2022-2023 BERNABEI SPIRIT AWARDS
Who was John Bernabei? John
coached the North Hollywood Speech and Debate Team until his death on March 5,
2007. John was not a faculty member; he
initially got involved in league competitions as a volunteer judge through the
Optimist Club, a community service organization. John and his purple Optimist jacket became a
familiar sight at tournaments. He
developed a passion for forensics, and he wanted to do more than judge. John was also a professional actor, and he
knew he could put his theatre skills to use in coaching a team. John talked the North Hollywood HS
administration into letting him start a team there, and once he started
coaching, there was no turning back.
We
TCFL coaches loved it when John judged because his carefully penned ballots
contained a wealth of advice kids could put into immediate practice. And he was
great at recruiting quality judges. When
our league hosted States at CSUN in 2005, John recruited judges from both
Screen Actors Guild and Alcoholics
Anonymous for our IE qualifier. You
couldn’t really tell which was which (and there might have been some
crossover), but they were all conscientious judges who wrote ballots worthy of
awards themselves.
John
loved getting community organizations involved, and would drive great distances
to make sales-pitches for forensics at countless Lions Club dinners and the
like. John’s devotion to forensics may
well have compromised his health, but you could not keep him away. He showed up to every tournament whether on
his two feet or in a wheelchair, and his team members
were fiercely devoted to him. John loved
to tell jokes, and he had a million stories stemming from his days as an actor
hitting the boards in search of the role that would surely make him a
star. Just days before he passed away
during open heart surgery, he called Jerome and Kathy and railed for the better
part of an hour about his concerns that speed-debate was becoming the norm in
Lincoln-Douglas.
At
his premature passing, John was in his coaching prime—he had many more
champions to groom. His death was a loss
to our league and to our profession. We
all miss him, but his great friend, Valencia coach Joe Marcucilli
probably misses him most of all. Joe was always an enthusiastic audience for
John’s jokes; you’d hear his guffaws across the tab room and just know that
John had sprung a new one on Joe. To
honor John’s memory, we award those league competitors who show unflagging
spirit to the sport of forensics. These
students enter every league open
tournament, win or lose, sharpening and expanding their skills, demonstrating that regardless of outcome, Speech and Debate is
a valuable, life-changing experience.
This year’s winners are:
Arroyo Grande HS
Brynn Termeer
Burbank HS
Mihika Chechi