Debate Coach wins national award

The National Speech and Debate Association has awarded a Diamond Coach Award to Wimberley High School Speech and Debate Coach Kyla Brookshier-DeLeon. The award recognizes a professional career that combines excellence and longevity in speech and debate education. This is her first Diamond Award.

To earn a Diamond Award, a coach must be a member of the NSDA for at least five years and earns additional awards with points earned in the association’s Honor Society. A coach who attains 15,000 points is awarded their first Diamond.

Brookshier-DeLeon has presided over the Speech and Debate program at WHS, consistently qualifying students to both state and national-level events.

In the 2023-24 school year, WHS senior Josh Bober placed 5th at the University Interscholastic League State Congress meet, and two other WHS students qualified. In addition, two Cross Examination teams qualified.

At the 2023 UIL State Academic meet, WHS’s Azula Hunter-Thiam won a state championship in Prose, and Bober placed fourth in Informative Speaking. Also in 2023, Bober placed fourth at the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament — the first WHS student to place at the TFA meet. In 2022, Jack Garrett and Hunter-Thiam also won state medals in Informative Speaking. In recent years WHS has participated at the NSDA National Tournament in World Schools Debate, Duo Interpretation, and Dramatic Interpretation.

Brookshier-DeLeon, who has been with WHS since 2017, will be recognized with other Diamond Award winners at the National Speech and Debate Tournament in Des Moines, Iowa in June 2024.