Danielle Lopez is the head of the speech and debate team, and many people do not realize how much she actually does for the speech and debate team and the school as a whole.  

Lopez coaches the speech and debate team with the help of  Annavey Waitman and Nicholas Serve. However, Lopez plans all of the tournaments, along with the Delta home tournament. 

Currently, Lopez is fighting other schools’ coaches because of a new policy started at a tournament earlier this year, where, instead of doing actual sweepstakes points the traditional way, they divide the sweepstakes points by the number of kids competing. Lopez is fighting against this as it severely affects the Delta speech and debate team, which has some of the most kids in the state. 

If you were wondering how a math teacher became the speech and debate coach Lopez has a story that has you covered ”When I first got hired, the principal made me think that in order to get the job as a math teacher, I had to coach the speech and debate team. Plus, my son was on the team, so they figured it made sense. However, I continued after they said I did not have to coach anymore because of the kids,” Lopez said.