Dear Speech & Debate Team Member and Parents,

Welcome to North Hollywood High School Speech and Debate!The Speech and Debate Team is like a family, and I along with assistant coach AnastasiyaLisovska in addition to senior co-presidents Emily Turkel and Zach Grove, are very happy to have everyone on board this year.This is my fourth year coaching at North Hollywood, after competing for four years in high school with Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies. I am excited to bring my knowledge of forensics to this team after qualifying for state championships four times in high school, and Finaling at Nationals this past year in college. North Hollywood Speech and Debate is a thriving program that became a dynasty these past three years. The dedication of our students allowed me to be honored as the rookie of the year coach in our league in 2014. In the past three years we have won 11 sweepstakes awards, qualified 34 kids to State Championships and qualified nine students to the National Championship Tournament. I look forward to having our success continue into this year.

We will meet every week in K219 after school on Tuesdays from 2:30-630.On weeks where tournaments occur, we will try to have two practices that week. As a team we will be competing against various teams from our league, other leagues, and other states. All information about the team is at our website our facebook page. We are part of the Tri-Valley Forensics League and all their information is available at their website

As many of you know, LAUSD has placed severe budget cuts on extra curricular activities. This will require that we rely on parent support. Whether through judging, carpooling, fundraising, I cannot emphasize how much we appreciate and request parent support. All of our tournaments require a school fee and an individual fee for participation, which is why we will be fundraising throughout the year. Invitational such as Long Beach, Fullerton, and Berkeley and are tournaments that we will offer this year, but these tournaments are voluntary and the responsibility of the individual competitors.

In my eightyears in the forensics community, I have seen speech and debate make a dramatic impact on students. Speech and debate helps students develop skills in critical thinking, argumentation, public speaking, self-confidence, social interactions, acting, and quick thinking that will carry with them the rest of their lives. I came back to coach because I saw what a difference it made in my life and it is such a rewarding experience to give back to the community that helped me become the person I am today. This year and every year I will focus on helping my students to become better debaters, speakers, and people. At the end of the day, this is about having fun, and there will be plenty of that this year! My door is always open, please feel free to contact me anytime at 818 687 7771 or

Sincerely,

Evan Feldman

North Hollywood Speech and Debate Coach