Walter Cotter Classic Tournament
In the 2023-2024 season, Lassiter’s first-ever in-person school-hosted invitational was named for former coach Walter Cotter.
Dr. Cotter served as the school’s Speech and Debate coach from 2010-2020. In 2014, he received the GFCA Speech Coach of the Year award. In that same year, he brought to Lassiter its first sweepstakes award earning 3rd Place in Speech Sweepstakes. Throughout his tenure at Lassiter, Dr. Cotter helped bring Lassiter four other sweepstakes awards. More specifically, he coached a total of seven State Championships in a variety of events including Lincoln Douglas Debate (2017), Program of Oral Interpretation (2017, 2020), Informative (2019), Impromptu (2015), Oratory (2015), and Student Congress (2019).
In 2020, Dr. Cotter was inducted into the GFCA Hall of Fame, which recognized his commitment to Speech and Debate not only at Lassiter but in the larger community. One nominator noted how students from Lassiter, following Dr. Cotter’s instruction, assisted struggling debaters from other schools. As a judge around the state, Dr. Cotter is known for encouraging students to think better, speak better, and just be better.
Dr. Cotter left a lasting impact, ensuring that upon his retirement, the team would be in the hands of Coach Christina Cazzola in 2020 and then later helping to recruit and bring Coach Jonathan Waters to Lassiter in 2022. Dr. Cotter was joined by over a dozen alumni who returned to Lassiter to congratulate him on the tournament renaming.
Below is a short video from the awards ceremony celebrating Dr. Walter Cotter.