Flathead High School speech coach wins Assistant Coach of the Year
Mar. 7—Flathead High School's Scott O'Donnell was selected as Assistant Coach of the Year for the Montana West District of the National Speech and Debate Association.
He will be up for the National Assistant Coach of the Year, which will be awarded during the national speech and debate tournament in June.
Scott O'Donnell said the award means a lot and is validation that the work he's doing is making an impact.
"It's one of those of those things as a teacher you don't always know if you're doing good for kids. As a coach, it's proof I did something for a community I care about. It's really an honor. There are so many coaches out there who deserve it and put in so much time and effort," he said.
Nominated by fellow Flathead speech and debate coach, teaching colleague and father, Sean O'Donnell described him as an enthusiastic coach.
"Like many coaches, Scott brings enthusiasm to every practice and tournament and deeply believes in speech and debate. However, his greatest strength is his recognition that we do speech and debate not for trophies, but for the way it changes lives every single day," Sean O'Donnell stated in the nomination letter.
A 2020 Flathead graduate, Scott O'Donnell coaches the same short prep events he competed in as a student — extemporaneous speaking and impromptu speaking — for the junior varsity squad. It is his first year coaching at Flathead and he previously coached the Hellgate High School team for three years while attending college.
"These are the events I have the most experience in and I want to pass on that knowledge to the next generation of competitors," he said.
Sean O'Donnell noted his special skillset in drawing out the talent of "highly independent" albeit "rascally boys."
"Beyond competitive success, one of Scott's cornerstone beliefs is that speech and debate will help competitors become better people," Sean O'Donnell said.
"Scott's special talent is that he is able to corral these students to be within the guideposts of good behavior, while still allowing them the independence to find joy in the activity. Both at Flathead and at Hellgate, he has developed the relationships to help those students grow and mature, a gift that will help them for years to come," he noted.
Scott was also described as an innovator who thinks outside the box when helping individual students find success.
"There is no question that Scott O'Donnell's students have had a tremendous amount of success. In his first three years at Hellgate High School, he took a nearly non-existent short prep squad and made it one of the more competitive squads in the state. For the past two years, Maxime Diaz has consistently been a finalist in extemporaneous speaking and was a 2024 NSDA (National Speech and Debate Association) qualifier in extemporaneous speaking. This year, the two students from Flathead that Scott worked with the most extensively were respectively the highest-placing finalists in extemporaneous and impromptu speaking at state.
"Although a young coach, he is already making his mark on the competitive success of his squads," Sean O'Donnell said.
Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.
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