Hometown Hero: Coach David Long

The SLHS Speech and Debate team has two trophy cases filled with awards thanks to Coach David Long's expertise in the art of oratory and dramatic presentation. 

Within the 20 years of coaching the team, Long’s team has created a legacy and reputation for excellence in debate and speech, the combination of which is called forensic debating. 

Forensic debate really kicks the whole experience up a notch to a display what might be equivalent to an academic three-ring circus of oratory genius and dramatic performance. Students compete individually or in small teams in one of three categories.

“It’s not just debate,” said Long. “Add public speaking, interpretation of literature, which is the forensics side. You forget you are in a classroom.  Students create an environment through pantomime, focal points and effectively presenting or dramatizing a story.”

Whereas most people are familiar with traditional debate formats, including the Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, Congressional and Parliamentary, forensic debating adds a bit of the theater in the declamation, original oratory and dramatic or humorous interpretations of a play or literary scene.

“We are one of the few schools that does forensics,” said Long. “A few teams in the Lehigh Valley compete in the traditional four-panel debate team format but, Notre Dame Green Pond and Southern Lehigh are the only to compete in the Forensic League.”

Long started the team in the fall of 1992 after being hired to teach mathematics and physics. He brought with him a love of debating that was cultivated at J.P. Makasky H.S. in Lancaster, where he competed as a young man.

In 2010, Long was inducted into the Pennsylvania High School Speech League Hall of Fame as a Forensic Debate Coach. In the 20 years of his coaching, he has guided the team to winning three state championships, a number of state challenges and national qualifiers.

The team competes in the Pennsylvania High School Speech League (PHSSL), Allentown Diocese Forensic League (ADFL), National Catholic Forensics League (NCFL) and National Forensics Leagues (NFL).

Southern Lehigh won the Cumulative Sweepstakes for the best team in the ADFL 11 years in a row.  All the trophies in their two cases are for team awards. “I let individuals keep their own trophies,” said Long. 

This past weekend, the team participated in the ADFL Tournament at North Schuylkill High School.

Long said “the tournament went very well” and was a National Forensic League District Qualifying event. The team has qualified for the past eight years and won a national award in 2009.

Even though Southern Lehigh just finished its regular season, which runs from September through February, its reputation for excellence has landed the team extra rounds in several invitational tournaments.

Beyond its regular season, the team has been invited to some of the most prestigious institutions - including Yale, Princeton, and Harvard -- to compete in verbal battle with some of the best high school debaters on the East Coast.

Southern Lehigh will host the Spartan Invitational on April 28.