Learn more about Paly Speech & Debate at www.palysd.com. Contact Program Director, Kyle Hietala, at kylehietala@gmail.com.
The Palo Alto Speech & Debate Program is one of the most successful teams in California, boasting membership of 80+ students and a long line of accomplished, beloved coaches from top schools such as Stanford, UC Berkeley, UPenn, Harvard, and Yale. PASD offers Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, Interpretative Events, and Congressional Debate. The program is highly respected for its inclusive, supportive, and tightly-knit culture, and has been consistently recognized for excellent league citizenship, winning three District Awards in 2022.
Additionally, the program created the student-led Palo Alto Speech and Debate Camp, an intensive introduction to speech & debate for middle school students, which sells out every season and has become a model program for many other camps. Our debaters have consistently qualified for national tournaments such as the Tournament of Champions in 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. Additionally, team-member Ethan Boneh '23 won the National Championship in 2022 in Big Questions Debate. In 2009 and 2019, we won the California State Championships. Other awards include 60+ Speaker Awards, 20+ Tournament of Champions bids, consistent top-rankings at States across Speech, Debate, and Congress, and have qualified multiple debaters to the National Championships every year since 2010, including 4 in 2022.