Germantown Academy Middle School Science Teacher and Technology Chair Mr. James DiFranco recently took over the GA Speech and Debate club. After some uncertain years, the club seems to be finally going to gain some much-needed stability.
“I’ve always in my career been in the Middle School,” Mr. Difranco said. “Taking this was a way for me to connect with the Upper School students again.”
“This is a very welcome change,” debater Yash Kandanuru ‘25 said. “While our previous leader did help to run the club, Mr. DiFranco’s expertise in the tech field has really streamlined processes for tournament registrations, administrative work and communication between leaders.”
Indeed, Tabroom, the web service that is used as a hub for all speech and debate tournament registration, is notoriously hard to manage. Historically, the club had students fill the Tabroom role; however, most tournaments require an adult faculty advisor. Mr. DiFranco has quickly picked up on the intricacies of tabroom and is already putting those skills into practice.
“I don’t want to come in and be all commanding, but I want to fill the immediate needs,” Mr. Difranco said. “I really want to make better systems and more efficient [registration] processes.”
“We have been super fragmented recently,” veteran debater Luke Hu ‘25 said. “The past couple years, we were barely meeting on a regular schedule, but Mr. DiFranco has really come in and been the leadership presence that we needed.”
In past years, it has been very difficult to garner interest in the club from younger members. That is something that Mr. DiFranco is looking to change, as the goal has always been to grow the club as much as possible to one day rival the programs of local powerhouses with massive teams, such as Council Rock North and JR Masterman.
“Before he came to lead our team, the captains were incredibly stressed with almost no support,” Speech Captain Helen Liang ‘25 said. “I’m hopeful our team will be strong with our recent wins and first NSDA quals.”
The program has had promising success in the past couple of years alone, with members of both the speech and debate teams qualifying for the National Speech and Debate Association’s (NSDA) National Tournament for the first time in the school’s history. The leaders hope to build on that success and take the club to even further heights, and Mr. DiFranco is an integral part of this vision.
“I just hope I can support, encourage and make it an enjoyable experience,” Mr. DiFranco said. “I’m servicing the people who are interested in making it a more memorable experience for them.”