The Championship Debate Group

Our Staff Members

	Russell Kirkscey is the speech and debate coach at Blanco High School. His debaters have won seven UIL state championships and placed in medal rounds numerous other times. He has coached state finalists and medalists in every UIL individual speaking event. He is the director of the 4A UIL State CX Debate Tournament and has served several times as the UIL State LD Debate Tournament assistant director. Russell has written several study papers for the National CX Debate Topic Selection Committee. He serves on the state UIL LD Debate Topic Committee and the National Policy Debate Topic Wording Committee. Russell has been twice nominated for the Texas Speech Communication Association Secondary School Educator of the Year. He is a recipient of the National Federation of High Schools Outstanding Speech/Theatre/Debate Educator Award and University Interscholastic League Sponsor Excellence Award.

	Alex Pritchard is Director of Forensics at Westwood High School in Austin, Texas. Alex's record speaks for itself. He is among the two or three most successful high school coaches in the past fifteen years. His teams have won two NFL National Championships and one national runner up. His teams have placed first at every major invitational in the United States, including the Heart of Texas Invitational at the St. Mark's School of Texas, the National Invitational at Harvard University, the Barkley Forum for High Schools at Emory University, and the Southern Bell Forum at Montgomery Bell Academy. Alex coached the winners of the 2000 edition of the prestigious Tournament of Champions (TOC) at the University of Kentucky, as well as the 2000 Glenbrooks Debate Tournament. He also has three runner-up finishes at the TOC. His teams have won the prestigious Texas Forensic Association State tournament six times. Alex has worked at the Zarefsky scholars for juniors and sophomores, the Coon Hardy institute, the NHSI institute, and the Iowa institute just to name a few. Alex has been inducted into the Tournament of Champions Hall of Fame and holds the honor of being a Key Coach at the Barkley Forum. Alex returns to The Championship Debate Group for his eighth summer.

	Jana Riggins joined the University Interscholastic League in 1997 serving as State Director of Speech & Debate and assisting with the entire academic program. Prior to becoming a staff member, she taught speech and coached forensics in Texas public schools for twenty-one years, directing award-winning programs. She holds Bachelor and Masters degrees from Baylor University, where the Baylor faculty selected her Outstanding Woman in Speech In 1991, she was named one of the original recipients of the UIL-Denius Sponsor Excellence Award and commendation by The University of Texas in Austin College of Education with the Texas Excellence Award for Outstanding High School Teachers for bringing honor to the teaching profession and inspired dedication to students. Selected as Texas Speech Teacher of the Year, she is one of only forty-two educators in the state of Texas to be named a “Master Teacher” by the Commissioner and State Board of Education. Mrs. Riggins has served as President of the Texas Speech Communication Association, National Communication Association States Advisory Council, Chair of the TSCA High School Curriculum Committee along with other numerous leadership roles, and was selected to the Standards Development Committee for the State Board for Educator Certification.

	Aaron Holman. Although in the activity for only 6 years, Aaron has achieved almost immediate success. Aaron has coached 2 UIL State Policy championship teams. He has coached NFL National qualifiers in Policy, LD, and Student Congress. He has also coached LD and Extemp State Qualifiers. Aaron credits his success from listening to great teachers, having great students and empowering those students to be successful. Aaron is a well respected AP English teacher who brings those teaching skills into the development of his debaters.

	Kandi King is an experienced educator with over 20 years of experience teaching and working at debate institutes. Kandi has had dozens of state and national level competitors including most recently a national runner up in Lincoln Douglas and a NFL national policy debate top speaker. Her student won the Texas Forensic Association state title in Lincoln Douglas Debate in 2004. Kandi is a former Texas Speech Teacher of the Year; State Officer of Texas Forensic Association for 18 years and past President; charter member of the Iowa Summer Debate Institute and is a current member of the National Forensic League Executive Council. Kandi's students have excelled in every aspect of UIL State and regional speech and debate competition.


	Dylan Pearcy, Lincoln Douglas Institute Dylan Pearcy, currently coaching at Winston Churchill HS in San Antonio, has worked directly in some capacity with more than 75 UIL state qualifiers including champions in Lincoln-Douglas debate, policy debate and extemporaneous speaking. He has lectured on debate and extemp at UIL Student Activities Conferences and at the UIL summer Capital Conference. In only three years as a classroom teacher he has had more than a dozen students qualify for the UIL State Meet in events ranging from informative speaking to LD debate – winning the 3A state championship in policy debate in 2007, third place in informative speaking in 2007 and third place in 5A policy debate in 2009. In two years at The Championship Debate Group he has helped many students qualify for the NFL National Tournament and win numerous district, regional and state level LD medals including third place LD finishes at the 2008 4A UIL State Meet and the 2009 North East Texas Debate Association Championship. We are excited to welcome him to his third year as the lead LD debate teacher at The Championship Group.


	Ronda Craig has been teaching and coaching Speech and Debate at Mexia High School for the past nine years. Throughout this time, Mexia Speech & Debate team members have enjoyed success in interpretation, extemporaneous speaking, and debate events, winning several UIL district and regional championships, 11 UIL State Medals and have had four NFL national qualifiers. As a former corporate communications consultant, Mrs. Craig understands that the true purpose of Forensics is to develop effective communicators, high level thinkers and ethical leaders in an ever-changing and ever-challenging society. We are pleased to have Ronda working in our extemporaneous speaking institute this summer.

	Shawn Duthie has taught Speech, Debate and Theatre at Holliday High School for eight years. During that time, he has coached U.I.L. State medalists in Prose Interpretation, Poetry Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Persuasive Speaking, Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Cross-Examination Debate culminating in three State Speech Team Championships. The highlight of his career thus far has been receiving the U.I.L Sponsor Excellence Award in 2006. Mr. Duthie believes that Extemporaneous Speaking is the strongest preparation that students can utilize in order to be successful at any type of employment they wish to pursue in their endeavors.

	Aimee Kasprzyk is a 21-year teaching veteran of speech, theatre, and art in Texas junior highs and high schools. She teaches presently at 2A Rice High School and formerly at 4A Corsicana High School, which makes her uniquely able to understand both small school and large school issues with speaking events in general and UIL in particular. Aimee has had students qualify for the state meet in interp in 16 consecutive of the 21 years she has taught. She has coached her own students to two state titles in poetry, one state title in prose, and multiple state finalists in both disciplines. In addition, she has been honored to work with many state finalists and champions from the multiple workshops and clinics she has participated in over the years at other schools throughout the state. A frequent participant in UIL Capitol Conferences, UIL Superconferences, and TSCA convention workshops, Aimee tries to bring a lively, humorous tone to the details of learning both to perform and to coach high school forensics. This past year, Aimee was honored to be a finalist for the TSCA Secondary Speech Educator of the Year Award.

	Zane Ryan Schwarzlose has been a member of the debate community for 10 years. As a debater at Blanco High School, he was highly successful in the UIL and TFA circuits. While enrolled at Texas A&M University, Zane mentored many area teams, coaching at NFL nationals and the UIL and TFA state tournaments. Zane is a highly active member of the debate community; this year he arbitrated at over 20 tournaments. He has also submitted several topic papers to the National Debate Topic Selection Committee, the organization that helps select resolutions. More recently, Zane launched infiniteprepti.me, a website to help beginning coaches learn the fundamentals of policy debate. We are proud to welcome Zane as the leader of the advanced policy debate lab.