On March 20, head debate coach Toni Heimes was awarded the Janet Rose Nebraska Speech, Communication, Theatre Association Coaching Award for the  2021-2022 debate season. 

“I was shocked that we won as a team and I was still shocked when I won the award,” Heimes said. “I just hope we can continue that same sort of success along with keeping our standards of equity and inclusion. The success is great but I want to make sure we maintain everything we have created as a team.”

Heimes was presented with the award during the State Debate Award Ceremony where the Lincoln Southwest team became the State Champion. She was presented with the award by her mentor, Janet Rose. 

“I’ve known her for many years, she was friends with my dad when they were both speech coaches,” coach Toni Heimes said. “She judged me in high school, and when I became a debate coach she became a mentor to me. She has always been someone who has taught me the ways of coaching. I was so excited that she got to be there to present it to me.” 

The Janet Rose NSCTA Coaching Award is given to the best Nebraska coach of the year.

“I was very excited for her, especially because she put in a lot of work,” sophomore Jack Watermolen said. “She puts in work to manage tournaments and even more work to make sure our cases and arguments are as good as they can be. Without her we wouldn’t have the team coordination we did have, without her we wouldn’t really have a team. She was instrumental in our success this year.”

Heimes will continue to coach junior Ellie Weeks and sophomore Jack Anderson to Nationals taking place from June 11-18.