A Conversation with Mike DePasquale – new CCFS Head Coach

A Conversation with Mike DePasquale – new CCFS Head Coach

Mike DePasquale '15, is new to the job of head speech and debate coach at Central but he's not new to debate. After competing in policy debate at Central, he attended Duquesne University, where he served as a judge for Central  – “I knew the coaches and wanted some extra money” –  before joining the school's coaching staff. 

“I thought that if I’m going to these tournaments anyway, I may as well coach,” DePasquale recalls. 

  DePasquale went on to serve as an assistant coach for Central debaters while studying at Duquesne University and discovered that he enjoyed working with students and seeing them succeed. He was inspired by the dedication of the Brother Kevin Dalmasse, Central’s longtime forensics moderator who died unexpectedly last year. Brother Kevin was also a Central graduate. 

    “Brother Kevin meant a lot to me,” DePasquale says. “I fed off his energy.” 

   Although DePasquale competed in policy debate – a research-heavy event in which contestants debate the same political or governmental topic for the whole year – he recently has concentrated as a coach on another event, public forum debate (though he also continues to help policy debaters). 

  Public forum debate, in which the topic changes every month, was designed to be more accessible than policy debate, which often features sometimes esoteric terminology and super-fast delivery. 

 “If you walk into a policy round, you might have no idea what’s going on,” DePasquale says. “Public forum debate lasts 45 minutes and everyone is talking at a normal speed. The event  was created so that people could walk in from the street and follow it.” 

 That’s not the only difference between the two forms of debate. In policy debate, contestants debate the same topic all year; the topic for public forum debate changes every month. 

      Regardless of which category they choose, high school debaters, like students engaged in other extracurricular activities, have had to cope with the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

DePasquale says there have been “pros and cons” about competing during a public-health crisis. 

“We learned that for certain speech events Zoom practices were better and we were able to travel to any tournament anywhere in the country” because the competitions were virtual. On the negative side, concerns about the virus meant that “we had trouble recruiting even when classes were in person.” 

  Speaking of challenges, DePasquale must juggle his own schedule to keep up with his coaching duties and his job with Armada, a company that advises companies on supply-chain issues.  

“Every Monday we have team meetings at 5 p.m., so I leave home at 4:30. On Thursday or Wednesday night we might have another practice.” Several assistant coaches are available to help students every day of the week. 

  DePasquale describes himself as “super-competitive,” but coaching is about more than winning. After working with debaters for four years, he  says he has forged relationships with students and considers them friends. He also has enjoyed watching them mature as debaters and as people. “I started coaching these kids when they were freshmen and they graduated last year,” he recalls. 

  “I’ve learned that you become more than just a coach to these kids,” he adds. “You have more impact on them than you think. I tell friends that I learn more from them than they learn from me.” 

—Michael Mc Gough ‘69