Hunter Joseph Kendrick is a senior at Danville High School, and he is a four year member, and current co-captain, of the Admiral Forensics team. Hunter’s commitment to speech wasn’t always so great, and after having trouble his freshman year transitioning into competitive speech and debate, Hunter actually seriously contemplated leaving the team to focus on other activities. But, Hunter was encouraged by his coach and mentor Mr. Steve Meadows to stay with the team for at least another year. He did and, after numerous failed ventures into declamation and other events (even interps), Hunter finally settled into an event he enjoyed: Extemporaneous Speaking.

Indeed, it is in extemp where Hunter has had most of his success. Over the years, Hunter has won eight state championships in extemp (over the four “state” tournaments: KYCFL, KESDA, KHSSL, and KYNFL). He has competed on the national level in extemp on numerous occasions – the highlights include two finals placings at the Barkley Forum at Emory University, 3^rd place at the 2007 Catholic Forensic League National Championships, 13^th place in US Extemp at the 2007 National Forensic League National Championships, 2^nd place at the George Mason University “Patriot Games,” and a 3^rd place finish at the Southern Bell Round Robin (invitation-only tournament for the “best” 16 extempers in the country) hosted by the Montgomery Bell Academy in Nashville, TN.

However, Hunter isn’t just a one trick pony. Over the years, Hunter’s appreciation for forensics at large has grown, and he now has a deep appreciation for almost every event (yes, even the interps). Hunter has developed a special fondness for oratory and debate. Throughout his career Hunter has competed in extemp, Declamation, Persuasive Speaking, After-Dinner Speaking, Student Congress, Group Interp, Poetry, Duo Interp, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Broadcasting, and Impromptu.

But some of Hunter’s most fun moments this year have come through coaching. As a senior on the Danville squad, Hunter had the opportunity to coach the younger members of the team. To date Hunter has coached tournament champions, national tournament qualifiers, state semifinalists, and state finalists in extemp, Declamation, Public Forum Debate, Impromptu, and Student Congress. Added to that, Hunter has helped to “coach” (Hunter was pretty much out of his league here and was basically just along for the ride) Duo Interp, Poetry, and Humorous Interpretation.

Hunter credits much of his success in life to forensics. After all, it was his dedication to speech that honed his once lacking work ethic. It was his success in speech that gave him confidence in the rest of his endeavors. And it was the skills he developed in speech – like a greater ability to analyze and express his thoughts – that made Hunter a better overall student.

Steve Meadows has coached the Danville High School team since 1994 and coached for the three years prior at Beechwood High School. He competed for Middlesboro and Warren Central High Schools and briefly for Centre College. He got his first taste of coaching at Middlesboro, where, as a student of KESDA Founder's Award Winner Terri Branson, he wrote many of the team's intros and kept up with the NFL points. He still performs both those tasks, twenty-five years later. Meadows served as Branson's assistant coach for two years while he was a student at Centre College and she was coaching at Jessamine County High School.

In 1991, he founded a new team at Beechwood High during his first year of teaching; his college KTIP committee member was Butch Hamm, then the coach at NKU, who encouraged him greatly to do so. With much advice from Terri Branson and Boone County High's Ginny Kohl, his team grew over time and placed third at KESDA in 1994.

Since 1994, Meadows has coached the team he restarted (after a long hiatus) at Danville. During that time, his team has grown to as many as 55 members in a year, though it is usually around 40. The team has a string of tournament wins to its credit including two CFL National champions, ten other NFL and CFL National finalists, and dozens of breaks at the two nationals. In Kentucky, the team has won the CFL District tournament twelve times, the NFL District tournament six times, KHSSL State three times, and in 2008 was the first Kentucky team to ever win all four titles in the same year with its first win at KESDA.

In addition to the many friends he has made, both coaches and students, over the years, Meadows is most proud of his professional activities in speech. He has served as the Kentucky District NFL Chair eleven times and hopes to move on to the NFL Executive Council in their next election cycle. He received the National Federation of High Schools' award for Speech/Debate/Theatre teachers in 2002 for both Kentucky and the eight-state region surrounding it. He has served as one of four high school teachers nationwide who writes questions for the PRAXIS exam for Speech Communications since 2006. His newest project is an attempt to organize the state's speech teachers and coaches into a professional organization much like KMEA or KCTE.

When chosen as his school's Teacher of the Year last year, Meadows wrote, "Teachers have a calling to get kids into the air armed (winged?) with knowledge and experience and confidence. My job is to teach them how to say anything they want to effectively and to believe they have words worth saying. I’m glad for the chance. "