Confirmed staff for 2009 TDC Winter Revolution (in alphabetical order):
Ryan Bennett
Graduated last year from Southlake Carroll High School, Ryan now studies philosophy at SMU. Ryan currently coaches at Marcus and a student at Southlake Carroll. He has previously taught at UTNIF and the inaugural TDC. With a proclivity for running cases from the wide spectrum of critical philosophies, Ryan had great success as a debater:
- TFA State: twice out-round participant, including a quarterfinal.
- TOC: Two time qualifier; as a senior he earned bids from St. Marks, Greenhill (semifinals), Emory, and Harvard. He also participated in several nationally prestigious round robins: Greenhill, MBA, and Archer/VBT (2009 Champion)
- NFL Nationals: Two time qualifier and out-round participant, including a 9th place finish.
In his first year as a coach, Ryan’s students have already done quite well under his tutelage: he has helped coach a student at both Marcus and Southlake to earn their first bids, with one reaching semifinals of Grapevine and the other semifinals of St. Marks
Andrew Cockroft
Andrew graduated from Elkins High School in the Houston area, where he debated Lincoln-Douglas for four years. Despite limited ability to travel, Andrew made the most of his opportunities in Texas, and with great self motivation, he was competitive among the top national debaters. His hard work earned him qualification to the 2008 Tournament of Champions, where he finished as a quarterfinalist. He earned his TOC bids as a finalist at Grapevine and a semifinalist at St. Mark’s. He also was in elimination rounds of every tournament he attended his senior year, including Memorial and the UT-Austin Longhorn Classic. Additionally, Andrew qualified for TFA state for three consecutive years, where he cleared as second seed and finished as a quarterfinalist as a senior. He currently attends UT-Austin where he is majoring in philosophy. During his first year of college, he has been coaching for Dulles High School, where he has helped debaters reach elimination rounds of almost every major tournament in Texas, including bid rounds at Grapevine and St. Mark’s. And one of his students reached the semifinals of TFA State.
Tom Evnen, Board Member of Texas Debate Collective
Graduate student in Philosophy at the University of Chicago. Formerly a coach at Hockaday, Tom currently works with the University School (FL) and is a curriculum director at the National Debate Forum. Tom was the Nebraska state champion and runner-up at the TOC. He has also coached students to tremendous success in and outside Texas:
- TFA State: qualified well over a dozen students, including the 2007 runner-up, 2008 semi-finalist, and 2009 quarterfinalist.
- TOC: in only four years, five different Hockaday debaters have placed in the top 16, including a semifinalist (‘08)
- NFL Nationals: champion (‘07 & ‘09) and runner-up (‘08)
- Texas TOC tournaments: runner-up at the 2009 Greenhill and St. Marks tournaments
Monica Ghosh
Debated for Westlake High School and attends the University of Texas at Austin.
- UIL: 2008 5A runner-up
- TFA: three-time qualifier to state, finishing in octas, won 4 of the 5 locals attended in 2009, and was top speaker at the Churchill Classic (‘09)
- NFL Nationals: Qualified in 2006 and 2008
Ryan Graham
Ryan is an undergraduate at the University of Texas at Austin. As a debater, Ryan was in elimination rounds of numerous state and local tournaments, including St. Marks, Apple Valley, Memorial (champion), Colleyville, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Texas State Tournament. He qualified to State three times and to the TOC as a senior. As a first year coach at Anderson High School in Austin, Texas, Ryan’s students have competed in elimination round of some of the nation’s most prestigious tournaments, including Grapevine, Colleyville, Churchill, Memorial, the University of Texas at Austin tournament, the Glenbrooks, and St. Marks. He coached several students to the Texas State tournament and qualified the Anderson High School’s first student to the TOC.
Chris McMichael, Secretary of Texas Debate Collective
After debating for Marcus High School for four years, Chris is now an English Honors student at the University of Texas at Austin. As a debater, he debated primarily in Texas where he broke at numerous local and national tournaments. Besides being a founding board member and current Secretary of our nonprofit organization, he also previously taught at our inaugural summer institute to great success.
Devin Race
Debated for Westlake High School and attends Yale. Devin has previously taught at the National Debate Forum.
- UIL: qualified to State as a sophomore
- TFA State: four-time qualifier and three-time out-round participant, including a semifinalist as a junior and the 2009 State Champion, top-seed, and top-speaker.
- TOC: two-time qualifier, including semifinals (‘09)
- NFL Nationals: 11th place (‘09)
- Texas tournaments: champion of the Grapevine and Churchill tournaments, and runner-up at Colleyville
Andrew Waks, Vice President of Texas Debate Collective
Andrew debated for four years at Westlake High School in Austin and currently attends New York University. He presently works as an assistant LD coach at the Bronx High School of Science in New York City. In addition to his work at Bronx Science, Andrew volunteers with the Malcolm X Debate Program. This organization brings debate education (centered on the Public Forum style) into the high school at Riker’s Island, a major New York City prison. He has also taught at a number of summer debate institutes: the National Debate Forum (Boston, MA), the Victory Briefs Institute (Los Angeles, CA), and the Texas Debate Collective Summer Institute (Austin, TX). As a debater, Andrew attained success at both the local and national levels. He qualified for regions in UIL as a sophomore and was a three-time qualifier and twice out-round participant at TFA State. On the national circuit, Andrew amassed five bids to the 2009 Tournament of Champions. Three of these were from Texas tournaments— Andrew was the champion of the 2009 Colleyville and Memorial tournaments, and runner-up at the 2008 University of Texas Longhorn Classic.
Andy Werner, Board Member of Texas Debate Collective
Undergraduate in Philosophy at Amherst. Assistant coach at Hockaday. Andy is a well-experienced camp instructor, having previously worked at several highly regarded summer debate institutes: UTNIF, VBI, NDF, and TDC. Andy is the 2006 TFA State champion and was a finalist at Memorial, VBT RR, and Blake. Andy has also coached students to great success:
- TFA State: qualified numerous students, including a semi-finalist (‘08) and quarterfinalist (‘09)
- TOC: qualified numerous students, including an octo, quarter, and semifinalist all in the same year (‘08).
- NFL Nationals: champion (‘09)
- Texas TOC tournaments: runner-up at the 2008 Greenhill and St. Marks tournaments
- In his first year out of high school, he coached a student from a school with limited national success to win his first 3 TOC bids.
Kris Wright, President of Texas Debate Collective & Camp Director
Graduate student in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Currently a coach at Southlake High School, Kris also works with the students at University School (FL) and was formerly a coach at Westlake and Marcus High School. Kris is an experienced camp instructor, having previously taught at several highly regarded summer institutes: UTNIF, VBI, NDF, Championship Group, UNT’s Mean Green Workshop, and TDC. He has coached students to success in every circuit debated in Texas:
- UIL State: qualified several students, including 2008 5A runner-up
- TFA State: qualified a dozen students, including semi-finalists (‘06, ‘07, ‘08) and the 2009 State Champion
- TOC: qualified six students, including a quarterfinalist (‘07) and semifinalist (‘09).
- NFL Nationals: qualified five students, including two 11th place finishes.
- Texas TOC Tournaments: finalists at Grapevine (‘08), Memorial (close-out in ‘06, ‘08), University of Texas (‘08), Colleyville (‘06, ‘07, ‘08, ‘09), and Churchill (‘03,’09)
Bios still to come . . .
Chris Castillo
Shane O’Neal
Becca Traber
