Aditya is the CEO and a coach at Champions Debate! Throughout his career, he accumulated 10+ bids to the Tournament of Champions, placed 13th at the 2023 NSDA Nationals, finaled at the 2023 Harvard Invitational, and championed Ascend’s Speech & Debate camp tournament. He also coached at the 2023 Ascend summer camp and is currently an assistant coach at James Logan High School. As a coach, Aditya prides himself on argument creation, refutation, but also shows students how to have fun within Congressional Debate and how to do it their way. He believes in the simplification of “flow” concepts and clarity of argumentation. Aditya is excited to be able to identify strengths for each student and cater his coaching to amplify those. Outside of debate, Aditya enjoys running, dominating fantasy football, and petting both of his cats.

Quest Sandel is Curriculum Director of Champions Debate. Additionally, Quest Sandel is CEO and Co-Founder of Ascend Speech & Debate. He also serves as the Head Congressional Debate Coach at James Logan High School in Union City, California. Since he started coaching in 2016, he has been the winningest Congressional Debate Coach in the country. He has coached success at every level of Congressional Debate, including the 2019 & 2023 NSDA Senate National Champions, the 2023 NSDA House National Champion, the Champions of the 2020, 2022, & 2023 Tournament of Champions, the 2021 and 2023 CHSSA State Champions, the 2023 Texas State Champion, the 2023 Michigan State Champion, the 2020, 2021, & 2022 NSDA Senate Runners-up, the 2021 & 2022 Senate Leadership Bowl winners, the top presiding officer of the 2020 NSDA House, as well as numerous other national finalists and invitational champions. He is looking forward to teaching the competitive skills of speech and debate this school year. Unfortunately, Quest Sandel is not available to do one-on-one sessions at the moment. 

Joseph Maucieri is a coach at Champions Debate. He competed in congressional debate for 4 years, highlighted by a 3rd place finish in the 2020 NSDA House of Representatives. Nowadays Joseph has begun coaching the next generation of Congressional GOATs working as the assistant coach at Davis Senior high school and the assistant congressional debate coach at James Logan high school. He has contributed to the 2021 California State Title winner, multiple national finalists, a top 6 placement, and top debater at the Harvard invitational. Joseph believes that there is no “one size fits all” approach to Congressional Debate, instead each debater's individual personality should be highlighted in competition to make themselves stand out and elevate their performance. He believes that a speaking style tailored to each individual student is integral to compelling performances. No student should try to replicate someone else's success, because each student has a success story inside of them, and it’s the coach's job to bring it out. 

Tyler Luu is a coach at Champions Debate. He is a four-year alumnus of Ascend Speech and Debate. He has collected over 15 TOC bids, was the top debater at the Harvard Invitational, is the reigning Champion of the Tournament of Champions, Champions of the 2023 NSDA Senate, and is the reigning California State Champion. When coaching Tyler puts extra emphasis on how to make advanced refutations simple, mastering fundamentals, and helping debaters channel their natural personalities. He believes that every debater's personality is their greatest strength and wants to help debaters put some of that flair and pizzazz in the round. But don’t worry he has an actual life as well, he is a food enthusiast, proud pokemon trainer, and will one day be a pretty short comedian.

Anish is a freshman at Yale University. Across his three years competing in Congressional Debate, Anish accumulated over 15 bids to the TOC, and reached as high as the 2021-22 Congress Bid Leader. His notable accomplishments include championing the 2023 NSDA National Championship, 2022 Tournament of Champions, placing 3rd at the Emory Barkley Forum and TFA State Championship, and finishing top 10 in the NSDA Senate, UT Longhorn Classic, NSU Sunvitational, and Glenbrooks. In addition, Anish served on the 2022-23 USA National Debate Team, representing the United States at international competitions in World Schools debate, placing 3rd at the 2022 UPenn World Schools Invitational and finishing as the top seed at the 2022 Harvard College World Schools Invitational with an undefeated record. As a coach, Anish values the versatility and adaptability of debate, striving to teach his students how to speak at any point in a round from the first affirmative constructive to the final negation speech. When not debating, you can find Anish beekeeping, binging Star Wars lore, or teaching himself Japanese!

Faizan Asif is a junior at Stanford studying Computer Science and International Relations. He graduated high school in 2020 and was active in Congress and Extemp for four years. His main accomplishments include placing 2nd at NSDA Nationals in Congress, 2nd at the Harvard Invitational, 3rd in the Harvard Inaugural Round Robin, 5th at Glenbrooks, 5th at TFA State, 7th at Emory, and was the state champion in Foreign Extemporaneous Speaking at TFA. He is beyond excited to work with Champion Congress and coach the next generation of debate!

Kiera Dixon is a Champions Debate congress coach and a freshman in the UT Austin Honors Program. She was the top-ranked female congressional debater across the House and Senate in 2022, placing 3rd at the NSDA National Tournament, and placed 8th at the 2023 National Tournament. During her career, Kiera was a member of the highly selective, world champion USA Debate team, the NSDA’s sponsored World Schools Debate team, where she competed internationally across countries like Croatia, Hong Kong, Mexico, and Singapore while representing the nation. Kiera also received TOC bids at every qualifying tournament she has attended, notably winning the 2022 Winston Churchill Classic, placing 2nd at the 2022 Peninsula, and also placing 3rd at the 2023 Harvard Round Robin. As a coach, Kiera highly values research and content knowledge while also emphasizing the importance of giving speeches that make an impact and further the debate. She believes students should constantly grow in their understanding of the world, asking themselves why their arguments/impacts matter, and giving speeches with substance. Outside debate, Kiera loves thrifting, feeding her caffeine addiction, and traveling the world. 

Vikram is a first-year at the University of Pennsylvania studying Philosophy, Politics, and Economics on a pre-law track. He graduated from Solon High School in 2023 after competing in Extemporaneous Speaking for a total of 6 years. During his Speech and Debate career, he became a three-time state finalist and national qualifier, placing 2nd in Ohio and 7th in the US in 2022. After succeeding at various national circuit tournaments, Vikram was invited to the 2023 Montgomery Bell Academy Round Robin, an Extemp Tournament for which only the top 16 competitors in the nation are invited. Outside of competition, Vikram is the co-founder of The Ohio Extemp Initiative -- a nonprofit that provides free extemp education for students nationwide. After three consecutive summer camps, Vikram has helped bring upwards of 100 students to the next level of competition. When coaching, Vikram makes it his central priority to simplify content as much as possible while creating a fun and engaging learning environment. Through drills, comprehensive lectures, and a very encouraging atmosphere, he makes an effort to create meaningful connections with all students. A fun fact about Vikram is that he can identify every bird in his home state of Ohio...but the catch is that he is absolutely terrified of birds. 

Divya Kukreja is a freshman at UC Berkeley. In high school, she competed for four years in congressional debate. Some highlights from her career include finaling at the California State Championship, placing 4th at the Peninsula tournament, and 9th at Florida Blue Key. She also semi-finaled at big tournaments such as Harvard and TOC. This past summer, she worked as an administrative assistant and congress instructor at Ascend. As a coach, she helps students craft a speaking style that aligns with their individual strengths, assists them in developing strong research skills, and cultivates effective argumentation. Outside of debate, Divya enjoys doing henna art on people, spending time with her adorable 3 cats, and watching science fiction movies.

Krish Shah is an extemp instructor at Champions Debate. He is currently studying Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin. Across his 4 years in debate in high school, Krish placed as a finalist at UT’s Longhorn Classic, broke to out rounds in TOCs, NSDA Nationals, and TFA State, and championed the Isidore-Newman Invitational during his 2 year tenure in Team Texas World Schools Debate. In addition, he is the author of “The Extemper’s Bible,” a book that helps beginners learn extemp. Krish believes in a layer by layer approach to supporting the development of extemp skills in his students. In fact, this layer by layer approach is what has directed his interest in art, selling oil paintings for the past 2 years!

Abhinav is a congress coach at Champions Debate and is currently a freshman at UT Dallas. He graduated in 2023, and over the course of his career, amassed over 12 bids to the TOC. He’s finaled 12+ national tournaments, most notably including 5th and 8th at Harvard, 4th at Yale, 3rd at Emory, and 7th at the TOC. He even dabbled in World Schools Debate, placing 1st at the Isidore Newman Smith Invitational and 3rd at the University of Pennsylvania Invitational. As a coach, Abhinav has coached several students into the final rounds of national tournaments - he prides himself on coaching how to develop a talented round vision, and on teaching the specific how-tos of altering your speech style in a round. Outside of debate, he loves cooking, is an avid singer, and is way better than Aditya at fantasy football. He can’t wait to coach!

Claire Miller is a freshman at UCLA studying computational biology. She competed in congressional debate for five months while managing to accumulate significant accomplishments highlighted by a semi final run at Harvard, despite it being her first tournament, and achieving 15th in the Senate at the 2023 NSDA Nationals. She chose to do congress because of the emphasis on unique speaking and strong and creative argumentation. Outside of debate she is passionate about her lovely friends, keeping up to date on literally any sport, and being outdoors. She had the pleasure of working as a congress coach for Ascend Debate this past summer despite never being able to attend as a debater. As a coach she values finding a speaking style that is tailored to each individual competitor while balancing solid argumentation and productive refutation. 

Benjamin Grimes is a freshman at Brandeis University studying Econ, Political Science, and Legal Studies who currently competes on the debate team. Despite getting a late start to debate, in just 2 years of competition, Benjamin has accumulated 6+ TOC bids, finaled at NSDA Nationals, Princeton, and Stanford, reached Semis at TOC, and broken to out rounds at numerous national tournaments including Harvard, Yale, and MLK Invitational. As a congress captain and coach, he’s helped the Palo Alto Congressional Debate team push into the top 5 schools in California and has coached multiple students to qualify for the TOC. Benjamin strongly believes in helping debaters find their own unique styles, adapting to rounds to make round-winning speeches no matter when you speak, and integrating rhetoric and wit to make rounds more fun for everybody. Outside of debate, Benjamin loves to play basketball, pet his dog, and beat people in chess. He's looking forward to coaching!

Jake W. Dean is a Ph.D. student and NSF Graduate Research Fellow in Sociocultural Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara where he researches the political ecology of marine conservation, ecotourism, and outdoor recreation. He holds an M.A. in Latin American Studies from the University of Arizona, as well as bachelor’s degrees in Earth & Space Exploration and Anthropology from Arizona State University. In 2016, Jake was the first debater to win both the NSDA House National Championship and House Leadership Bowl. He championed Berkeley, the AIA Arizona State Tournament, and ASU in Congress. On the circuit, he also placed in several prominent tournaments including the 2017 NSDA House, Florida Blue Key, and SWSDIT. In speech, Jake championed ASU and Denton Guyer in multiple speech events including Extemp and placed across multiple events at the Arizona State Tournament. In college, he qualified to the 2018 AFA-NIET in four events. His coaching champions unique styles, clear rhetoric, and in-round strategy. Coming from a small team with minimal resources, he believes any competitor from any team can succeed. Outside of the academic world, Jake is a competitive bowler and watches too many old sci-fi shows—the likes of Stargate SG1 and Farscape.

Hi, I’m Jonathan Tubb! I’m currently a frosh at Stanford University, tentatively studying
bioengineering and international relations. I graduated last year from Saint Mary’s Hall in
San Antonio, Texas. Over five years in Speech and Debate, I competed in many events at many tournaments, with a primary focus on extemp. I placed 2nd at Yale, 3rd/5th at TFA state, 6th at the MBA round robin, 2nd at NIETOC, and 9th/10th at NSDA nationals. As a coach, I work with students to build a conversational tone, incorporate humor into speeches, and find a unique, personal style in an often cookie-cutter event. When I’m not coaching or studying, I love trail running, sleeping, frisbee-ing, geoguessing, and chilling with my two wonderful dogs, Minnie and Waldo.