Victoria Beard has been the director of forensics at Spring Woods High School in Houston, Texas, for 20 years and has been a dedicated educator in the Spring Branch Independent School District for over 40 years. In 2019, she coached the NSDA National Champion in Congressional Debate – House and has also mentored state champions and top finalists for the Texas Forensic Association, the University Interscholastic League, and The Tournament of Champions. Victoria has consistently produced top finalists at renowned tournaments such as the National Speech and Debate Association’s Nationals, Harvard, Glenbrooks, the Tournament of Champions, the Longhorn Classic, and the Grapevine Classic.

With a bachelor's degree in speech and theatre and a master's degree in theatre, Beard has garnered recognition for her outstanding contributions to education. She received the Jim Moore Memorial Award for Outstanding Educator at Spring Woods High School and the Stars in the Classroom Award, sponsored by the Houston Texans and First Community Credit Union, in 2021. Victoria was named Educator of the Year by the Texas Speech and Communication Association in 2013 and has been selected as Spring Woods’ Teacher of The Year (2013) and as a Spring Branch ISD Teacher of the Year finalist (2013). In 2021, she was honored as CASE (Children’s After School Education) Debates’ Coach of the Year. Victoria was inducted into the Texas Forensic Association’s Hall of Fame in 2022 and served on the TFA executive council for four years. She was also recognized as the Outstanding Educator of the Year for the National Federation of State High School Associations (Sector 6) in 2023. At Spring Woods High School, Victoria serves as the UIL Academic Coordinator and chairs the Fine Arts/Visual Arts Department. She has earned her third NSDA Diamond and is a member of the Space City NSDA Committee. For nine years, Victoria was the senior instructor for Congressional Debate at the Harvard Debate Council Summer Workshops. For five years, she served as one of the caucus leaders for the NSDA Hispanic/Latinx Caucus and has organized and taught speech and debate summer camps for the Spring Branch Initiative, benefiting SBISD high schools, for the past 15 years. This is her second year to serve as the Curriculum Coordinator for Congressional Debate at the University of Houston Honors College Debate Workshop.

Cody Morrow is currently one of the assistant debate coaches at the St. Mark’s School of Texas, he has been an assistant there since the fall of 2021. Cody is also the assistant coach at Colleyville Heritage High School. Over the years Cody has coached for some of the great policy schools in the country, from the Greenhill School, Dallas Jesuit, Coppell HS, New Trier HS in the North Shore of Chicago, Valley HS in Des Moines, and the Georgetown Day School in DC.

Over the last 20+ years students Cody has helped coach, have won almost every national circuit tournament and won top speaker at those same tournaments. He helped coach students in policy at the TOC that achieved top speaker, top seed, over a dozen teams advanced to the elimination rounds, one finalist, and a TOC Champion. Cody has also helped coach numerous TFA state top speakers, dozens and dozens of TFA stateelimination round participants, and 3 TFA state champions. He has also helped coach 3 UIL top speakers, dozens and dozens of UIL state policy elimination round participants, and 2 UIL state champions.

Cody debated for the University of North Texas. He qualified for 4 NDT’s, where he advanced to the elimination rounds 3 times. His junior year Cody and his partner received UNT’s first, first round at large bid to the NDT, that year UNT advanced to the octa finals. He attended three CEDA National tournaments where he advanced to the quarterfinals his sophomore year and was an octa finalist his junior and senior year. Cody was the 4th speaker his junior year at CEDA Nationals and 8th speaker his senior year. Cody advanced to the elimination rounds of every tournament he competed in from the beginning of the spring of his sophomore year for the rest of his college debate career. Cody loves debate and enjoys working with students who are curious, interested in learning, enjoy having fun, and those who want to become better debaters/students. He looks forward to working with all our policy students in any way that can benefit them.

Brian Darby serves as the director of Speech and Debate for Clear Creek High School in League City, TX. A graduate of Deer Park High School, Brian developed his skills as a debater before continuing his debate journey on scholarship at San Jacinto College. During his time at San Jacinto College, he achieved notable success, winning the Silver Award for Parliamentary Debate and the Bronze Award for Policy Debate in 2008.

Subsequently, Brian transferred to Texas State University, where he pursued a major in communication studies and a minor in mass communication while continuing his involvement in debate. Throughout his competitive career, he participated in a variety of debate events, including Policy Debate, Congressional Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and Parliamentary Debate.

As a coach, Brian coached students to various accomplishments for the major organizations functioning in Texas (UIL, NSDA, TFA). His main area of success has been speech and interp including finalists at 2015 NSDA Duo (4th place) 2024 NSDA Poetry (5th Place), 2015 UIL State Poetry (2nd Place), 2015 TFA OO, (4th Place), 2025 TFA Poetry (champion).