BLACKFOOT — When first-year English teacher Taylor Clapp was offered her position she was told part of the job would include her taking on the head coaching duties for Blackfoot High School’s Speech and Debate Team.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect when I came into this,” Clapp said, of coaching the speech and debate team.

She realized quickly that Blackfoot has a legacy of performing well in speech and debate, including appearing at a national tournament in 57 of the past 100 years. Her first season not only maintained Blackfoot’s legacy, but she managed to set at least one new mark for the program.

“I am really proud of the Academic All Americans we have on this team this year,” Clapp said. “In its history, the most Blackfoot (Speech and Debate Team) has had is four, and we had five this year.”

To be specific, that is Academic All American recognition awarded by the National Speech & Debate Association.

Clapp’s team went well above what might be expected from a coach in her first year. Speech and debate teams in Idaho are allowed to compete in up to 10 invitational tournaments each school year. Many schools will also host at least one. Blackfoot hosted three, two during the regular competition season and it hosted the NSDA national qualifying tournament as well.

“There were over 500 entries and over 100 judges,” Clapp said of the NSDA tournament. “Our team had to set up and help run the tournament, compete and we had to clean up afterwards.”

They spent 13 to 14 hours a day working and competing in the event to then have to clean up the space so it was ready for school use again the following week. Oh, and that week was finals week by the way.

The Broncos, while doing all that work during the tournament, also managed to make some waves.

“NSDA nationals is in June, and we are taking six to Virginia,” Clapp said. “Some are in speech and some in debate.”

With that many students, Clapp said it would typically be senior and junior heavy. But in Blackfoot’s case, two are seniors, one is a junior, two are sophomores and one is a freshman. She also had two other team members qualify for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions. But with the budget only allowing for one trip, those two team members felt the greater number who qualified for NSDA should make the trip.

Blackfoot also did well during district and state tournaments. Clapp said six of her 13 team members qualified for state and of those six, five took home a medal.

“I am really proud of my team,” she said. “The students on the team surprised me with just how smart they are. I have one who can memorize a 10-minute speech overnight.”

Clapp moved to Blackfoot from Massachusetts to be near family. She was previously working as strategy consultant helping companies with roll-out strategies for releasing new products or entering new markets.

She has a bachelor’s in business administration with a minor in philosophy, a masters in international business and a masters in international marketing. She also competed in speech and debate during high school and college, even making it to national college tournaments.

When she first came to Blackfoot, Clapp worked with minors with special needs. She even wrote a book on coping strategies, titled “C is for Coping,” based on her experience with those minors.

“Then someone suggested I should be a teacher,” Clapp said. “I looked into it and it seemed similar to what I was doing, only on a larger scale, so I applied.”

Among the several things she expressed appreciation for during her first year as a teacher, is the way others reached out to help her and make her feel welcomed.

“The other (speech and debate) coaches were so supportive,” Clapp said. “They called even before I had signed my contract.”

She said those coaches from other teams in the region sent her materials to help her formulate lesson plans and assignments. Former speech and debate coaches from Blackfoot also reached out to her to offer assistance as well.

Clapp said her speech and debate classroom at Blackfoot High School gave her an immediate and continuing perspective on how historic the program is for the school.

“There has to be hundreds of (speech and debate) trophies in my room from recent years all the way back to the 1950s,” she said. “I’m pretty sure there are some from earlier than that.”