CME & Coaches.

In college, Graham debated at the University of Kansas for 4 years, during which he reached finals of the National Debate Tournament twice (2024, 2025) and quarters once (2021). He was unanimously voted as the best team in the country along John Marshall (2025). During the 2024-2025 season, he won the title of top speaker at Northwestern, the University of Kentucky Round Robin, the University of Texas, and the National Debate Tournament. Graham cut his teeth debating in the novice division of local Kansas tournaments, where he won multiple tournaments by beguiling parent judges. He picked up the basics from his teammates, and the rest was history. CME chose Graham for his expertise in policy-focused research and argument synthesis.

Ike won the National Debate Tournament and was unanimously voted as the best regular season team in college policy debate. He loves researching, navigating debate thought experiments, and working with students to ensure that debate is intellectually rewarding, competitively fulfilling, and most importantly, fun.

Rishi was first exposed to debate due to peer pressure but quickly got hooked after competing for the first time. He went on to octo-final the NDT as a freshman. He coached the winner of the policy TOC (2026).

Om reached finals of the TOC and won the Glenbrooks, NDCA, and several other tournaments. He also coached younger students to success at major tournaments, including helping a sophomore win the TOC Digital Speech and Debate Series 1.

Kaitlyn is a current Dartmouth debater who won Greenhill RR and reached finals at Loyola, Grapevine, and Greenhill. They've always been a passionate coach, helping sophomores reach elimination rounds at TFA. They're especially interested in helping people innovate new K arguments and execute them technically.

Jimmy championed the TOC, and won 6 out of the 8 major national tournaments during the 2025-2026 season, including the Greenhill RR and Fall Classic, Barkley Forum, Berkeley, and NDCA. He emphasizes innovative research and argument theorizing in diverse areas, from IR and hegemony, de-development, counterplan competition, to both developing and answering critiques from capitalism, psychoanalysis, to critical race literature.

Alex was 2026 TOC finalist and Emory top speaker. He has debated in both CX and LD, and now debates at Northwestern. As a coach, he's most experienced teaching policy and K arguments. He hopes to foster exportable research and argumentation skills useful throughout life.

Nilesh has coached the LD TOC Champion in 2026, and the Champion, finalist, and semi-finalist in 2025. He focuses on developing innovative policy strategies.

Ethan is a current Northwestern debater. He reached the finals of the CX TOC where he was also top speaker. He was the top speaker at several other tournaments including New Trier, Michigan, the Pace Round Robin, and Illinois State. He also won Michigan and the Glenbrooks. As a coach, he emphasizes thorough research and argument innovation that students can take beyond debate.

Rohan is a current Michigan debater. He reached quarterfinals of the TOC, Glenbrooks, MBA, and St Marks. He's also received 6 top speaker awards. As a coach, he promotes innovative argumentation grounded in research, and encourages strong pre-tournament preparation.

Alex was a National Debate Tournament Quarterfinalist and top-15 team in collegiate debate. His debate students have accumulated dozens of TOC bids and won tournaments including Peninsula and the Middle School TOC. He likes innovating new ideas drawing from a wide range of debating and coaching experience from weird twists in debate theory, to oddly specific affirmatives, to post-modernist philosophy. Before coaching debate, he was a tennis coach with several students who became varsity tennis captains.

Cora debates for Emory, where she received two first round bids to the National Debate Tournament. She's coached successful Peninsula policy teams and the winner of the 2025 LD TOC from OCSA. She believes in the educational value of debating, and offering all students an opportunity to do so in a way that is fun and meets their needs and interests.

Thais is a policy debate coach with three years of experience developing nationally competitive teams. As a competitor with Wake Forest University, she advanced to elimination rounds at national tournaments and earned Top Speaker at the University of Minnesota Invitational. As a coach, she has helped students win national competitions and qualify for the Tournament of Champions in Policy Debate. She emphasizes rigorous, adaptable, and technically precise debating to help students become independent thinkers.

William won the Cal RR and UK Season Opener while debating independently on the national circuit. As a debater and coach, he is flexible across a wide range of arguments, but his greatest strength lies in pre-round strategy.

As a debater, Kento achieved finals of the 2025 TOC, 2025 Pace RR, and 2024 Greenhill tournament in CX, and now debates at Emory. As a coach, he centers on technical framework innovation, nuanced impact turns, and ideological flexibility, coaching 2026 TOC quarterfinalists in CX and the 2026 TOC champion in LD.

Leo is a three-time Tournament of Champions qualifier, State Champion, and Harvard Invitational Champion, having reached a national ranking of 20th. A policy debater at heart, he prioritizes both philosophical and legal rigor, hoping to help students engage deeply with the dense literature and conceptual depth these arguments demand.

After spending Sophomore year learning philosophy together with teammates, Bodhi fell in love with LD debate, and went on to get 4 bids and champion the Strake Jesuit Tournament. He brings expertise in Phil debate in addition to an ability and willingness to learn and teach any concept, no matter how niche or strange they may seem.

Mira Baba is a current Michigan debater and had 8 career bids in high school. Having taught debate to a wide range of ages for almost 6 years, she adapts her instruction to fit each student's starting point and goals. She's most experienced with policy arguments, although she did read a K aff in college.

Vishwa is a current college debater at Emory University. In high school, he was ranked #10 in the nation and earned seven bids, qualifying to the TOC twice. He was in finals and semis of multiple bid tournaments. Vishwa is primarily interested in counterplan competition, and critique framework debates.

Wallace reached late elimination rounds at Glenbrooks, Barkley Forum, Cal, Cal RR, and Greenhill, frequently earning top 10 speaker awards. Wallace is most interested in innovative approaches to the topic, whether through a counterplan, DA, K, or otherwise.

As a debater, Nate reached Finals at the 2024 Greenhill, 2024 Greenhill RR, 2023–24 JW Patterson, 2024 Grapevine, and Quarterfinals of the TOC. He currently studies Philosophy at UT Austin. As a coach, he builds tailored strategies for each debater, prioritizing approaches that hold up against any style or argument.