The Speech and Debate team has been an integral part of Clayton High School’s extracurricular success for an extended period of time. During this stretch of excellence and achievement, Ms. Brenda Bollinger had been at the heart of such prominence.

After many years of teaching at CHS and being dedicated to Speech and Debate every weekend, Bollinger retired at the end of last year.

Winning trophy after trophy, qualifying students for nationals year after year, as well as teaching students day in and day out; Bollinger provided a standard that is unattainable for many.

However, novels don’t stop after one chapter and much like a novel, the Debate team will start a new chapter with first year coach Justin Seiwell.

With many years of coaching already under his belt, Seiwell expects nothing short of excellence at his new position. Arriving from another very prestigious high school in Missouri, Ladue Horton Watkins High School, Seiwell believes student leadership is vital in determining the success of the upcoming year.

“I have a very student-centered approach to education and coaching, where I value peer-mentoring over my own direct instruction. From what I’ve been told and what I’ve observed so far, that fits in well at Clayton,” Seiwell said. “I just hope the team is half as happy that I’m here as I am thrilled to be here.”

Seiwell will be expecting the board members to take a leadership role and help those that are new to the program.

“The executive board paves the way for a smooth transition. I couldn’t have asked for a better welcome this year. I’ll thank Corrine Yap, Paul Lisker, Gabrielle Lachtrup, Nadia Diamond, Ian Tarr, and Ellie Gund for really stepping up these first few weeks of school,” Seiwell said.

This excess of leadership will bode well for the team as Seiwell expects the great results from past years to continue. However, Seiwell stressed the notion that winning isn’t everything. “Clayton consistently qualifies students to the state national tournaments, and I fully expect to continue this trend. However, that being said, I don’t value winning over the quality education and strong relationships that speech and debate brings,” Seiwell said. “Some of the best parts of participating in speech and debate have absolutely nothing to do with winning or qualifying.”

“No matter what a student decides to do in Speech and Debate (and we have a lot to offer), they’ll learn a tremendous amount. They’ll also meet tons of people from Clayton High School and high schools around St. Louis, and most likely have a lot of fun in the process” Seiwell announced.

Junior Alex Meneses, Board member and two year varsity member of the team, applauded Seiwell’s confident yet open philosophy. “So far Mr. Seiwell has managed the team very well and gotten acquainted with the debaters and interpers very quickly. It looks like he’s going to be an integral part to steering the team to trophies this year,” Meneses said.

He also stated that this year he is “hoping that the team can win a few sweepstakes trophies and send a lot of people to nationals.”

Even though some may call this a transition year for the Hounds, the Debate team believes it will be another very successful season