Highland High School, Salt Lake City

"To me, it legitimizes what we do."

When kids talk about jumping to another school, sometimes they hope to throw touchdown passes for a winning football program or toss strikes for a title-bound baseball team.

But for decades, teens have flocked to Highland High for another reason: debate.

The debate community - inside and outside of Utah - knows about Highland, but the public is largely unaware of the east Salt Lake City school's powerful program. That anonymity makes the Huntsman Award - given to the man who has steered the program for 23 years - even more sweet.

"To me, it legitimizes what we do," Dave Smith says. "I look at it almost as a victory for speech arts."

Smith isn't the only one who feels like the award means something for teachers who run worthy programs but receive little recognition.

"He's kind of like the symbolic person for these small programs that go unnoticed," says Highland High Principal Paul Schulte.

So how famous is Smith in debate circles?

Schulte knew about him when he worked in Kansas. "His ability to mold these kids is outstanding," Schulte says.

For Smith, it hasn't always been easy. He constantly raises money to send kids to tournaments from California to North Carolina.

He has also had to keep the program going through tragedy. In 2000, two students died and another suffered brain damage in a crash while they were returning to Utah after a California competition.

Age has slowed the 63-year-old Smith a bit recently. He does not seek out kids the way he once did. But teaching teens to think critically, shelve their own emotions and make sound arguments has kept him around. It just might keep him mentoring debate students past age 65.

"If I'm still having fun," he says. "I'll stick around."

- Jacob Santini