One Clap Speech and Debate

Camp One Clap 2, Episode 2: Chilling Thrills and Coaching Skills with Ashley Schulz, NSDA Assistant Coach of the Year

• Lyle Wiley / Ashley Schulz • Season 6 • Episode 2

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6:2 - Camp One Clap 2024: Day 2

For notes and details about the episode, check out the website here:
https://www.oneclapspeechanddebate.com/post/camp-one-clap-season-2-episode-2-chilling-thrills-and-coaching-skills-with-ashley-schulz-2024-ns

The Clapocalypse is upon us, but Ashley is here to help! Prepare for spine-chilling thrills and heartwarming moments as we welcome 2024 NSDA Assistant Coach of the Year and Wyoming Hall of Fame coach Ashley Schulz to the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast! Ashley discusses her favorite Stephen King novels and the eerie impact of "The Blair Witch Project," while also contemplating her survival odds in an apocalyptic scenario. Ashley also discusses the many different challenges and joys of coaching, from the fun of traveling with a big team to the profound pride of witnessing students transform into confident competitors.

If you’d like to join the discussion here at One Clap Speech and Debate, shoot me an email at lylewiley@gmail.com or reach out here on the website.

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Lyle Wiley:

Greetings survivors. You have awakened to a new day, a new dawn in the wake of the clapocalypse. Camp One Clap 2 on the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast has finally arrived, and today we're going to dive into a frightening interview with Camp One Clap staff member and NSDA assistant coach of the year, ashley Schultz. I'm your camp director and host of the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast, lyle Wiley. I hope everyone is ready to face their fears and unleash their voices to make the world a better place this year. Quick reminder check the One Clap socials for today's social media challenge. Let's learn more about our guest on today's show, who, by the way, is already a good friend of the podcast and a former guest.

Lyle Wiley:

Ashley Scholes has been an assistant coach at Cheyenne East High School for the past 23 years. This year she received the Assistant Coach of the Year Award from the National Speech and Debate Association. She attended nationals during her high school years at Cheyenne East, where she was a quarterfinalist in drama and also broke at nationals as a collegiate competitor. She has one husband who is the best speech dad, doug, three amazingly artistic children, danny, david and Andrew, two dogs who sleep through the speech practices and two cats one who loves screaming drama pieces. All right, let's jump right into my interview with Wyoming Hall of Fame coach Ashley Scholes. Welcome to Camp One Clap to the Clapocalypse. Today I have Ashley Scholes with me from Cheyenne East, the assistant coach of the year which we're going to talk about, which is really cool. And yeah, ashley welcome. Thank you for being here.

Ashley Schulz:

Thank you so much, Lyle. I'm excited to be on again.

Lyle Wiley:

Love getting a chance to talk to you, always really nice to have you on the show and I'm sorry, but I'm going to be triggering some fears, some frights, some horrors for you. I want to hear about what you like in the scary story genre, like what's your very favorite scary story?

Ashley Schulz:

Well, when I saw that question, I immediately thought of what I read, cause I read all the time. I always am reading, and I love to read mystery and thrillers, so I couldn't really pick just one, but I do love me some Stephen King, um, quite a bit, and my favorite is probably the. My favorite of his scary stuff is the Mr Mercedes trilogy, highly recommend. I also thought about movies, and the one that really sticks in my mind and I actually can scare myself just by thinking of it is the Blair Witch Project. That movie I think it came out when I was in college and I think it was like the documentary style with the cinematography, really creeped me out. But I'm a big fan of being scared, so that was good. I like to be scared.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah, blair Witch, I remember it well. It came out in like 99. It was like, I think, right before 2000. So either 98 or 99. And I was in school too. I was at Laramie, or 99. And I was in school too. I was at Laramie, and there was so much lore behind the movie before it came out, so much like oh it's real, it's not real. There was a lot of really fun mythology that built up around the movie when it was released. So I remember that well too. It stuck with me a lot too. Have you watched it since?

Ashley Schulz:

the original watch? No, I haven't. I probably should well.

Lyle Wiley:

I mean, I'm not sure that it holds up quite in the same way, but it is still a pretty amazing accomplishment for what they did on such a low budget and stuff there's there's interesting stories about what they did to the actors on that show that are out there I should uh dig into it. It's interesting. Some good choices. I like Stephen King a lot too. He's a great writer.

Ashley Schulz:

Yeah.

Lyle Wiley:

I sort of agree with the criticism that he doesn't always stick his landings. I mean, he's a fabulous, fabulous writer. I love his worlds that he makes.

Ashley Schulz:

Yes, oh my gosh, that's the correct way to describe it. The world building is amazing.

Lyle Wiley:

Okay. Well, so now that we're sufficiently frightened, let's uh, let's also talk about the apocalypse for just a minute, like if, if there were an actual apocalypse which feels a little bit more possible every day, um, let's, let's hope. Not, uh, on a scale of one to 10, how likely would you be to actually survive? What do you think?

Ashley Schulz:

well, this question is funny because we talk about this quite a bit at my family dinner table and my middle son, david, and I are both on the same page here that we wouldn't want to survive. So we would just, you know, be be killed right away or something. So I would say a zero probably, although I am a mom.

Ashley Schulz:

So I do have some motherly instinct about me. So maybe that brings me up to a two, because I would try to protect my kids. The other three in my family would totally fight it out, but David and I nah, we don't want to live anyway if.

Lyle Wiley:

if things are that bad, so not not very high, lyle yeah, I mean I this feels kind of like a young person's question in some ways.

Lyle Wiley:

I mean, not that, not that you and I aren't young, but uh, the the hardships that would have to be endured do not seem attractive to me I like to live comfortably I'm not I mean not fancy, but just, you know, in indoors with water around and stuff, so I don't know if I I'm not sure how long I would last. Do you have any like skills you would bring to the table in the event of the apocalypse, like no, I don't have any skills, other than I can read some good books and and that's about it.

Ashley Schulz:

So, no, no, no skills.

Lyle Wiley:

I guess you could entertain all of the folks that are, because you know presumably electronics would be an issue. So, maybe they need entertainers. I mean, you can perform, I can teach them how to speak.

Ashley Schulz:

Write a really good oratory. I guess, I don't know.

Lyle Wiley:

Maybe do research to help rebuild.

Ashley Schulz:

Yeah, I don't know. Same. I'm not sure what I could bring to the table in terms of skills. I don't even cook like my husband cooks. I'm not even. I don't know.

Lyle Wiley:

Well, I mean, hopefully we won't have to find out. So Fingers crossed Well.

Ashley Schulz:

I mean, hopefully we won't have to find out Fingers crossed.

Lyle Wiley:

Let's talk about speech and debate. We've talked about it before, but let's go over some of that ground again. How did you get involved? What brought you to speech and debate? What's your story?

Ashley Schulz:

Well, I don't think my story is really abnormal. I think a lot of people just kind of fall into it and I definitely did that. In high school my best friend her name was Jennifer Mayer. At the time Her brother was a policy debater on the East High team. He was older and so I think probably that's why we signed up to be on the team.

Ashley Schulz:

But I remember very clearly our first day in the speech room with legendary coach Michael Starks and everybody was talking about pieces and breaking and DI and I had no clue what was happening.

Ashley Schulz:

And I really did tell my friend Jen, we should drop this, we should get out of here right now, which is kind of funny now because I started coaching right out of college and in my early coaching career I got married and started having babies. And even though I love speech coaching, it's a hard life when you have kids at home and a husband waiting for you. So every year I try to quit and I tell Mr Starks okay, this is my last year and somehow I'd always be back the next year on the staff working. And I remember when Marcus finally got hired, I told him our first meeting. I told him, point blank this is my last year. I'll stay to help you through your first year, but I am out. And here I am all these years later. I can't, I can't get out of it. So, uh, the story was pretty bland until until I'm in it for the rest of my life.

Lyle Wiley:

We're all so glad that you're still here.

Ashley Schulz:

Well, I am too, really I am.

Lyle Wiley:

Well, what about coaching? Like you just sort of, uh, after competing, you kind of fell in love with the activity and got into coaching. Just, is that something you wanted to do for a long time?

Ashley Schulz:

I honestly don't remember wanting. I did go on and compete my first two years of college and then, after I got my degree, I went to the Peace Corps and I remember when I came back, mr Starks, who was my coach, called me and took me to Chili's. I remember the exact table we sat at at Chili's and he needed an assistant coach who could do interp, and he asked me to be his assistant coach and at that time I didn't know what I was going to do. So I was like, sure I'll do that, that'll be a nice little paycheck. And so that's how it started and I love it.

Lyle Wiley:

So did coaching kind of introduce you to teaching then too?

Ashley Schulz:

Definitely. I got my bachelor's degree in communications initially, and then, you know, when I started coaching and I was working in marketing and I thought the best part of my life is working with students, and so then I went on to get my teaching certification to be in the school.

Lyle Wiley:

That's so cool. I mean gosh Stark's pulled the strings in your life like behind the scenes.

Ashley Schulz:

He is a great person.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah, he's still the best, so okay, well, that's cool then. So you've been coaching for longer than you've been teaching.

Ashley Schulz:

Yes, a little bit longer.

Lyle Wiley:

It was a really exciting year in terms of like honors for you. In the last few years you've been inducted into the Wyoming Hall of Fame, the Coaching Hall of Fame. That was a great honor. And then this year you were chosen as the Assistant Coach of the year by NSDA and honored at nationals, which is incredible, really awesome accomplishment, and it was really great to see your name and your information up on all the screens all over Des Moines during the national tournament. What a great honor. Tell us about that, that experience, how you found out because I think there's a story there and how it felt to be recognized for that award there's a story there and how it felt to be recognized for that award.

Ashley Schulz:

Well, of course it was crazy cool, the whole experience. I got that award assistant coach of the year in the hole in the wall district, and so how it works is all the assistant coaches from all the districts somehow get put into a pool for NSTA to choose. So I didn't really think much of it. I mean, of course I was honored to be the hole in the wall assistant coach of the year, but it's pretty a small pool.

Ashley Schulz:

So we were actually driving to Night Talk, the NITOC in Omaha, Nebraska, and we had it's really hard to do road trips with multiple vehicles and try to stop at the same place.

Ashley Schulz:

So we needed gas and we were trying to stop at a big truck stop. But I was in the lead, because I always have to be in the lead when we're driving and I missed the exit for the big gas station. We ended up at this little, teeny tiny gas station in the middle of Nebraska and I went in. I probably ran in because I always have to use the restroom I'm the one that has to stop the most and then I came out and I saw Mr Viney on the phone talking to someone and he had a big grin on his face and I figured he probably was talking to his lovely lady Bailey, but anyway.

Ashley Schulz:

So he hung up the phone and he got all the coaches together and the kids were running around the fields in Nebraska and my mentor, Michael Starks, went with us and so we were all there when he told us that I had been chosen and it was really kind of a funny experience at this crazy gas station in the middle of Nebraska and so I got a picture with Michael Starks at this dive gas station. So that's the story of how we found out and it was really cool and fun and it just continued to be cool all the way through. Nationals.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah, it's really awesome that you get the opportunity to take a lot of kids to these really incredible tournaments, but traveling with groups in multiple vehicles, I mean gosh, I know that's really stressful. It feels appropriate for you to find out in a setting like that because it is such a real coaching kind of moment and situation.

Ashley Schulz:

Yes, I thought that same way is the life of an assistant speech coach.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah, I mean, is there anything from Nationals that you remember about the experience receiving the award, anything that stands out?

Ashley Schulz:

I really enjoyed going to Iowa. I wasn't really sure that that would be a great place, but I really liked that and the kids were just awesome that we took this year Really easy to travel with, up for anything, so it made the experience really good. Having my oldest, dani, with me, she came to help the team and then my youngest, andrew, was competing, and then my husband and my middle son, david, drove out and they were able to watch rounds and hang out with us and then watch me get the award. So all in all it was just a great, great week in Iowa. We had a blast, all of us did.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah, I'm not gonna not gonna lie, I wasn't excited about Des Moines either as an exotic locale for nationals, but, uh, but I thought it was lovely, it was easy to get to, which was nice. It wasn't a terribly like long trip. Um, it was actually pretty accessible, like, for the most part, the the way they laid it out, and I thought that they did a nice job with the awards and, uh, there was a lot of space in there for the area where they did finals and awards and everything, and so that was nice.

Ashley Schulz:

I've been to many nationals and it was a really good, smooth nationals. The other cool thing is my very first year of coaching in 2001,. That team was awarded the School of Excellence the sweepstakes at nationals and we haven't been able to do it since, and then this year, finally, 23 years later, we got it again. So that was cool.

Lyle Wiley:

So I know that this is a time when, hopefully, you're feeling very validated as a coach and a member of your team, but, like you know, what have you really enjoyed about coaching over the years? What's the best part of coaching? Speech and debate.

Ashley Schulz:

Well, once again I'm going to give a cliche answer, I think, but it is true. I mean watching students come in as shy, quiet freshmen and then watching their development over four years is just mind boggling, and I love it. I love it so much. Our team is kind of like one big family no-transcript man. I've got to see it in my own household too, which has been really crazy, and maybe one of my favorite parts is getting to coach. Amazing students actually then become my colleagues. So Alan Pino and Catalina Pedrosa were my little students and now they're doing great things in the coaching world and it just warms the heart and it makes me tear up a little bit, even.

Lyle Wiley:

So you've been coaching for a long time and it's a wonderful job. We love coaching, but it's also very difficult, especially if you're an educator and a coach, and we're seeing some difficulty in keeping teachers, of course, in the teaching community and then also coaches keeping coaches in the coaching community. So one of the things I've been really concerned about is like how we can figure out ways to retain our teaching colleagues and our coaching colleagues, and so I was going to ask you if you had any advice for new coaches, for young coaches, for coaches who have been doing it for a few years and they're maybe on the fence about whether or not they can continue to do this. Do you have any advice for them to figure out ways to stick it out?

Ashley Schulz:

Well, first find someone in your life that won't let you quit, because that's what happened to me, but also take advantage of resources available. I mean, lyle, you're doing such great things with OneClap that you don't have to start from scratch, or you know, or even I even use them, and I've been coaching for 23 years to try to find ways to make life easier using resources out there from NSDA or from places like OneClap or from fellow coaches In Cheyenne. We're really lucky that we now have three really strong programs with coaches that can share resources and help each other out. It doesn't have to be all competition, because we're in it for the good of the students, so to help each other out and to make things easier is so important. Also, you should learn how to take naps on Sunday afternoons, because that is what gets you through coaching. Those Sunday afternoon naps are key. Afternoon naps are key.

Lyle Wiley:

I mean that's pretty legit. It might not be naps for everybody, but it's like you've got to find the thing that's going to help you, kind of recharge recenter.

Ashley Schulz:

Yeah, Um yeah.

Lyle Wiley:

Every week Cause the season's long and you need. You need some time. That's yours.

Ashley Schulz:

You definitely Summer. Summer is time to take a breath.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah Well, and I appreciate the shout out, but I will say like when we started working on content for one clap which is because of all of you coaches and all the competitors that get out here and share resources and ideas you know it felt like NSDA was starting to do more, but I'll tell you like right now, they have a lot more resources than they have in the past.

Lyle Wiley:

They continue to build on those resources. So I would say, I agree, I think there's a lot of great stuff through NSTA and that in Wyoming, I know it's true that there's always folks that are willing to help each other. I think, though, at the national level, like if you get outside of Wyoming and other places, like if you're a coach and you're listening to this and you feel isolated, there are ways to find people. You have to make it a priority to find people. You really have to, like, think about how you can use resources so you don't get burned out. You need to use your team, and I think that's something East has done really well is figure out ways to help your more experienced competitors assist your newer novices.

Ashley Schulz:

Yeah, I mean the challenges of small teams are great, but large teams have them too. I mean just the number of bodies you have to use, you know, upperclassmen, because that's the only way you're going to get to touch every student you know with some sort of advice. So, yeah, sometimes I think it. It seems like it's going to take more time to reach out, to find those resources to get on the NST web, nsta website. But man, it pays dividends in the end. It really does.

Lyle Wiley:

Yeah, I agree. That said, if you're listening and you you feel alone, feel free to reach out to me and ashley, maybe we could at least, like, point you in the direction of some help, if we can help you, so for sure. And with that, I think it's time for a little ghostly interlude. I want to ask everyone on camp one, cloud two, this year if they believe in ghosts, uh, if they believe in the paranormal, if they maybe have a story about that, are you, you a believer? Do you believe in ghosts, ashley?

Ashley Schulz:

Of course I am a believer, for sure. I believe in ghosts. I just, you know, I have a feeling there's something else out there living amongst us, whether that be, you know, the angel on my shoulder, but I see things you know, like butterflies those are my grandma's when I see them. But also there is a historic theater here in Cheyenne't think I would do that now, but I was braver then and we experienced some crazy things like footsteps and just some really weird noises and whisperings. We did those recordings where you ask questions and you listen back to see if there's answers, and I definitely heard something. So, yes, I believe in ghosts.

Lyle Wiley:

Ooh, I think something's out there. I think you're right. But yeah, I wonder if those recordings like still exist somewhere. That's interesting.

Ashley Schulz:

I don't know. No, I don't know, but I swear I heard answers on those questions.

Lyle Wiley:

Is that old theater where you did a show last year, or was that a different location?

Ashley Schulz:

Yeah, every summer the old-fashioned melodrama is there in Cheyenne. So yeah, Danny and I did that last year there.

Lyle Wiley:

All right, cool. Well, let's go back to some coaching discussion. So, in terms of East, of course you've had a really awesome long run at East with success and a lot of individual success, a lot of team success and a lot of that has to do with your coaching staff and, of course, the kids. But like what's it been like to work with this group like this, especially this specific group of coaches, and then the kids you've worked with over the years at East?

Ashley Schulz:

I tell you it is just a dream. I remember my daughter telling me mom used to be sad to go on speech trips, but now I know that you really have fun when you're there and that's the case. This coaching crew is the most fun group of individuals, the kindest in it for the right reasons, people that I have ever met. So the reason why I haven't been able to quit all these years is because I enjoy traveling and working with these people. I mean, we laugh, we strategize, we cry, we're just friends and we have such a good time together. So it's just awesome. I love being a part of the East High Speech and Debate community.

Lyle Wiley:

It's really a special situation.

Ashley Schulz:

It is. We're the luckiest people in the world and, I have to say, our students are amazing, amazing human beings. So that's nice too.

Lyle Wiley:

So we talked about the best part of coaching and so maybe we've kind of covered this. But and I think we've, we've kind of I mean, we, we, we can get a pretty good idea of what you love about speech and debate. But what do you think is, like just in general, the best part of speech and debate, like for kids, for coaches, for all of us, this activity, what's the best part of it you think?

Ashley Schulz:

Well, for sure I think it's the community. I mean, when you go to any tournament, you feel it. You feel that these are all people that are working towards the same goal. At nationals, you just feel like these are your people and I definitely do, as speech and debate people. We're often misunderstood, sometimes not supported very well, but when you go to tournaments, everybody knows the world that we live in every weekend and I love that feeling, I love that community and I don't know where I would be if I hadn't found speech and debate back in high school in Michael Starks' classroom, because that's where I fit in this world. It might be odd, but that's where I fit.

Lyle Wiley:

It's very beautiful. Is there anything you'd like to share about the speech and debate community right now?

Ashley Schulz:

Well, you touched on it a little bit. It's just, it's a hard time finding coaches, keeping coaches and teachers, but I just, you know, have been in a high school for so long and I think speech and debate is the best activity for students. So, as a mom, as you know, as maybe someday a grandparent, I just hope it continues. So I would say, just keep up the good fight, keep going, keep advocating for this activity, because it is so important, especially in today's day and age, for the next generation to be able to think and to express themselves and to know what they believe in.

Lyle Wiley:

Absolutely. I think you're so right. It's lovely to get the chance to talk to you about this. I kind of want to close most of our interviews with a little bit of like back to our larger theme of overcoming fears and no fear, forensics. Like you know, public speaking, debating, performing it's kind of scary. I mean, it's like not it's what the general public might consider the most scary thing in their entire world. For some people, like some people, the public speaking is like their largest fear. So why? Why is speech and debate worth it? What makes it worth the terror?

Ashley Schulz:

Well, I guess I would say that there isn't any fun available unless there's some fear involved. That's what makes it fun, and you can't have success unless you conquer some sort of fear. Have success unless you conquer some sort of fear. So feeling that worthwhile, I've done something, means means conquering a fear. So I think that's why speech and debate is so important scary but really enjoyable, just like a good Stephen King book.

Lyle Wiley:

Lovely, that takes us full circle. Thank you so much, ashley, for doing the interview. I really appreciate it and, yeah, I'm sure I'll have you back again.

Ashley Schulz:

Yep Anytime. Lyle, I appreciate you taking the time.

Lyle Wiley:

Thank you so much to Ashley Schultz for joining us here at Camp One Cloud. You're an absolute inspiration, like always. What's new at camp tomorrow? Well, south Dakota Speech and Debate superstar Brianna Wollman, a NSDA student of the year, finalist this year, will be back to help us navigate the clapocalypse. Remember, social media challenges are live for every day of camp this August, so check those daily. Stay safe out there, campers, and oh, don't bother asking werewolves the time. After all, they are werewolves, not when wolves For Camp One Clap. This is Camp Director Wiley signing off.