On April 1st, 2017, Debate coach Alejandra Garcia attended the city championships, where they sent a survey to all coaches asking to vote for a new finalist.

Garcia was voted the Conference Coach of the Year, making her a finalist for the Golden Gavel Award, the highest honor given to a coach in the Urban Debate League. Garcia was surprised when she found she had been voted by her colleagues for the award.

“It was really unexpected,” said Garcia, “I didn’t know I wanted to win it. It was something I talked about with my fellow coaches and it’s something when you get the most amount of votes.”

Garcia’s team congratulated her and were excited because their coach, Mr. Edwards, had won the Golden Gavel Award in 2013.

“They were pretty excited that they had another coach that was in the running for [the award],” said Garcia.

This year, Garcia has improved the team a lot. She made it possible for her team to go to as many competitions as possible, whether they were within Chicago or in different states. She planned each trip herself and prepared all the paperwork needed for the team to travel.

“Especially this year, I’ve been the one who has been doing most of the paperwork to get the kids to go to tournaments. I think we went to more trips this year than ever.  I planned the entire trips and I planned the whole trip to Ohio Valley in Kentucky,” said Garcia.
Congratulations to Ms. Garcia for representing her conference as Coach of the Year and being named a finalist for the Golden Gavel from the Urban Debate League!