Ernie is a political science and philosophy major at Drake University. As a debater, he won the Valley Mid-America Cup and the Iowa Caucus, with finals and semifinal appearances in the Skyway Round Robin, Omaha Westside, Dowling Paradigm, Apple Valley, and Wake Forest among others. He was 5th speaker and an outround participant at the 2005 TOC. As a coach at Valley the past three years, he has qualified eight students to NFL nationals, eight students to TOC, and coached the winner of the state champion every year. He has coached students to semifinals or better at Greenhill, Apple Valley, and Berkeley, where he had a sophomore reach finals. This year, Valley is the only school to have two fully-qualified sophomores at the TOC. He has coached the last two Omaha Westside champions,  a finalist at the Dowling Paradigm three years in a row, and students to octofinals or better at Emory, Blake, and St. Marks. Last summer, his student placed fourth at NFL nationals. This will be Ernie’s fourth year teaching summer institute and second at NDF.