Star debater and varsity running back Evan Grosch has the world at his feet. Now a senior, Grosch has offers to attend nine universities across the country, not to mention a laundry list of accolades that would make your head spin. So how did it all start? Freshmen debate class.

“I needed a speech credit,” Grosch said. “But it was like a divine intervention.”

Debate and public speaking teacher Dawn Azbill was surprised at how well Grosch took to debating.

“I never thought he would be as interested as he is,” Azbill said.

What started as a graduation requirement became a passion for Grosch.

“I like competing intellectually with others and I like to question common knowledge,” Grosch said.

Since then, the president of debate has won countless debate matches and competed in several larger debate conferences. He won at the UT National Institute of Forensics, and was the 1^st alternate to Boys’ Nation out of 923 competitors and won the top scholarship.

“My best accomplishment was winning at UTIF nationals because it was a nationally ranked event,” Grosch said.

If you ask him how he turned out to be such a great debater, he’d give most of the credit to his classmates.

“We forge different opinions and they challenge my ideas,” Grosch said.

And according to Azbill, he challenges them all back.

“We’ve always been pretty traditional in our style of debate,” Azbill said. “Because of him we have to use more progressive styles of debate. He has forced us to reevaluate those styles.”

Grosch’s passion for debate has carried over into his involvement within the community. As an officer of the Teen Court, Grosch negotiates sentencing for teens convicted of crimes. Teen Court is a program in Williamson County that allows teens to learn about the justice system by being involved in real court cases.

“It solidified my career path as a defense attorney,” Grosch said.

Another huge aspect of Grosch’s life is football. He has played since he was eight years old and has played on the varsity team since his sophomore year.

“A lot of my best friends came out of football because when you endure long, grueling practices you form a bond,” Grosch said.

Even though he isn’t going to play in college, his time on the team is going to benefit him on his college forensics team.

“Debate and football correlate in work ethic,” Grosch said.

Now, Grosch is looking ahead to deciding which university he will attend out of his top five: Pepperdine University, Missouri State, The University of Mississippi, The University of Texas and New York University. After college, he is looking forward to a career as a defense attorney and possibly a politician.

“If he puts a third of the effort of what he’s put into the speech debate team, he will be successful in whatever he does,” Azbill said.