The Oxford High School Speech and Debate  team led by Señor Jimenez won the National Speech  and Debate Association’s 2022-2023 Leading Chapter Award. The Leading Chapter award goes to the  school with the most active participation and new  members joined in a year. It also shows which debate teams in each state have recruited the best,  

thus showing commitment and dedication. Tommy Nichol, a junior in high school, is a  member of the speech and debate team and has  been a part of the team for the past two years. “In high school programs it’s often incredibly  difficult to improve since lots of your members will  graduate every year,” Nichol said. “Even in spite of  this we have continued to grow our numbers and  our talents from year to year. 

To be able to earn this prestigious award you  had to previously earn the Charter School Status in  the National Speech & Debate Association. 

“Oxford is unusually competitive on the national circuit for its size, but recently we have had  great success nationally because we have capitalized on the amazing talent that has grown in our  team,” Nichol said. 

It’s hard to know how much work everyone  puts into the team because a lot of it is done behind  the scenes. One of the biggest and most well understood contributions are made by Señor Jimenez, he  

was their incredible success during recruitment for  the speech and debate team’s novices this year. “I had always been a very inquisitive kid which  often led to arguments with classmates and teachers,” Nichol said. “This reputation got the attention  of some of the members of the team and they told  me I could easily develop that skill by organizing it  into actual debate.” 

Schools after achieving the Leading Chapter  Award must wait at least five years before they are  able to win the award again.  

“People can say that some may have contributed more than others, but in truth every person  who has experienced success so far, no matter how  small, has paved the way for our team to receive  this honor,” Nichol said. 

Max Hill is another member of the speech and  debate team. He is also a junior at Oxford High  School.  

“My favorite part of the debate is my teammates  and the people from other schools,” Hill said. “It’s  an outlet that lets me find other people who are just  like myself.” 

This is the largest number of people that had  joined the speech and debate team in a number of  years. The help of the amount of new people they  had this year and how they stuck with has helped  this team achieve the Leading Chapter Award. 

“The part I enjoyed the most about the experience was that it showed how all the previous members of the team and our new coach handled the  

transition well and actually became stronger than we were last year,” Hill said.  

Oxford High School is one of the 100 other members to receive the Leading Chapter award.There are more than 3,000 schools around the world that are eligible to receive the award.  

“The combined effort of the current members, and our new coach who helped recruit a lot of members at open house,” Hill said. “Also the people that have joined are very dedicated and weare super lucky to have them to help us.”