Forensics Teams I Have Had The Opportunity To Coach

I have worked with several forensics teams over the course of my career.  I started coaching as a graduate student at North Dakota State University, then took a one year position at Mayville State University (Mayville, ND) while my wife finished up her Masters Degree.  From there we moved to the East Coast where I got an adjunct position coaching at Prince George's Community College (Prince George's, MD).  Then a full-time teaching/coaching position opened at Carroll Community College (Westminster, MD) and I was lucky enough to get that position.  After three years my wife and I decided to go back to get our PhDs.  We took positions at Ohio University (Athens, OH).  I completed my degree in three years and took a position at Truman State University (Kirksville, MO).  Because of my wife's deterorating health and the need to drive eight miles round trip to get her proper care we decided to move again and I took a position at Concordia College (Moorhead, MN). Most recently I have taken the position of Director of Forensics at Miami University in Oxford OH. At each institution I found wonderful students who were willing to work hard and strive for excellence.  Unfortunately I have few pictures of some of the first places I worked (that's probably not accurate, I no doubt have them, they are just stored away in a box somewhere and that may or may not be unearthed during my next move).  

Miami University Oxford, OH	Miami University (2008-Present) I am currently the Director of Forensics at Miami University.  The Miami Program is a combined program offering Individual Events and Parliamentary Debate.  In the first two years Miami went from 22nd at NFA to 10th in the Open Division and 3rd in President's Division I.  The Parliamentary Debate program that was started in the 2009-2010 season finished 21st out of 252 teams in the NPDA Season Sweepstakes (one tournament failing to report to NPDA kept us from makign it into the top 20).    Miami University has a distinguished history boasting 21 national championships between 1997 and 2002.  But it had fallen out of its national prominence.  We are clearly on the track to returning to the previous level of competitive success.  In addition we have started a summer speech institute for high school students and a coaches institute for high school coaches.  It is our hope that these will not only benefits the participants but serve as a recruiting tool for the program.
Concordia College Moorhead, MN	Concordia College (2003-2008) I coached at Concordia College from 2003 to 2008 (although I was on leave for the spring of 2008 and was not coaching the team).  The team had great success from 2003-2007. Concordia is a program with a history of national success.  In 2002 and 2003 Concordia had dropped out of the top 20 teams in team sweepstakes at the AFA-NIET.  I believe they were still in the top 30 schools.  My first year there I found the team had several very talented seniors and some outstanding incoming freshmen. I was able to work with those students effectively and in 2004 the team had three quarter-finalists and three semi-finalists and placed 14th in team sweepstakes at the AFA-NIET. In my four years at Concordia we had 13 slots advance to elimination rounds at the AFA-NIET and placed 14th, 25th, 18th and 14th in Team Sweepstakes at the AFA-NIET and were the Minnesota State Collegiate Champions in 2005, 2006, and 2007.
Truman State University Kirksville, MO	Truman State University (2000-2003)   Truman is known for its outstanding parliamentary debate program.  They had won the NPDA national tournament and were the national sweepstakes champions in 2000.  But the Individual Events side of the program was not as successful.  The year before I arrived at Truman (2000) they attended the National Forensics Association Tournament and placed 10th in President’s Division I Sweepstakes (for schools with entries numbering between 18 and 51 slots).  One of the students told me they had placed so far down in Open Sweepstakes in 2000 that they didn’t even bother to count.  In 2001 we moved up to 5th in President’s Division I and were in the top 20 in the Open Division.  In 2002 we were once again 5th in President’s Division I but we had moved up to the top 15 in the Open Division.  In 2003 we moved to 2nd place in President’s Division I and 5th place in the Open Division.  In 2003 we had 15 slots advance to elimination rounds at the NFA National Tournament.
Ohio University  Athens, OH	Ohio University (1997-2000)   While I was working on my PhD at Ohio University I also served as an Associate Director of the forensics team.  The Ohio University forensics program has a long history of nationally competitive teams.  In 1997 the program was in a transitional period and starting to rebuild.  Over the course of three years we moved from 9th place in President’s Division I at the NFA National Tournament to tying for 6th place in the Open Sweepstakes Division.  In 2000 we had 10 slots advance to elimination rounds at the NFA National Tournament and advanced 6 slots to elimination rounds and placed 12th in team sweepstakes at the AFA-NIET.  We were also the Ohio State Champions in 2000 which is a significant accomplishment since in 2000 Miami University of Ohio and Ohio State University placed 3rd and 10th at NFA nationals respectively.
Carroll Community College    Prince George's Community College    Mayville State University    North Dakota State University	I also worked at several institutions before Ohio University.  But I don't have a lot of pictures to post from that period of time because digital cameras were not available and most of the good pictures from these teams have been careful placed in photo albums.  Let is suffice to say I enjoyed working with each of the teams and I learned and grew as a coach by working with each of the teams.  We had good times and sad times.  Having students graduate and leave the team is never easy.  Leaving a team to move to a new team is never easy.  But every team is an experience I treasure.