Ridge High School Teacher, Coach Receives National Honors

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — David Yastremski, an English Language Arts teacher and speech and debate coach at Ridge High School, was recently recognized by two national organizations for his work with speech and debate education.

Yastremski has been selected to receive a 2024 National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) Citation for his outstanding contributions to high school activity programs.

Yastremski is one of 13 leaders in high school athletic and activity programs across the country who will be honored at the NFHS Summer Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts this June. He is the recipient of the NFHS Citation for Speech/Debate/Theatre.

Yastremski also achieved his fifth diamond award for coaching excellence with the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA).

The NSDA provides diamond awards based on a coach's longevity along with their students’ participation and success. A coach becomes eligible for a fifth diamond with a minimum of 25 years of service, as well as a sustained and successful record of student participation in speech and debate activities. He will be recognized at the NSDA National Championships in Des Moines, IA in June.

Yastremski has been teaching English Language Arts at Ridge High School since 1996. He is also the director of speech and debate, or forensics, at the school. He created the Ridge Forensics team in 1998 with five students, and since then, the team has grown to achieve at the state and national levels, including 21 consecutive state championship team titles and 15 national champion student titles.

Yastremski is a National Board Certified Teacher (NBCT). He currently serves as the chair of the New Jersey District of the NSDA, vice-president of the Newark Catholic Forensic League, and treasurer of the Somerset County Education Association. He is currently pursuing his doctorate at Rockhurst University in Kansas City, Missouri.

In addition to his coaching and teaching roles, Yastremski has also served on various advisory panels for the National Communication Association, the New Jersey Department of Education, the New Jersey Education Association, the Education Testing Service, and the NSDA. He recently co-authored a chapter for The Routledge Handbook of Public Speaking Research and Theory on public speaking in the K-12 curriculum.

Yastremski has received several awards and recognitions for his excellence in teaching and coaching. In 2022, he was awarded a regional NFHS Outstanding Educator in Speech, Debate, and Theater Award. In 2011, he was awarded the Marcella E. Oberle Award for Outstanding Teaching in Grades K-12 by the National Communication Association.

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