incorporated a boosters organization to support our program, and are in the process of gaining 501(c)(3) status. Growth & Goals Last season, we achieved our big goal of ranking 5th in California – and finished 25th nationally per the National Speech & Debate Association, a historic achievement. This season, we take up the enormous task of reaching #1 in California, which will require record-breaking student participation, program-wide competitive successes, and unprecedented service and volunteerism. But this goal is within our reach, and I’ve never been more confident in our ability to attain it. Squads & Practices We’re retaining all current squads (Congress, Parli, Extemp, LD, PF, Speech) with at least two in-person coaches per team. In-person practices are planned to begin the week of August 19th. Because of the size and scale of the program, all Debate events will practice on Mondays and all Speech events will practice on Tuesdays, with one unified practice (all events on one day) approximately once a month with catered family dinner. The other impetus for this change is to promote cross-participation in both Speech and Debate events at tournaments, as this is one of the key reasons why other programs are able to out-perform us (their students simply participate more by competing in both events, and therefore earn more points!). Novice Cohort This year, we’ll introduce a new novice cohort program to welcome new students to our community and teach them universal skills in speech & debate. Beginning in mid-August, novices will be recruited to join a structured cohort of other novices, which will practice separately from our six squads for the beginning of the season. Novices will progress through a series of practices into early October co-taught by Kyle, Erin, and a few other coaches. As part of this cohort program, each squad’s captains & coaches will have the opportunity to lead a novice-only practice for their event. Then in October, our novices will go through a matchmaking process in which they’ll graduate from their cohort and join squads. 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.
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Welcome New Coaches & Staff
Joining us for 2024-2025
Benjamin Grimes '23Assistant Coach, Congressional Debate
Benji was one of the most successful PASD Congressional Debaters of all time and a well-respected Team Captain. Benji joins us to coach remotely after helping out with PASDC last June. He is a rising sophomore at Brandeis and is active in American Parliamentary Debate (APDA). |
Erin Matheson RitchieAssistant Program Director, Novice Coach
Erin is in her fourth season of coaching debate and her first year at Paly. In her high school era, Erin competed in Public Forum, Dramatic Interpretation (DI), Duo, Poetry, Prose, and Congress. She qualified to Nationals three times in DI and Congress, octo-finaled at Nationals in Prose, finaled three times at the Oregon State Championship in DI and Prose, and captained her speech team. In college, she helped to found the BYU Speech & Debate team while studying English Education and History. Erin earned her Master’s in Education from Stanford University. She is the Vice President of Speech for the California Coast Forensic League. She loves to write, hike, and care for her pet rabbit, Thor. |
Max RenteriaCoach, Parliamentary Debate
Max is a recent graduate from Rice University with a degree in Managerial Economics. While in high school, Max was a multi-state qualifier in Policy debate and Congress. He also competed in LD and Extemp. Continuing debate in college, Max competed in NPDA parliamentary debate at Rice. He is the 2022 National Champion and 2024 National Runner Up. When not debating, Max enjoyed playing intramural sports like flag football and softball. As a new grad, Max enjoys trying new sports like ice skating and golf. |
Mihir Menon '24Assistant Coach, Novice & LD Debate
Mihir is an incoming freshman at Stanford. He was a national quarterfinalist, 2-time national qualifier, and placed 3rd at the California state championships. Mihir is Paly’s all-time leading NSDA points earner— primarily focusing on Lincoln-Douglas, but with experience in Big Questions, Public Forum, and World Schools. His experiences with co-directing the Palo Alto Speech and Debate Camp (PASDC) and founding/leading a speech & debate non-profit have instilled in him a love for coaching/mentoring. In his free time, Mihir loves to discover new fried chicken restaurants with his friends, play sports (basketball, tennis, pickleball), and consume all types of news. |
Sophia Kim '24Operations Manager
Sophia joins us having just served as our Deputy Program Director. Sophia had a highly successful career in PF and is an effective operational leader and visionary strategic thinker. In her new role, which will start later this fall, Sophia will lead special projects and initiatives, such as building an alumni program and improving our financial planning processes. Sophia is attending Stanford starting this fall. |