One Clap Speech and Debate
One Clap Speech and Debate is a resource for Speech and Debate coaches and competitors. We interview heroes of the Speech and Debate community about the transformative power of the activity and work to provide free and helpful content for Speech and Debate enthusiasts. Lyle Wiley, an English teacher and Speech and Debate Coach in Thermopolis, Wyoming, hosts the show.
One Clap Speech and Debate
Camp One Clap 2, Episode 5: Whitney Brooks and her Journey from Competitive Champion to Coaching Mentor
6:5 - Camp One Clap 2024: Day 5
For notes and details about the episode, check out the website here:
https://www.oneclapspeechanddebate.com/post/camp-one-clap-2-episode-5-whitney-brooks-and-her-journey-from-competitive-champion-to-coaching-men
Join us for a conversation with Cheyenne Central assistant coach Whitney Brooks as she shares her unique perspective on navigating a world of Speech and Debate competition, coaching, and, yes, hypothetical apocalypses. Whitney opens up about the emotional rollercoaster of coaching, the highs of student successes, and the challenges of seeking validation from within rather than external accolades. Whitney shares how her coaching philosophy, rooted in prioritizing student needs and adhering to core values, has evolved over time.
Feel free to follow along as she navigates the world at: https://genuineknockoff.substack.com/
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Well, hey, campers, it's another beautiful day here at the Clapocalypse. You've discovered day five of Camp One Clap Two on the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast, and we're in for an awesome guest today here on the podcast. Cheyenne Central assistant coach Whitney Brooks is here to help us survive in the clapocalypse, right after she drinks her coffee and plays her games. But we'll get to that. I'm your camp director and host of the One Clap Speech and Debate podcast, lyle Wiley. I hope everyone is ready to face any horrors that might stand in their way to be able to share their voices with confidence and joy this season. Quick reminder check the One Clap socials for today's social media challenge. I really loved all this engagement from competitors and coaches on all those challenges so far. You're getting me excited for the upcoming year. It's pretty great. Let's learn more about our guest on today's show, whitney Brooks.
Lyle Wiley:Whitney is excited to join Camp One Clap for the first time this year. In her three years competing on the Wyoming Speech and Debate Circuit, she became a bit of a phenomenon, racking up accomplishments, including earning her quadrupie, three qualifications to nationals, two individual state championships, breaks at multiple national level tournaments and, the greatest achievement of all, perfecting the Just Dance routine for Rasputin. She has now coached for the past two years at Cheyenne Central, earning her first Coaching Excellence Award and coaching many national qualifiers, state champions and all-around awesome people along the way. Whitney is a zealous fan of Diet Coke, krusty, little Rot Dogs, the Mountains and all things Chapel Roan. Although she possesses very few practical skills to avoid an apocalypse, she sure has a lot of heart. So feel free to follow Whitney along as she navigates the world at GenuineKnockoffsubstackcom that's Genuine Knockoff at Substack.
Lyle Wiley:Her writing is great. You should totally check it out. All right, I think it's time to jump right into my interview with Whitney Brooks. Welcome to Camp. One Clap to the Clapocalypse. Whitney Brooks, welcome back actually Welcome back to One Clap. It's great to have you here.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, thanks for having me. It's great to be here.
Lyle Wiley:I'm glad you're here because you can help us navigate the Clapocalypse, which is a really scary thing that we're all trying to figure out, um, what it even is actually. And uh, first, everything we're gonna do is like talk about fears. Uh, what's your favorite scary story? Could be like a movie or a book or a spoken story, like a campfire story.
Whitney Brooks:Could be anything what's your favorite scary story so, just as a bit of background, as a kid I was like such a scaredy cat I did not interact at all with like horror or scary stories or anything. And then, just like in the past couple years, I've started to kind of get into it. So, uh, the impetus for that was actually buffy the vampire slayer, which is objectively like not that scary. But I started watching it in high school because I was going through this phase like 90s, early 2000s trashy TV and I loved it. So then I started kind of getting more into horror. So my favorite one that I've watched recently is Midsommar. I finally watched it after people telling me forever that I needed to, and it was really good. I really liked it.
Whitney Brooks:I know lots of people have lots of thoughts on it, but I enjoyed it. But I also love Anything by Shirley Jackson. All of her novels and short stories really phenomenal. But yeah, I mean any scary story in the right environment, I think is the key part of it. Like you got to be by campfire, got some marshmallows, got some spooky lighting, that's the perfect scary story, right there.
Lyle Wiley:That's some good stuff. Buffy is like I mean, you know, I want to say underrated, but like I don't, I don't know if that's like that pretty popular, right, like buffy's always been pretty popular. But yeah but still sort of like underrated um as like a pop sort of vampire tv show, because we I had took a vampire's class for in my master's program and we talked about buffy a lot and I think that, yeah, has a lot more interesting stuff going on than people give it credit for um yeah, it has some good stuff.
Lyle Wiley:John, sweden, knew what he was doing yeah it's, it's intriguing, and then you know, uh, midsummer is is a really good, like a really beautiful movie in a weird way like yeah I love some of astor's transitions especially. A lot of folks have talked about that movie on the podcast like so I don't know a favorite out there, cool, uh.
Lyle Wiley:But yeah, we have always lived in the castle is really great. Um, yes, shirley jackson. Um, yes, very spooky story there, yeah, yeah. So some good choices. I like good choices. I am interesting to hear about your thoughts on how long you might last after, like, some sort of post-apocalyptic situation where we have some sort of event like a zombie apocalypse or something. Uh, do you, do you feel like you would be a survivor on a scale of one to ten? How good of a chance of survival you think you might have? You have any skills that you bring to the table here?
Whitney Brooks:so I'm not sure about skills, but I do have like some just kind of a sheer dumb look. I think I have a pretty good shot because somehow magically my grandfather managed to keep a hold of his grandparents homestead, like out in the middle of nowhere in Wyoming, and so there's like fifteen, 1500 acres, which is just a beautiful gift for my family to be able to hold on to that. But there's nothing out there. It's like 25 minute drive to the nearest neighbors. So I think if I just popped over there, like I just kind of lived off the land, like I think I would have a pretty good shot of just kind of avoiding everything. I don't think I have the skills to like fight back, but I think my flight response could be pretty, pretty strong there. And my grandfather stockpiled canned food and so there's like 40 years worth of chili up there which I could live off of for a while in the apocalypse.
Lyle Wiley:It's like going to destroy your digestive system but you might make it a long time and that's that's. That's. That sounds like a pretty like decent survival sort of situation. Maybe I don't know, so you have like survival skills, but in terms of like conflict, if it got scary and you had to like try to like fight folks or whatever, yeah, Probably not ending well for me. Let's just hope it never comes to that.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, exactly, let's just forget it, just don't think about it.
Lyle Wiley:Most of the speech and debate folks I've talked to don't feel great about their chances of survival. Many have said, you know well, I have communication skills, like maybe I could talk my way out of it or whatever. But yeah, not I just, I'm just hoping that maybe we can use our communication skills to help prevent it from happening, hopefully, yes, yeah, let's be a little more proactive, maybe yeah.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, um, so I think maybe we've talked about this a little bit before in the past, whitney, but I want to hear a little bit about your speech and debate. Origin story How'd you get started in this world? Why'd you stick around?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah. So I was a little bit of a later joiner. I didn't join right off the bat when I got to high school. But when I first started high school I was really involved in theater. So I was doing all the shows at my school my freshman year and at that point in time the theater director was also the speech and debate coach. So the fall of my sophomore year I was the lead in this like school play. It was a super heavy play. If you've ever heard of a monster calls, especially on down on Monster Calls, especially on Dowd, that's what we were doing. Yeah, very intense for like 15 year olds. But my theater director slash speech and debate coach was like, hey, you're doing pretty well with this, come be a humor kid on my speech team. So I joined the team. There was a lot of overlap with the kids between theater and speech. So I already had some friends involved in it and I joined and I kind of never looked back.
Whitney Brooks:And then only then did I realize that my mom had been in speech and debate for a while when she was in high school. She absolutely loved it and I don't know how, I'd never heard of that before. But then I learned about it and she did extemp. So I was like I guess I'll do extemp now and yeah. Then I kind of bounced around all the events doing this and that and I just really loved it. And as I was graduating high school, one of our assistant coaches was on the way out. She had some life changes and had to move to a different place and my head coach was like I guess you could give this a shot. And I was like sure, I'll try it and found out that I loved coaching even more than I loved competing. So I've been around ever since, I guess.
Lyle Wiley:It's kind of trapped you and never let go.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, exactly.
Lyle Wiley:So your coaching situation? You've been going to school at the University of Wyoming, laramie right. And then helping coach at Shine Central. Yes, so a lot of like commuting kind of things for you. Yes, commuting kind of things for you yes, a lot of driving which has its benefits and its drawbacks.
Whitney Brooks:I mean, I am hi. I have become such a podcast girl so I love having my little time, listen to my little podcasts, listen to some audiobooks, like, just get some me time when I'm on the road, but in the winter it's not always the most fun, for sure.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, it's kind of stressful to drive on spooky roads, but what are some of your favorite podcasts? What are some of the ones you like to listen to?
Whitney Brooks:I lately have been listening to Rehash, which is like these two random girls that yap about pop culture phenomena that we all kind of forgot about, that they want to revisit. I really liked that. One Stuff you're wrong about is a pretty good one that I've been enjoying. I'm kind of all over the place. I'll listen to like one episode of a million different podcasts if I'm interested in the topic. So that's cool, yeah, that's well, and of course, one clap well that one was implied.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, everyone I've assumed that if you're a human and listen to content, then you're listening to one clap, I'm sure exactly I was gonna ask.
Whitney Brooks:If you're into podcasts, have you ever thought about like You're listening to one clap? I'm sure? Exactly Number one on the charts, if you're into podcasts.
Lyle Wiley:Have you ever thought about starting your own podcast, whitney?
Whitney Brooks:Because I would totally listen to this. I mean, I have certainly thought about it. I am a prolific yapper and I think I could put those skills to use, maybe rapper, and I think I could put those skills to use maybe, but I just don't know like what I would talk about, or you know, finding your niche is kind of difficult. So I think I'm waiting to really find something where I feel like I could just go.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, you're, you're kind of a good example of someone who has, like just an explosion of interests, because you're, you have a lot of like interests and you kind of go deep on a lot of them, right, cause you're really into music, right, you're a big music person, you're a big speech and debate person. But then your areas of study you really deep dive in those as well you like to write.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, you have a lot of interest. Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place, but I think sometimes that's the way to do it.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, I'm kind of all over the place, but I think sometimes that's the way to do it. Yeah, no, that's beautiful, but I guess when you think about a focused podcast it might get kind of tricky to figure out what that looks like.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, exactly.
Lyle Wiley:Do you like film too? Are you a movie buff?
Whitney Brooks:You know, sometimes I mean I love watching movies and thinking about them and talking about them, but that's kind of more of a recent development. So I mean I'm missing some of the classics and I'm starting to work my way through them. I think I'm probably just never going to watch Pulp Fiction because everybody that recommends it to me is like super obnoxious about it. Maybe that's just my experience. Is like super obnoxious about it. Maybe that's just my experience, uh, but some of the other ones.
Lyle Wiley:I'm working my way through. You know it is funny how film aficionados do kind of have this like weird, like oh, you have to see this film or else you're not a true film buff or whatever you know so it's really great about the godfather, yeah full disclosure. I I do think apocalypse now is maybe one of the greatest movies ever but the godfather movies I just I don't know like the gangster stuff.
Lyle Wiley:I know technically they're great or whatever, but it's just kind of painful for me, not really my, really my bag yeah, and that you know, that's okay I hope so.
Whitney Brooks:Thanks thanks for the affirmation, whitney. I appreciate that of course I'm here to be your yes man today.
Lyle Wiley:Yes, I like it. Um so uh, we've already gone over some of this ground, but of course you were a great competitor at cheyenne central uh, especially, like you know, a state champion in oratory twice uh state champ, once in oratory, once in drama drama, that's right.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, yeah, which I forget about sometimes, because I only did drama for like that year that I kind of dipped out the drama dip.
Lyle Wiley:The famous drama dip, yeah, yeah, drama's lovely but also heavy. So, um, yeah, so, two-time state champion at Cheyenne Central High School Pretty amazing. Were you part of the state championship team as well? You were right.
Whitney Brooks:I was. That was my senior year, so I was pretty happy to be part of that as team president. Yeah, lovely way to go out honestly.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, you were team president and now you're a team president and now and then now you're coaching, of course, and we talked about that but I that's like uh, that is not an easy transition and it's it's got some challenges uh to go from, even from team captain slash team president to uh coaching. I mean I know there's overlap, like that's a big step with a lot of moving pieces, and you've also coached two years now through a coaching change and so you've had some really unique challenges. I think, and I just think it'd be interesting to talk to you about you know some of those challenges of coming back to coach with a team that you're familiar with and then you know know what you enjoy about coaching so far, but maybe some of the things that, like that, you've had to figure out in order to enjoy coaching and what you like to coach right now. I know you're coaching a lot of different events, but what you coach and what you enjoy. So, yeah, I'll just give you some time to chat about your coaching experience yeah, for sure I.
Whitney Brooks:I love talking this. All of my friends at college are so sick of hearing about speech and mate all the time they're like we get it, dude, leave us alone.
Whitney Brooks:But yeah, I mean, for me, like I came back to coach immediately the fall, right after I graduated, which is not something that my school had really done before In the past. You know, there was kind of a waiting period of like hey, get at least one or two years out and then come back when you've got a little more distance. But I was kind of the only person that was interested and so they were like I guess you're going to go for it. And I don't know if I would recommend that path for everybody, because I mean, there were a lot of challenges, there's a lot of boundary setting that has to happen kind of right off the gate, in a way that maybe older, more experienced coaches wouldn't have to do, because there is that kind of awkward thing of like we used to be teammates and now we're transitioning into this relationship of like coach and student and there are new things that have to come along with that, like what are the rules about social media? Or like people that already have your phone number, and like what do we talk about, even outside of practice, in practice, like how does all of this work? And figuring all of that out, while also trying to figure out just the basics of like, how do I coach these things. It's definitely a lot.
Whitney Brooks:With that being said, I think it was a really great experience for me. I don't regret doing it. I don't know if I would recommend it for everybody, but I don't regret it and I think that I learned a lot about myself. I gained a lot of skills that I don't think I would have gained otherwise. I mean, I definitely have had to kind of learn to ride the line between learning how to gain respect and authority without kind of going off the deep end of, like authoritarianism, which is a really important skill to have for any leader, and I kind of had to learn that in an interesting way, being kind of thrown into the deep end, kind of had to learn that in an interesting way, being kind of thrown into the deep end.
Whitney Brooks:Uh, and then also, a challenge that you wouldn't necessarily expect is to kind of there's a lot of resetting your expectations that you have to go through because as a competitor, I mean I'm not that far out from it. I remember what it's like your coaches do something that you don't love and you're like, oh, if I was the coach, I would do it this way and this way and everything would be perfect and there would be no problems. And I understand everything completely. And it's really easy to think that when you're not in that position and then you kind of take over as the coach and you have to do a lot of like.
Whitney Brooks:Okay, maybe this isn't as easy as I thought it was. Some of these changes are harder to implement or impossible to implement, given all of the restrictions that exist out there, and so there's definitely a lot of like you go into it thinking that you have this experience and you're going to have it all figured out and then you don't, which is a lesson everybody has to learn eventually. But I just had to learn that kind of right away.
Whitney Brooks:As for other challenges, I mean I this is kind of a silly one, but my first year coaching I got mistaken for a competitor at like every tournament, at least once or twice, which I just think is now. I think it's kind of funny, but at the time I used to get kind of annoyed by it because I was like not even wearing a suit, dude. But yeah that, maybe that's just me.
Lyle Wiley:Did you ever have a hard time getting into like the hospitality rooms and stuff? Like people like, hey, this is just for coaches.
Whitney Brooks:You know, that actually did happen to me once my first year coaching at districts. I I think it was mostly just me I was too scared that they were going to kick me out. So the first couple of times I went in there I made my head coach at the time go in with me so that everybody was like, oh, she's fine. And then I would kind of like say hi to the coaches. I knew People were like, oh, there we go, like we get what's happening here. But I was very aware of constantly having like an ID badge or some sort of identification on me Almost all the time. That proved that I was not just a high schooler wandering around the halls of this high school, you know.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're probably going to have to deal with this for a while, honestly, so.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, probably I. My outfit game has gotten a lot stronger though, so I think that helps. I've got like the coaching outfits kind of down, turns out puffer vests. That's the secret.
Lyle Wiley:Everybody's like oh, they're wearing a puffer vest, They've got to be a coach.
Whitney Brooks:Yep, that's just like the coach fit, apparently, so it's worked out well for me.
Lyle Wiley:It's a good trick. It's people listening. That'll help them out. Yeah, what's been. What's been the thing like what do you love most about coaching? Or like what is the most enjoyable part for you?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, for me, I think, just the whole experience of getting to like mentor and teach that's just something that I've discovered for myself. I really love that. I didn't think I would love as much as I did. And I mean I tell my students this all the time, like we care about them as competitors, yes, but we care about them as people and as human beings first. And so for me, getting to be able to kind of be that person in their lives where they're like how do I register for my classes? How do I like apply to college? Hey, can you read over my scholarship essay? Like those little things, even outside of just speech and debate, coaching have been some of the most rewarding things for me. Just getting to kind of be that person that someone can turn to and be like what am I doing with my life, and being able to tell them like hey, everybody is wondering that nobody knows the answer, like it's okay, take a deep breath. I really love that.
Whitney Brooks:And then something that actually was originally kind of a challenge that has turned out to be one of my favorite parts is kind of learning to take a step back. I think that as competitors, I mean there's a lot of this like external validation. That's going on right. You're getting feedback all the time. I mean, if you're doing well, you're getting like big, shiny trophies that you get to take home and show your parents and be like these are awesome. And then you start coaching and it's a lot less of that.
Whitney Brooks:And at first I mean it was kind of a difficult transition for me just because I was like am I doing well?
Whitney Brooks:Like nobody's telling me that I'm doing well, so therefore I must not be doing well. And it's realizing that it's more about like the internal validation of you know, I'm out of practice and a student is like struggling with something and then we kind of work through it and I'm like okay, these are the moments where like that's how I find out I'm doing well is like seeing these students do well and so learning to kind of not take that credit for yourself and like acknowledging that this is about them now. At first that was one of those kind of tricky transitions for me, but I actually really love it Just getting to like be at an award ceremony and like my. Again, my students make fun of me because I'm a little emotional sometimes and like at districts and state I of me, because I'm a little emotional sometimes and, like at districts and state, I'm always a little teary-eyed and I'm like I'm just so proud of you guys but, like that really is the.
Whitney Brooks:The awesome moments for me is like when that kid that has had a really tough season finally, you know, breaks into finals and gets to stand up on that stage. I'm always just like, oh, oh, my goodness.
Lyle Wiley:You know, oh yeah, those are lovely moments. Um yeah, Validation is a hard like it's a. It's a very difficult thing for teachers and coaches to uh which you, which you step away from the role of competitor into the coaching spot. It is difficult to figure out how to feel validated, which probably requires a lot of like, really, you know, clear, like, confidence in yourself, loving yourself, feeling good about yourself in a general sense, because the hard thing about kids is that they're lovely but they're not going to give you validation for almost anything Like.
Lyle Wiley:it's just not really the way it works yeah. Yeah, yeah, but it's it's not really the way it works. Like, yeah yeah, yeah, um, but it's also you got a chance to work with some cool other coaches. Um, sounds like you got to do some debate, um, coaching and stuff, some some, maybe some events that you're familiar with but maybe not like as confident in or whatever. But like, what was that like to do events that you maybe weren't as like confident in?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, I mean I coached at least a little bit of basically everything this year. My team doesn't do policy but we do every other event and so I was helping out at least a little bit with every other event and it was really a lot of fun for me. I mean it was a lot of growth as a person and as a teacher, as a coach, uh, because my first year coaching I was just doing the platform stuff and a little bit of Congress, uh, maybe a lot of bit of Congress, but like that was kind of my niche but like that was kind of my niche my first year. And so I competed in Interp and Congress and then like a tiny little bit of debate when I was in high school but I'd kind of stepped away from that for a little bit. So it was really fun this year actually to kind of step back into the world of Interp a little bit more and like getting to block things out again and work on characterization and like I love the creative aspects of interp where I can be like hey, hold on, like this would be really funny if we did this here, and like this might have a be a really hard-hitting emotional moment if we do this here. That kind of creative brainstorming, like collaborative aspect with the students was really great, because a lot of what we do in platform is like the student writes something out and then we read it and we're like cool, change this, this, this, I really like this, this, this. And it's a little sometimes less of that like super creative energy in the moment. So I really loved getting to do that with Interp.
Whitney Brooks:And then, yeah, I did a little bit of debate. I've started studying philosophy as part of my, like degree plan at the university, so getting to bring some of that and chatting with my LDRs about some of that has been really neat. I had a day where I just talked with all of my PFers about, like logical fallacies and cognitive biases and all of those types of things that I've been learning in some of my epistemology courses, and that was really neat. Like breaking down you know what even is an argument, what does it mean from like a philosophical angle, and getting to kind of approach it from that was really cool. So, yeah, I've had a lot of fun this year just kind of being all over the place and hanging out in a little bit of everything.
Lyle Wiley:That's really cool that you get to share learning that you're probably excited about. You know stuff that you're learning in your studies and then you get to like immediately turn around and like share while you're excited about it, while you're like it's like fresh in your head and while you're thinking through things, like you get to share it with kids. I think starting judge, you're starting coaching new events is very humbling sometimes yeah like I started where john did with like no knowledge of anything.
Lyle Wiley:So my coaching experience early was very humbling. But we started a new program so none of the kids really knew anything either. So we all just kind of got to learn together and I kind of have sort of like taken that philosophy into my coaching. For the entire time I've been coaching, where it's just like you know, I just try to like learn with the kids and it sounds like you're kind of getting that experience. It's really fun.
Whitney Brooks:Yes, yeah, my. One of the things I struggled with the most this year was books, cause I did interp like I'd competed in interp, but never in poi or poetry, anything with book blocking. So like I was learning a lot from some of my kids about like how do you even like maneuver with it Right, cause I would have an idea of like hey, this could look really cool if you did this and this and this, but then we would have to kind of figure out together how to physically do that thing. Uh, so that was a little bit humbling for me sometimes to like drop this kid's point book like six times in a row trying to show them like my vision, you know I've had those exact same moments where I'm like why don't you do this?
Lyle Wiley:they're like, because I physically can't do that, yeah, that's, that's not actually possible, dude. Like oh, oh, yeah, yeah, you're right. Like that's probably, there's probably no way to do that. Okay, sorry, but yeah, exactly. Is there anything else you want to share about your coaching experience? Like, what about the, the, the transitioning, the transitioning, I mean for you maybe it all is kind of like a SERP, because you you coached your first year right out and then you coached this year with a, with a new coaching staff and a new, a kind of a brand new situation in a lot of ways. What was it like to coach in a new situation this year? What were some of the challenges that came with that?
Whitney Brooks:Some of the fun stuff. Yeah, yeah, I mean like this definitely has been a lot of transition the past few years. I mean my seniors that graduated this past year the class of 24, the four-year seniors had had six or seven different coaches during their high school experience, on a team that has one head coach and two assistant coaches at a time. So that's a lot of turnover that they had had to deal with. And this year I was the only coach that had stuck around from last year. So there was definitely a lot of challenges. But something I really relied on was kind of developing my own personal coaching philosophy and, you know, when there were tough moments, when there were challenges, kind of being able to return to that. So something that I learned from my like my head coach when I competed in my first year coaching, who has a complex legacy but who taught me a lot.
Whitney Brooks:Something he always said was he had a two-step plan. So the first question he asked himself when he had to make a big decision was what is best for the students involved, not for me, not for the standing or reputation of my team, but just like, what do these students need in this moment? And you know when you're evaluating the choice you want to make. If the answer is that it is what's best for those students, then you move on to step number two. And the second question is does it follow the rules? And if the answer is yes, then you're good to go, and if the answer is no, then refer back to part number one. And if it's what's best for the kids, then, oh well, figure out a way.
Whitney Brooks:And that had its merits. Sometimes it got us into sticky situations, but I really liked taking that to kind of form my own beliefs on everything, and that really helped me in terms of viewing my coaching as like, what matters here is these students and I'm not going to do what's best for me. I'm not going to do what makes me look like the perfect coach. I'm going to do like what they need in this moment or what I think would be best for them or what they think would be best for them.
Whitney Brooks:Sometimes it's a matter of like listening to them and just straight up asking what do you want out of this? And I'm going to do the best that I can to get you that. So I think that that was something that was really helpful. During kind of tumultuous transitional times is like what are my values as a coach and then, throughout any hard moments, just returning to those and making sure that whatever you're doing aligns with those values. I mean that's just going to take you where you need to be, I think. But I mean there was also a lot of fun.
Whitney Brooks:I mean, there's a lot of fun in getting to work with new people and getting to learn different coaching styles and learn from each other and, you know, learn together from the students and there was a lot of fun and you know, I think overall we've all had a pretty good experience, if you ask me Well that's good to hear and I think your coaching philosophy that you're kind of establishing is like a really healthy way to approach things.
Lyle Wiley:That's really cool. Do you think? Do you see yourself like whatever larger career that you might get involved with in the future, which I know there's a lot of different directions you could potentially go. We were talking about your studying situation and stuff. But do you think you want to try to be involved in speech and debate as a coach going forward?
Whitney Brooks:I mean, I think that would be super awesome. No matter what, I don't think I'll ever be totally away from this community. I think this is something that you can try your hardest, but it just kind of follows you around, no matter what you're going to be at a grocery store in 20 years and run into somebody that remembers debating against you. My mom still remembers her arch nemesis in Extemp in the 90s in on the wyoming high school debate circuit, who I'm not going to name but who is a public figure now. But yeah, I mean I would love to be involved in this. No matter what, it's a really great community cool.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, it's kind of like it's like a virus or something that gets inside you. Yeah, it's like a little parasite, like a virus or something that gets inside you?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, it's like a little parasite, like a healthy, healthy zombie situation. Yeah, Healthy one, mostly, mostly, yeah.
Lyle Wiley:I think we've talked a lot about things you've learned about yourself this year, but one of the questions I've been asking people is like is there something like uniquely, just specific to this year, that you've learned about either the activity or yourself over the course of this season?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, I mean this on a practical level. I have gotten a lot better at my tab room skills this year because I was in that first kind of group of people. I mean, my first year competing we were still pretty much all paper ballots and then it was 2020 and all of a sudden everything was online. So I kind of taught myself a lot of the student side of tab room and I was still kind of learning the coach side. So this year I mean, I tabbed a lot at our tournament. I tabbed at a lot of random other tournaments and that was a really cool skill that I learned. I feel a lot more confident in my tabbing ability.
Whitney Brooks:And then, on a more like interpersonal level, I think the biggest thing I learned this year was just how supportive and caring this community really is. Without getting too personal, it was a pretty difficult year for me and it was just really incredible to see the way that this community kind of steps up and supports the people that are in it and really just, you know, the support and care that people showed me was really great. I mean I wasn't able to be at the state tournament this year with my team and just the way that they were all so understanding and, like other coaches, were understanding and reaching out and keeping me in the loop without overwhelming me. It was just really great and the empathy that kind of radiates from speech and debate people is just so phenomenal and I loved getting to really experience that this year, even if it wasn't under the best of conditions yeah, that's very lovely.
Lyle Wiley:I also felt very uplifted and supported by this community. All that said, I think it's time for a ghostly interlude. Um oh, do you believe in ghosts? I've been asking people this in the middle of the interview, like are you a paranormal person? What do you think? Is there anything out?
Whitney Brooks:there. I'm kind of I know this is maybe the most annoying way to respond, but I'm kind of in the middle of the road where I'm like I mean there's got to be something going on that we don't understand. Like we barely even understand the oceans. There's no way we understand, like, what happens when we die. You know what I mean. Um, so there's got to be something going on, but I don't know if it's like the ghosts that we see in like media and whatnot.
Whitney Brooks:You know, I want to believe there's something silly and spooky out there, but I don't know exactly what it is or what form it takes.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, that's fair. Yeah, pretty measured response.
Whitney Brooks:We all, we all want to believe, yeah, yeah.
Lyle Wiley:And that's part of what we're like talking about here at camp is like overcoming fears and obstacles and I want to hear do you have any like examples or stories of times that you had a spooky or scary time in speech that like helped you grow through something or learn something important? I bet you probably do.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, yeah, I mean I've had some very interesting times with speech. I mean, speech and debate has just been such a big part of my life for so many years that it's kind of like big moments in speech and debate are big moments in my life and vice versa. So I mean, like, like I said, my first year competing was before COVID, in the, in the before times, uh, when we were still on paper, still in person. You know everything it's quote, unquote, normal. And then you know I was supposed to go to state that year that was my first time going to Nats and all of a sudden none of that was happening the way that we thought it would. We didn't even. I mean there was kind of a mini state that was kind of thrown together, which was really great that the state got together and still kind of did something. But you know, for all intents and purposes, I missed my first state. And then my first Nats was online, which thankfully sort of I was competing in XTEMP that year. So I still got to do something like live in the moment and feel like I was, you know, doing nationals. But it was like I was just sitting in front of my laptop at my dining room table at home, which was maybe a little bit anticlimactic for my first Nationals experience.
Whitney Brooks:And then the next year, I mean, almost everything was online. You know, district state Nats. Once again, I did have a kind of silly experience that year where my Wi-Fi cut out in the middle of drama semifinals at State and I was losing my mind because I was like in the middle of performing and then all of a sudden everything just went down and I was like, oh no, like this is the end of it for me, like this is the end of my life, you know, as a high schooler does. And then the wi-fi at the school turned back on and I finished my performance and it was fine, but that was. You know, it was pretty scary in the moment, uh, but just like that time of having to like go from being in person to online and then back in person was really scary. I don't know if anybody else has really talked about this, but I was absolutely terrified to go back in person after I'd been online for a couple of years. My first time doing my oratory in person I guess ever because I had started doing oratory when we were online was at districts, my senior year, and so that was a terrifying experience for me. I was like I don't know what I'm doing, blah, blah, blah.
Whitney Brooks:And in those moments where I was kind of adapting to these new situations, just kind of being able to remind myself like you, your, you know your body and your mind just have this amazing capability of like taking care of you in moments when you don't know if they will, and kind of relying on that almost muscle memory or just that routine of like you know what you're doing, you've done it before, even if you haven't, like you have those baseline skills that are going to carry you through, like. That was something that became really important to me. As we were kind of back and forth and there was all that uncertainty was just like take a deep breath, like just trust yourself and you're going to carry yourself through this one way or the other. And I mean, even in my hard moments in speech and debate.
Whitney Brooks:This is, this is my own little thing, and if any of my students are listening to this podcast, they're gonna be like oh my god, she's talking about her coffee again. But my thing that I talk about all the time is that I'm a big coffee drinker and every morning it's kind of ritualistic me I drink my cup of coffee and I play my silly little games. You know, I do like the New York Times Connections that was my favorite. Sometimes I'll do the Wordle or whatever, and this is like a big thing for me. Like every morning, this is what I do, and so when I have those hard moments, something I've learned to do is tell myself no-transcript, and so that's something my students are probably sick of hearing me say. But whenever we have hard moments as a team or as individuals, I'm like what are we going to do tomorrow?
Whitney Brooks:We're going to wake up and we're going to drink our silly little coffee and we're just going to keep putting one foot in front of the other because you? Don't really get another choice in the matter and you're just going to keep moving forward and the world is going to keep moving forward and everything is is going to be okay that's.
Lyle Wiley:That's very lovely. I'm gonna remember that I'll wake up, drink my solo coffee, play my solo little games. Are you still playing connections? Is that the game that you like to play in the morning? Yeah, that's kind of my main. Play my silly little games, are you still?
Whitney Brooks:playing Connections. Is that the game that you like to play in the morning? Yeah, that's kind of my main one. My mom and I, ever since I moved away to college, we maintain our connection primarily via silly little games. So every morning we will send each other our results for the Connections or the Wordle or whatever it is. We're also friends on Duolingo and we keep each other our results for, like the connections or the wordle or whatever it is. We're also friends on Duolingo and we we keep each other motivated for our Duolingo streaks.
Lyle Wiley:You know the important stuff. The important stuff, it's lovely. Are you like a hardcore coffee drinker, like do you have to have a certain kind of coffee, or you can kind of go with anything?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, I'm kind of cool with anything. Yeah, I'm kind of cool with anything. I did not start liking coffee until a little bit later in my life, so I'm not super pretentious about it. It's just important that it's present and, uh, highly caffeinated that's pretty doable.
Lyle Wiley:So that's yeah, you can pretty much make that black coffee, no matter what it is, I'm cool. Nice, well, that is actually a nice little uh. I think that's a good way to deal with fears. I think that'll be helpful to people I do. Uh, so tell me what's. What's, what's coming up for you next, like what? What are you looking forward to this year?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, I mean hopefully coaching again. We're still waiting on all sorts of admin and everything. But yeah, I've got some exciting stuff going on this year. I'm entering my junior year at college, starting a new internship with the University Foundation, doing some philanthropy giving work, which will be really cool, and I'm going to be doing a semester abroad in the spring. I'm going to be in the Netherlands at Utrecht University, so that's pretty exciting.
Lyle Wiley:Yeah, that's super exciting. That'll be a great experience. There's some big stuff coming up for you this year While you're experiencing next year. I'm sure a speech debate will be part of that and I just like to ask people like what for you right now? Like what is it that you love the most about the speech and debate situation, community team competition, anything?
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, I mean, there are so many things that I love about it.
Whitney Brooks:I love, I think maybe what I love most though which is tough for me to pick one is that it really teaches you a lot of resiliency.
Whitney Brooks:I mean, you're put into a lot of new situations, a lot of scary situations Ooh, a clapocalypse and you just kind of have to learn how to roll with the punches. And something that I love is it really encourages you to just keep learning and just keep moving forward. You know, there's something so beautiful about this ability that speech and debate people have to, you know, have a terrible weekend and come back on Monday and see your ballots that are like straight sixes, like harsh feedback, and instead of just, you know, kind of throwing your hands up in the air and giving up, we're just like, okay, cool, I'm going to do this again next weekend and I'm going to do it slightly better than I did last time. And there next weekend, and I'm going to do it slightly better than I did last time, and there's just something so kind of beautiful to me about that that we just we can keep rolling with these punches and just keep learning and keep getting after it, no matter what.
Lyle Wiley:I like that. I like that. I do think this is connected to my question. I've kind of been closing interviews out with people, which is like you know. I mean public speaking is like pretty feared by the general public. I mean to the point that there's surveys and stories out there about people being more afraid of public speaking than death.
Lyle Wiley:I mean, I think we've all heard that which, whether or not that's totally true, it's definitely like something that people are not they, they're terrified of, they're not like cool with. So you know, speech, innovate, like we actively put ourselves in these situations where we're facing this, this terror. So what do you think? Why, how and why is it worth it?
Whitney Brooks:I mean, I think that the biggest thing that you get out of speech innovate is just learning how to do hard things. Like we as people are so much more capable than we think that we are, we always, you know, kind of envision these limits and these boundaries for ourselves, and most of the time we are actually able to totally exceed those and we just don't even realize it because we're too afraid to put ourselves in the situation. So what I love about speech and debate is that you just kind of have to get out there and do the darn thing and if it doesn't work out, thenucks at least I know now.
Whitney Brooks:But at the end of the day, like you are going to gain so much even just from trying, and it takes a lot of courage and a lot of vulnerability, which sometimes to me are synonyms, uh to be able to get up in front of a room of people and talk to them about something that you care about, and so just being able to do that, no matter whether you get a lot of external success and a lot of external validation or not, that is just so incredible to me, and I think that's part of why I love speech and debate so much, because it is scary and you do it anyways, and that experience in and of itself is just so amazing for you.
Lyle Wiley:That's some great stuff, whitney. I appreciate you being here and doing the interview and helping us through the clapocalypse here this year at Camp One, clap Two, so thank you so much for being a part of this.
Whitney Brooks:Yeah, thank you so much for letting me be part of this.
Lyle Wiley:Thank you to Whitney for being here at Camp One Clap. It was an absolute joy to talk to Whitney and I learned a lot from her. And you know what? You totally should check out her Substack Again. That's Genuine Knockoff at Substack, so genuinenockoffsubstackcom. What's new at camp tomorrow? Well, good friend of the podcast, uuun, will be here to talk about choosing a platform topic and writing a great speech. Don't forget, social media. Challenges are live for every day of camp this August and we'll see you again tomorrow. Campers, oh, quickly though, before you go, make sure you watch out for flesh-eating bees out there in the Clapocalypse. You know what those are called, right, yeah, zombies For Camp on Clap. This is Camp Director Wiley signing off.