By Jet Burnham | [email protected]

Providence Hall High School debate coach Steve Porter was awarded the National Diamond Award at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, held June 12-17. To earn the diamond award, coaches must earn 15,000 points, which they accrue through debate team participation, student achievement, public service and leadership work.

“This is a big accomplishment for Steve,” colleague Scott Pettit said. “It signifies that, number one, he's put together a successful program, and number two, that as an individual, he has made a tremendous sacrifice of time and commitment to his team and has stuck with it even through all the challenges.”

High school debate is a demanding extracurricular activity, with competitions running nearly every weekend from October to March. Porter is exceptionally dedicated—he even went to the 2019 state tournament the day after his daughter was born. That was the year the team won state for the first time and became the first PHHS organization to earn a state title.

“They love to win and Providence Hall has become a pretty formidable team under Steve Porter,” said Pettit, who coaches the Summit Academy High School debate team. “But above that, it's being a quality individual, and so he really instilled that into his team. I've seen him work with students and help them realize that winning is one thing, but it's what they're learning and what they're doing, which is the most valuable thing to them.”

Porter has won other leadership awards but is always quick to shift the focus off himself.

“ The kids and their experiences is what this is all about,” he said. “It's not about me or winning any awards or anything like that. If I'm just focusing on the award, I'm doing it wrong,” Porter said.

Porter’s focus is on teaching his debate students life skills such as resilience, sportsmanship and growth mindset.

“We're not trying to label ourselves by our worst rounds,” Porter said. “We're just looking at everything as an opportunity to grow.”

Students said Porter is a supportive coach.

“There has never been a time where I was stuck on a case or a rebuttal and he wasn't there to help me work through it,” said McKenzie Capito, who has twice qualified for nationals.

Instead of focusing on winning, Porter encourages his students to enjoy the process. They often play games between stressful rounds at tournaments.

“It is never about the placements or the points with him, it’s always about the effort and the experience,” recent graduate Emilia Rhodes said. “He has our team do shout-outs on the way home to people on the team that we think did well at the tournament, and always makes sure that our effort is recognized.”

Rhodes was fairly new to debate when she won at district this year to qualify for nationals.

“This was my first win, and I attribute it to my coach,” she said. “Yes, I put in a lot of hard work, but it was him that pushed me to do so. He taught me how to be a confident speaker even when I didn’t feel that way. There is a reason Porter has his first diamond—he gets his NSDA points from his students, and they would not be as successful as they are today without his guidance and unwavering support.”

In addition to the Diamond Award, Porter was also named this year’s Sundance District Coach of the Year. Since Porter became debate coach in 2016, the PHHS debate team has finished in the top three at state each year. This year, with a team of mostly novices, they finished fourth in their division, with two students, Emilia Rhodes and Elizabeth Campbell, qualifying for nationals. Additionally, McKenzie Capito was named an NSDA Academic All-American.

Summit Academy High School’s team also had a successful season, despite it being a rebuilding year. They placed seventh at state and had two national qualifiers, Keilah