The skills that they learn in speech and debate are such portable ones. They learn to communicate; they learn to analyze. The topics are hard.”

Head coach Sally Pies

BROOKINGS — The students are the stars; she makes them shine. Such is the story of the Brookings High School debate team and head coach Sally Pies. Having spent her whole life in speech and debate — 34 of her 63 years at BHS — the coach is now ready to re-retire.

A native of Webster, Pies grew up and was schooled there and graduated from Webster High School in 1979. Her lifelong love of the spoken English language began at an early age. Starting in junior high school, Pies became interested in “speech activities,” participating in “oral interp.” Activities such as those became and remain a definitive piece of her life.

“Webster had a good program for debate and oral interp,” she said. “I began debating when I was a freshman and I debated through high school. I debated through college when I came up here to SDSU.

Pies has a bachelor’s degree in journalism and speech communications, with minors in English and history. Smiling and with a hint of laughter,  she added, “I just like to go to school, so I just kept taking classes.” The coach and teacher would later earn a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction.

She spent a year student teaching at Brookings High School. In 1984, she joined the  faculty and stayed on. She did retire once before, for two years prior to the COVID pandemic rolling into the area. BHS was suddenly without a debate coach.

“They asked me to come back and help them out as an interim until they could find somebody,” Pies explained. “That was four years ago.” Now she is re-retiring — and leaving on a couple of high notes, one personal and one for the team.

Always a team effort

Pies and several BHS speech and debate students participated in the National Speech and Debate Association  national tournament from June 16 through 21 in Des Moines, Iowa, and did BHS proud. 

Emily Hua and Igen Nyawanda placed third out of 268 teams in public forum debate. It’s the top finish ever attained by a South Dakota high school debate team since the public forum changed its format in 2002. 

Add to that the team of Maddie Berkenhoff and Xander Hof, who made it to the elimination rounds in extemporaneous debate. While other BHS debate duos did not finish in the money, the coach noted that overall for her charges it was a dedicated team effort.

On a June 20 Facebook posting, Pies wrote, “I am so incredibly proud of these BHS speech and debate students for the way they have represented themselves, Brookings HS and South Dakota at the NSDA national tournament … . Not only did all of them do an outstanding job in competition, but they helped and supported each other when they were not competing themselves.”

The coach has a special connection to this year’s BHS senior debaters: they’re the “COVID kids” and they have been under her tutelage since they were freshman. Their first year was all virtual.

“(They are) one of the best bunches, one of the most motivated, the most hardworking groups as a whole that I have ever worked with,” Pies said. “That’s why I stayed for four years: to get them through.

“We started in 2020 on virtual. These were the kids that were doing debate online and Zoom for that first year. They did their whole season online. They got really close. They just clicked. They’re hardworking, motivated, they set goals.”

 Skills for all seasons

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.” So says Ecclesiastes, in the Old Testament. As Pies goes into retirement (again) she begins a new season; and her seniors also enter a new season of their lives. They do so with skills that will take them through all the seasons of their lives. 

“The skills that they learn in speech and debate are such portable ones,” Pies explained. “They learn to communicate; they learn to analyze. The topics are hard.”

One that came up at this year’s national contest questioned “whether the United States should have a comprehensive bilateral trade agreement with the European Union.”

“How many kids are even going to know what that means?” she asked. “Yes or no, whether it’s a good idea or a bad idea, they have to be able to understand these things. Probably one of the best things that they learn is how to look at both sides of an issue.

“Because in our divisive society, people are stuck on a side and they’re not willing to look at the other side; they’re not even willing to learn about the other side. These kids are forced to debate both sides of an issue. They might have a side that they favor; but at the end of the day they have to be willing and able to do both. You get an understanding of the issue from both angles and that’s really important.”

Pies noted that her students “work hard and want to (work hard) because of the time that they are going to invest outside the competition.”

Also, think of the coach as an equal-opportunity employer: “We take everybody. Not everybody is going to be a national champion but the goal is to move the needle, make everybody better than where they started. … They’re all going to gain something.

“I have these kids who come back as adults and they say, ‘You always said I would use this later on and I never believed you. But this is what I’m doing now and I’m using those skills.’” Those skills prove valuable as her students go into life: “They have to be able to communicate, look at both sides of an issue, research skills,“ she said. “I hope that they’re better people.”

Yet again, Pies noted the primacy of teamwork: “It’s still not an individual thing, because you learn from your teammates … . They all work together and practice with each other.”

Her all-around excellence at her vocation has again come to the fore: For a second time she has been honored as the South Dakota Debate Coach Of The Year. And even in retirement, she’ll still be there for students:  “I told the kids I wasn’t going to desert them. I’m sure I’ll help with the team.”

Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.