Meet our Staff

Our leadership staff is made up of championship level coaches who are still very active in the community.

Mike Bietz
Managing Editor
B.A., University of Minnesota;
Managing Director, Victory Briefs, LLC
Director of Debate at Harvard-Westlake School (CA)
Mike is the Director of Debate at the Harvard-Westlake Upper School in California. Previously, he coached at Edina High School in Minnesota, where he founded that program’s Lincoln-Douglas squad. Mike is the only person in the history of Lincoln-Douglas debate to coach debaters to win both Nationals and the TOC in the same year. His students also made history by becoming the only debaters to close out the Glenbrooks. The following year, his debaters did it again (with a 37-1 total ballot count). No other school has ever closed out the Glenbrooks (and, accordingly, none have done it twice). Beyond the Glenbrooks, Mike has coached close-outs at the Blake, Hopkins Royal Cup, the Blake School’s Edie Holiday Tournament, the Valley Mid-America Cup, the Iowa Caucus, and the Greenhill Fall Classic. His students have also won Apple Valley and competed in the final round at the Harvard National Invitational, and the Omaha Westside Warrior Invitational. Beyond winning tournaments, Mike’s Edina team regularily cleared six, seven, or eight debaters at the same TOC-qualifiying competitions. His students have also performed very strongly on their local circuits. Mike is a diamond coach in the National Forensic League and has coached back-to-back Minnesota LD state champions. He has won numerous coaching awards, including 2003 Minnesota Coach of the Year, and currently serves on the TOC Advisory Committee. Mike also has a strong history in policy debate. Originally a policy debater himself, Mike moved to LD when he decided he wanted to play varsity football at Eagan High School. Nonetheless, the complexities of policy debate motivated Mike to become the policy coach for a year at Apple Valley High School. His team qualified for the TOC, placed in the top 10 at NFL Nationals, and won the Minnesota State Tournament.

Tim Case
LD Editor
B.A., Florida Atlantic University, Wilkes Honors College
Director of Forensics, Presentation High School (CA)
Tim is the Director of Forensics at Presentation High School in San Jose, CA. He has coached an NFL National Champion in LD and a two time NCFL National Champion. Tim has also coached champions of Emory University's Barkley Forum for High Schools, the University of Kentucky's Ohio Valley Invitational, the Lexington Round Robin, and the Florida Forensic League's State Championship; as well as a Blake Round Robin, Harvard, Lexington, and Manchester semi-finalist. His students have also cleared to bid rounds at Wake Forest, Yale, Blue Key, Blake, Apple Valley, and the Glenbrooks, as well Octos at the TOC.

Glenn Prince
PF Editor
B.A., University of South Carolina; M.A., Western Kentucky University;
Assistant Director of Forensics at Rice University (TX)
The 2004 College Parliamentary Debate National Champion, Glenn has compiled an exceptional coaching record in collegiate debate. Glenn coached the College Parliamentary Debate National Champion in 2005, the top speaker in 2006, and the tournament sweepstakes champions at Nationals in 2007 and 2008. Formerly the Director of Debate at Western Kentucky University, Glenn is now Assistant Director of Forensics at Rice University. He has served on the faculties of a variety of summer debate institutes including VBI Session I, Northwestern, World Debate Institute, Western Kentucky, and Arkansas State.

Dr. Mike Baxter Kauf
CX Editor
B.A., Macalester College; PhD. SUNY Buffalo;
Director of Debate, Macalester College (MN);
Assistant Debate Coach, South St. Paul High School (MN)
Dr. Baxter-Kauf currently coaches college debate at Macalester College, and high school at Saint Paul Central. He has coached collegiate teams to qualify for the NDT and advance to elimination rounds at CEDA Nationals. He previously worked at The Blake School in Minneapolis and Roseville Area High School, qualifying teams to the Tournament of Champions as well as advancing teams to the elimination rounds of the Minnesota State Tournament, St. Mark’s, the Glenbrooks, and NFL Nationals. He received the Top Judge award from Georgetown University in 2005, the Neil Butt Judging Award from West Virginia University in 2006, and is the 2007 CEDA East Region Critic of the Year. After graduating from Macalester College in St. Paul in 2002, he attended graduate school at the State University of New York at Buffalo, from which he received his Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in February, 2007.