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Five Star Speech & Debate
2025 Summer Camp Opportunities
2025 Summer camp options
Public Forum at Wake Forest University
Public Forum at Wake Forest University
Public Forum at Wake Forest University
For students entering high school in the 2025-26 school year, Five Star founder Zac Grant will lead Public Forum sessions at the RKS Debate Workshop at Wake Forest University. Dates for the inaugural session are Sunday, July 13 through July 20. This is a residential on-campus experience designed for passionate 9th-12th grade learners at one of America’s most revered private universities. The camp is governed directly by Wake Forest University and its multiple-time national championship debate program.
The full week of instruction, materials, room & board is just $1,450 – a tremendous bargain for literally the best such experience anywhere. The first 16 students who apply, are accepted, and pay their deposit by the June 5 deadline will be admitted.
More information, the registration link, and Zac’s teaching approach can be found here.
Five Star Charlotte Workshop
Public Forum at Wake Forest University
Public Forum at Wake Forest University
This summer, Five Star is proud to introduce our Charlotte commuter program for novice and intermediate speakers. Under the guidance of Five Star co-founder Steve Combs and Zac Grant, students will gain key insights and master essential skills across the most popular public speaking formats, including Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu, and Public Forum Debate.
Our approach empowers students to unleash their full potential for success at local middle school tournaments and the novice and junior varsity divisions at local high school tournaments, as governed by the North Carolina Association for Scholastic Activities (NCASA) and Tarheel Forensic League (TFL).
Our 2025 Five Star Workshop will run from Sun, July 27 to Sat Aug 2. The fee for the week is $495. Our business manager, Tom Smith, will share further details and accept your registration via email at tomwsmith@hotmail.com.
About Five Star Debate
Our Mission
At Five Star Debate, we provide transformative coaching experiences, customized to elevate each student’s unique strengths. With our exceptional team of seasoned experts and junior associates, we don’t just teach public speaking and debate—we empower students to find their voice, unleash their true potential, and thrive with unshakable confidence in every forum they face.
Zac Grant, Co-Founder
Zac has returned to coaching speech & debate following his corporate career during which he raised $77 million for nonprofit events and charities. Zac believes in putting one’s debate skills to practical use in real life and looks to inspire his students to be their best – just as he benefited from the coaches and colleagues who opened the world to him when he was a student himself.
As a debater, Zac represented the University of Kansas where he won First Place or First Speaker awards at numerous nationally significant tournaments including Harvard, Emory, Northwestern, and the National Invitational (DSR-TKA). At NDT, Zac and colleague Mark Gidley were the #1 overall at-large bid, selected for their body of work throughout the full season (Copeland Award).
As a coach, Zac was Assistant Director of Forensics at UNC Chapel Hill, where he led the program to wins at Kentucky and Wake Forest and served as Executive Director of the National High School Debate Institute. He was selected along with Lenny Gail from Dartmouth to represent the US in the biennial US-Japan Debate Exchange.
Zac’s recent return to debate from corporate life began in 2023 at Myers Park High School in Charlotte, where he coached PF teams to victories at numerous local and regional events, including Charlotte Latin, Districts, TOC Series III (12-0) and elims at NSDA Nationals in Des Moines, where he also served as a final round judge in Extemp Debate. In both 2024 and 2025, Zac coached novice debaters all the way through Districts to NSDA Nationals in Policy/CX.
Dr. Steve Combs, Co-Founder
Dr. Combs is a lifelong learner and educator having served as a professor, department chair, dean, vice president, and chief executive officer for colleges and universities in 6 US States as well as in Japan.
As a member of the Trojan Debate Squad at the University of Southern California, Dr. Combs attended 52 tournaments, taking first place at 19 tournaments and second or third 17 times, including twice
taking Second Place at the National Debate Tournament. He still holds the national intercollegiate record for most career victories (440).
Dr. Combs was a highly successful Director of Debate at
Claremont McKenna College and Occidental College. Dr. Combs has taught at numerous summer forensic institutes, including the University of Redlands, University of Kansas, University of North Carolina, University of California at Los Angeles, Baylor University, University of Arizona, Georgetown University,
and University of Southern California. He also directed summer debate programs at Claremont McKenna College and Stanford University.
Dr. Combs' PhD dissertation examined parallels between the modern decline in civility and insightfulness of public political discourse and tendencies in competitive intercollegiate debate practice that undermine its accessibility to general audiences.
It is alleged that Dr. Combs earned his MA degree at the University of Kansas, where he coached Zac Grant and they paired up to win the Missouri Valley Championship, 6-0.