Lincoln Prep Reflection

Last year was my freshman year of high school and first year to be involved in the debate program at Lincoln College Prep. I have been involved in the program since middle school, which has largely cultivated my loved for learning and has given me skills that I find are of extremely high importance- not only has it provided me with portable skills and a huge amount of background knowledge on many subjects, but has also given me a community of people who support and encourage me in my endeavors. In my first year as a member of Lincoln Prep’s team, I learned more than I have in every other years put together. I attribute this largely to our former coach, who as an incredible teacher and mentor while he coached us. He was not afraid to teach us about controversial topics and to fill us in on current events. During that year, I partnered with a good friend from middle school. We did well in the novice level we competed again, which I again attribute to the coaching we received.
Throughout the year, our team dealt with a great deal of disrespect and contempt from opponents:
Because of the excessive discourtesy that our team faced regularly, our coach was very protective of all of us and would become very defensive towards those who were disrespectful to his students. There were often instances where our coach would become heated, which gained a reputation that eventually led to complaints directly to our principal. These complaints, along with personal issues that our principal had with our team (including our open discussion of sensitive topics), our coach was fired from his position towards the end of the year. As our team was still recovering from the death of an assistant coach that had happened a few months before, this was a huge blow to the team- we felt betrayed by our administration, and sorrow for our second loss of a coach in 5