July 8, 2026
from Tanner Sunderman, head speech coach
Oprah Winfrey, Senator Ted Cruz, and Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson are three of the most powerful people in American history. But their rise started at the same place: their speech and debate team.
My origin story also started in that very same place. Now, it wasn’t an interest in politics or aspirations of something larger that brought me into the Le Sueur-Henderson choir room on a cold December day in 2006. It was, in fact, a garbage can.
A family friend of ours thought speech was the perfect fit for me as a seventh grader, and their method of convincing me to show up for the interest meeting was to threaten to put me in a garbage can if I didn’t. I figured, why not? I have nothing to lose. At that moment in time, I was the outcast. You know, the kid who sat by himself at lunch, no friends to hang out with on summer vacation, and unfortunately, the most bully-able. I was, as a call back to the garbage can, trash. What I didn’t know then is that the decision would kick off a now 20-year campaign, with an activity and space I hold near to my heart.
I first came to MPA during the 2014-2015 school year as an assistant coach. After competing for 10 years on the high school and collegiate circuits, I assumed the head position during the 2017 school year. The team was in a rebuilding stage that year, but I was fortunate to inherit a strong foundation laid over years of work by Kari Kunze, Mike Vergin, and Katie Murr. Our team enjoyed strong regional success, but in 2021, we began to soar to new heights. Since 2021:
NIETOC National Tournament
- Fourth place and champion of the final round in Extemp Speaking, 2021
- Sixth place in Original Oratory, 2026
- Ninth place in Duo, 2026
- Ninth place in Extemp Speaking, 2025
- 12th place in Duo, 2026
- 12th place in Humorous, 2021
- 30 total outround breaks at NIETOC since 2021
NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament
- Fifth place in Impromptu, 2026
- Ninth place in Expository, 2026
- Team School of Honor, 22nd overall at NSDA, 2025
- National Champion in Storytelling, 2025
- Tenth place in US Extemp, 2025
- Eight octafinalists and quarterfinalists since 2024
National Circuit tournaments like Harvard, Yale, and Glenbrooks
- Three champions
- Seven finalists
- 27 outround breaks overall since 2024
So… how did we do it? It really breaks down to three key areas: the students, the school, and the families.
Speech is a little bit like track and field. There’s a multitude of events to choose from (15!), and each serves students differently. Very rarely will a sprinter be throwing the shot put. Similarly, in speech, your serious interp students will rarely be speaking off the cuff on international economic issues in Extemp Speaking. Our number one philosophy here on the Mounds Park Academy’s speech team is that there is a category for everyone, and it is our job to figure out where that place is. Sometimes, an individual figures it out right away, makes it to the state tournament all 4 years in Prose, and wins it twice. Other times, a speaker does not even make the final round at the section level in Extemp Speaking, yet wins the national title in Storytelling the next year. When every student walks into our room in the language hallway, we’re not running auditions. We’re not looking for who is a national champion right then and there. We are looking at each student and are identifying the most unique and powerful aspects of who they are.
That is why I will always say, “You are your greatest weapon.” We are here to help each and every student weaponize their strengths, their personalities, and their talents to the best of our abilities. Sometimes, it is the energy that a student exudes that makes us say, “Humorous!” Other times, it may be the subtlety in their facial expressions that instantly screams “Prose!” Or, it may be a strong writing talent that tells us “Great Speeches for sure.” Every student has something within them that is the essence of their strength, and by the time they graduate from MPA, it will be the defining characteristic of who they are. It is this recognition of the individual student and their individual strengths that has led to a very interesting statistic on our team. Since 2017, every student who has started the program in ninth grade or earlier and continued through graduation in senior year has qualified for the state tournament at least once. Most students across Minnesota never make it to the top 24 who qualify. At MPA, it’s been a given for nearly 10 years.
But it’s not just what students gain internally from the speech team. Their overall MPA experience prepares them for the rigorous national circuit experience. MPA’s strong emphasis on writing and content in its course offerings sets students up for success well before they enter their first competition room. Students in Oratory, Informative, and Great Speeches come in at the beginning of the season with drafts that rival college essays. Their writing is organized, thorough, and builds on ideas, utilizing research to develop arguments. The theatre department prepares students in Prose, Poetry, Drama, Duo, Humor, and POI on how to use their space, display their emotions, and interact in a serious setting. The debate team prepares students in Discussion, Extemp Speaking, and Impromptu to think on the fly and organize their thoughts and arguments without preparation. The discussion emphasis in most classes prepares students to work one-on-one with coaches, discussing arguments, edits, and critical thought while intricately blocking singular words or lines for hours on end. There are practices where we only go four sentences into the performance in an hour’s time! Even the fundamentals of proper running in track and field teach students in Oratory, Informative, and Great Speeches how to control their bodies for a poised, professional look while delivering their speech. Just as you don’t flail your head or arms while sprinting the 200-meter dash, you carefully control how you gesture and how you posture yourself in these public address categories. The success of the speech team starts with the foundations laid in the day-to-day experience at MPA.
Finally, and most critically, the support of MPA’s faculty and families allows for the unlimited potential of our growth. It is no secret across America that fine arts programs are often the first to be cut in times of duress. A show we’ve so often quoted and made jokes at the expense of on the team, “Glee,” is emblematic of what happens when times are hard or administrations are unsupportive. We are so fortunate here at MPA to have a school system that believes in its fine arts programs. In January of 2027, MPA Speech, thanks to the coordination and support of the MPA administration, will host its first-ever full invitational tournament. While we’ve hosted various sections and pre-season mock tournaments, this will be the first full tournament in school history on MPA grounds. Not only that, but it will also serve as one of the NIETOC National Qualifier Tournaments for the 2027 season. This opportunity not only allows the team to raise funds for national travel but also lets us showcase the magnificence of our school as a whole. And it is impossible to give credit without recognizing those who laid the foundation of the speech and debate programs here at MPA. Kari Kunze, Mike Vergin, and Katie Murr put in the legwork to get these programs off the ground. While I coach from 3-9 PM Monday through Friday, those three put in much more, for much longer. We are so lucky to have had three individuals who have given their all to support these programs from the ground up. And I can not thank our coaching staff, Ham Paulson, Landon Hudson, and Lori Shoberg enough for everything they’ve done for these students. We are the program we are because of their commitment, and the same goes for every coach that has walked through our doors.
None of this is possible, however, without the support we receive from families. I’ve spoken to many programs across the state and country, and we are one of the very lucky programs to have the robust parent support system we do. MPA parents answer the call every weekend from January to June to serve as judges so the team can compete at full power. MPA parents fly with the team to tournaments like Harvard, Yale, and NSDA to support the students in a myriad of ways: grabbing food for the students while coaches are judging, acquiring that emergency Celsius or Alani before a big final round, or serving as a good luck charm in a round that is particularly trying. While the students are my favorite part of the job, the parents are a very close second. I have enjoyed getting to know all of them over my time here, seeing them witness their child’s evolution over four or more years, and being part of the magical experience that is speech. The parents don’t just make the memories and moments possible; they are an active part of them. There are two moments from this season that will forever live with me. The first was at the Harvard tournament, where we had parents from four families in attendance. Not only did we have a roving gang of MPA students heading off to their late outrounds, but we had a roving gang of MPA parents walking the hallowed halls of Harvard, high-fiving every student. The second was at NSDA Nationals in June. Every night, seated around the long dinner table, MPA parents joined in the peer coaching, offering insights I hadn’t considered and helping boost every student through the trials and tribulations of the entire week. Seeing our parents actively involved in the process is heartwarming because you don’t see that anywhere else. Parents can’t run the races at a track meet. They can’t block for you on the football field. But here, in our world of collaboration, the parents play a pivotal role in student support and growth. They are running practices at home. They are chaperones on trips. And they are our hidden secret weapon.
But we aren’t just preparing students for competition. We are preparing them to be leaders and innovators now, and to explore their futures when they leave. While they are still in high school, MPA speech students display maturity beyond their years. The training and development of each student into the strongest version of themselves culminates in their communicating not just with their peers from other schools, but also with the coaches and judges from those schools. Whether it’s discussing Donald Trump’s potential VP pick with Erez Kalir, investor, Yale guest lecturer, and NSDA board member at the 2024 Harvard tournament, or discussing content and rhetorical analysis with coaches from other programs at invitationals, MPA speech students are built to engage deeply with everyone around them, regardless of age, profession, or background. MPA speech students have recently put effort back into shaping the activity itself. Mari Minear ’25 was a leading proponent of changing one of the categories, creating and performing an example speech and rubric for members of the Minnesota Speech Coaches Association to vote on this fall. Sidd Sastry ’27 has developed an app that helps coach students in Extemp Speaking, providing a critical resource for one of the hardest categories to access and coach. Munira Khalif ’15 performed poetry at the United Nations and was appointed its Youth Observer in 2017. Kelvyn Boddipalli ’27 serves as an online coach for other students in the very category in which he won nationals. And numerous MPA students have put the skills they learned in speech and debate to use in their professional settings, whether by leading board meetings, innovating in their career fields, or surpassing their peers in various collegiate settings. This program doesn’t just build for an immediate four-year return. It builds for a lifelong return of confidence, community, and cooperation.
I was so lucky to have a coach who saw me in high school and said, “There’s something in there, we just need to rip it out.” Marie Kreft instilled in me that if you are having fun, then anything becomes possible from there. That is what I’m proud to build this program on today. With so much love and support, we have accomplished so much in such a short time. This program is built on recognizing every student for who they are and turning that into their greatest weapon. This is a place where the term “success” means whatever you want it to mean. This is a place where game-changers are born.
