Speech and debate coach uses his knowledge to inspire, teach and conquer
Creating an empire does not happen overnight. It takes practice, skill, discipline and ambition, characteristics found in Dan West, director of Ohio University’s Speech and Debate team.
His students and colleagues credit him with taking an unsuccessful team and turning it into a national powerhouse. West, who came to OU in 2005 as the team’s director, took the team from placing 85th at nationals to seventh in only four years.
West is the John A. Casesse Director of Forensics, a position endowed for one purpose: to push the forensics team to national prominence. When West came to OU, the team had one student; since then, he has guided 40 gifted speakers to national championship titles.
His resume boasts page after page of names with varying degrees of success attached to them — semi-finalist, finalist and champion. He has worked with hundreds of students on speech and debate during his career, beginning after he got his bachelor’s degree in speech communication from South Dakota State University in 1988.
“(West) honestly is the reason I want to be a professor. He is a huge role model and I have grown a lot because of him,” said Hannah Trew, a sophomore studying communication studies.
His office contrasts with the image of someone who is organized and focused on his forensics team’s success. Reams of paper are piled several inches thick — on the ground and on multiple desks. The chalkboard is partly erased but also has tips for his students and times of practices scrawled on it. It’s all part of West’s winning formula.
“When you are not practicing, somewhere, someone else is, and when you meet him or her, they will win,” West said of his coaching mentality.
Debaters say West’s advice resonates strongly with the team.
“Dan’s great,” said Ryan Carrigan, a junior studying political science and the team’s captain. “I did speech in high school and going to a college with a good debate team was really important to me … Ever since I decided on OU, I have really enjoyed working with Dan. He is great at recruiting and getting kids passionate about debate.”
The team receives about $84,000 a year from OU to support travelling to and from events, according to a previous Post article.
While he was a graduate student at Texas State, West studied instructional communication. “I understand how to judge the energy of a classroom and keep attention in a big lecture hall,” he said.
West’s COMS 1010 courses typically have more than 400 students with an attendance rate of 85-90 percent, far higher than the average, he said. He said his jokes, sense of humor, teaching style and blaring of music — including Queen’s “We Will Rock You” — make his class more relatable to students.
“What you see when I am up there is me working all the things I have studied and practiced and putting it all in place,” he explained.
When West is not coaching his Forensics team to victory or sending his COMS 1010 students into fits of educational laughter, he is conducting research.
Last year, West founded The Center for Research on Speech and Debate with more than a dozen other speech and debate researchers from around the country. Among other topics, they’re studying whether speakers at speech and debate competitions are using more masculine or feminine language.
West’s efforts and achievements do not go unnoticed by many, especially not his colleagues.
“There are two words that I think of that identify Dan’s characteristics,” said Jerry Miller, an associate professor in the School of Communications Studies. “One is enthusiastic. He is very enthusiastic about everything he does. The second characteristic would be dedicated. He is always dedicated in making sure that students reach their goals.”
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