NYSDCA—Jim Menick, director of debate at Hendrick Hudson High School, has been inducted into the New York State Debate Coaches Association Hall of Fame. He was elected by the general membership.
The text of NYSDCA President Jon Cruz’s speech celebrating the induction is available here.
Induction into the Hall of Fame is the highest honor this organization can bestow upon its members. Only one coach can be elected by the membership each year. The votes were cast in January. All of the nominees are, by any measure, incredibly deserving. But the membership has spoken, and it is my honor as President of the New York State Debate Coaches Association to recognize this year’s Hall of Fame inductee.
Jim Menick volunteers his time to coach the Hendrick Hudson debate program. Many years after a brief stint as a high school debater, Jim returned to the activity as a parent judge, and eventually took the helm of the Hendrick Hudson team when they needed a new director.
Jim is a tremendous supporter of our activity at the grassroots. He is a champion of local circuit debate. In addition to coaching his own team, he is the primary director of the Metro-Hudson League, an organization that provides low-cost debate opportunities to younger competitors from across our state and beyond.
Jim makes resources available electronically to coaches and students. These resources have benefited less experienced coaches not simply from New York, but, as the comments on his widely-read blog will attest, from across the country as well.
Jim has also distinguished himself as a coach at every level of debate. Hendrick Hudson’s run at major regional and national events from the late Nineties into the Aughts is an impressive example of team depth and squad strength, as is his program’s performance this season. He has coached back-to-back Greenhill Round Robin champions, multiple winners of the Lexington Winter Invitational, champions of the Glenbrooks and Harvard, finalists at St. Mark’s and Princeton, top speakers at Bronx Science and the TOC. He coached his own daughter to tremendous success across the East Coast. His students closed out the Newark City Invitational in the semifinal round. (And that was Hendrick Hudson’s third straight year winning the tournament.)
This year, Jim has again reminded us what a small team with good leadership can accomplish: one of his debaters has gone deep at major national tournaments on a consistent basis (including winning another Lexington title for the team), another one of his debaters won a major regional event (the Kaiser), and his novices have claimed top honors at local tournaments.
Jim’s debaters are humble, give back to the community, and participate in local competition even when they distinguish themselves on the national level. They do this because of the example set by their exceptionally gifted and caring coach.
In recognition of his excellence as a coach of competitive debate in the State of New York, Jim Menick is hereby inducted into the New York State Debate Coaches Association Hall of Fame.
This article was posted on Saturday, April 2nd, 2011.