WASHINGTON, D.C.—The membership of the National Debate Coaches Association votes each year to present a very high honor at the NDCA Championships: the NDCA Educator of the Year Award.

Through its Educator of the Year Award, the organization annually honors an individual who not only has achieved tremendous success competitively as a coach, but someone who also “has made a substantial impact on the high school debate community through their service, commitment, and teaching. Not merely a teacher or coach to their own students, this individual truly define[s] what it means to be an educator to the community at large.”

Jon Cruz of the Bronx High School of Science was a recipient of this year’s award. For the first time in the history of the award, the balloting resulted in an exact tie, and so two coaches were recognized with the honor; Bill Batterman of Marquette University High School in Wisconsin shared the award with Cruz.

Recent past recipients of the Educator of the Year Award include Ted W. Belch of Glenbrook North High School in Illinois, Glenda Ferguson of Coppell High School in Texas, Frank Seaver of Woodward Academy in Georgia, and Tara Tate of Glenbrook South High School in Illinois.

This article was posted on Saturday, May 8th, 2010.