Darin Maier, longtime director of the renowned speech and debate program at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, was inducted into the Gold Key Society at Emory University’s Barkley Forum for High Schools.
Induction into Gold Key is the most prestigious accomplishment for coaches at Emory’s elite forum for high school debate. Existing Gold Key members nominate and vote on five new members each year. Maier is just the fourth coach from Mississippi to receive the honor.
“As honored as I am to receive this award, it really pales in comparison to the joy that assistant coach Jharick Shields and I get from watching these kids develop their talents,” Maier says. “Trophies and awards come and go, but the skills to advocate and think critically go beyond our students’ high school years. That’s the biggest part of why we do what we do.”
Under Maier’s leadership, St. Andrew’s speech and debate students have argued their way to rankings statewide and nationally. St. Andrew’s is a six-time winner of the Magnolia Forensic League District Overall Sweepstakes, which recognizes the team with the best overall performance at the district qualifier for NSDA Nationals. The school has produced national champions at the NSDA National Tournament (2018) and the Kentucky Tournament of Champions (2019), as well as multiple final-round contestants at national tournaments.
“Coaching a champion at a national tournament is an honor, but it’s not the definition of success for our program,” Maier says. “When I think of success stories, I think of how speech and debate gives students a venue for ideas that are important to them.”
“The public speaking skills I’ve learned have helped me in lobbying for bills and meeting with state representatives at our Capitol,” says Melissa Khadivi, debate captain on the current St. Andrew’s team. “Speech and debate has given me the confidence to express myself without reserve.”
The lessons learned through Maier’s speech and debate program benefit students long after graduation. Land Jones, an attorney with Lavin Rindner Duffield, LLC in Maryland, uses the skills he built through St. Andrew’s speech and debate program every day.
“Speech and debate empowered me to feel comfortable speaking up and voicing my opinion in college at the University of Virginia, in law school, and before trial and appellate judges in my legal practice today,” Jones, a 2002 St. Andrew’s graduate, says. “It also instilled in me a responsibility as a citizen to research, understand, and articulate my views on social and legal issues and gave me the skills and confidence to do that.”
“I am an introvert. I was afraid to speak when I started speech and debate, and when I did speak, I was unable to convey what I wanted to say effectively,” says Khalil Jackson, a software developer and 2019 St. Andrew’s graduate. “With Mr. Maier’s coaching, I developed skills in these areas I’d struggled in. I have since been the lead character in a play, given a televised speech at the Mississippi State Capitol, and voiced a radio commercial. My college used audio from my application in an NPR segment, and I ran a town hall in South Mississippi. Those are just some of the things I’ve achieved that emphasize the importance of good programs led by great coaches.”
Maier has led the St. Andrew’s speech and debate program since 2010. More and more, he sees a pressing need for today’s students to embrace not only the skills taught, but also the character lessons learned, through speech and debate.
“People seem to be losing our ability to disagree without taking things personally, be it in sports, politics, or entertainment,” Maier says. “We also seem to be losing our ability to find good evidence and analyze that evidence objectively to find the truth. Speech and debate teaches both those skills. Students who compete in speech and debate learn how to disagree without being disagreeable, which is becoming a lost art in our world.”
Previous Gold Key Society inductees from Mississippi include Randy Patterson, (2011) also representing St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Scott Waldrop (2018) of Hattiesburg High School, and Shane Cole (2025) of Oak Grove High School.
