Debate Coach Tim Averill Earns Sixth Diamond Award from National Speech & Debate Association
May 11, 2017
Congratulations to Tim Averill, Waring’s Writing teacher and Debate coach, who earned a Sixth Diamond degree of membership in the National Speech & Debate Association’s Honor Society!
Diamond coach awards commend excellence and longevity in debate. The First Diamond award is earned when a coach receives 1,500 points and has been coaching in the Association for at least five years since achieving the degree of merit (25 points). Five years must pass between each new diamond award while earning an increased amount of points between each interval. Tim has earned 16,002 points over a coaching career that spans 46 years.
Tim began his coaching career at Manchester High School in Massachusetts in 1971, when he agreed to begin a debating club. After 35 years in Manchester, he retired from full-time teaching and began a “part-time” job teaching and coaching at Waring School, where he started a highly popular and successful debate team as well as chaired the Writing department for several years.
Tim served as Vice-President for Debate of the Massachusetts Speech and Debate League (1982-1994, 1996-2002) and was a member of the New England District Committee of the NSDA (1985-2005). He is still active in the MSDL, assisting with tabulation and also running the PFD tabulation room at the Harvard National Invitational each February. Tim is a member of the NSDA Hall of Fame, and his team won the NFL and TOC national policy championships in 1987. In 1992, Manchester High School represented the United States in the World Schools Debating Championships in London, and in 2000, the team traveled to Athens, Greece and won the Greek Parliamentary debate championship at Athens College High School. His PFD teams closed out the National TOC in 2006. In 2005, Tim was named the NSDA National Debate Coach of the year.