Congratulations to Our Middle School Coaches of the Year!

Our 2023 Middle School Coaches of the Year represent a year of growth, enthusiasm, and returning to in-person programming. We are so grateful for their dedication and efforts. Although all of our coaches make great contributions to our community, our special Coach of the Year Awards recognize coaches that are chosen by the MNUDL Community in recognition of how they go the extra mile. Please send your congratulations to our Coaches of the Year!

Teacher Coach of the Year: Kathryn Marget (Skyview Middle School)

Skyview Middle School is one of our newest teams, but you wouldn’t know it by their size or debate prowess. It’s possible thanks to great leadership and a strong team culture that recruits and retains students! We are grateful to Kathryn Marget for inspiring interest in debate, supporting her students’ well-being, and consistently doing all the unglamorous but important work that helps make debate teams thrive. We appreciate all you do!

Student Coach of the Year: Addie Jones-White (Yinghua Academy)

Yinghua Academy has been part of the MNUDL community for years, and one of the great rewards of long-term teams is that we get to see alums grow their leadership! Addie competed on the Yinghua Academy team, led by father Daniel Jones-White, and is a current high school debater at Highland Park Middle School. Now, Yinghua Academy gets to benefit from Addie’s experience and leadership. “Growing our own” is an important part of our model, and Addie is a great representation for why it works. We want to send Addie a huge shout-out for helping raise up a group of enthusiastic debaters across divisions, consistently stepping in as an on-call judge, and attending extra tournaments just to help students get more experience. We couldn’t do it without you!