Mooney coach earns her 6th diamond

The honor is based on student performance and years of longevity as a coach.

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The National Forensic League has recognized the long-term accomplishments of Cardinal Mooney High School’s forensics coach.

Diane Mastro-Nard has earned a sixth diamond in recognition of a professional career that combines excellence and longevity.

A minimum of 30 years’ coaching in the National Forensic League and teaching students who have earned a minimum of 160,000 credit points are required for this ultimate honor. In 83 years as America’s largest Speech Honorary Society, the National Forensic League has awarded only 35 sixth diamonds.

NFL member coaches also accumulate points based on the performance of their students at the rate of one-tenth of their students’ points. Mastro-Nard has earned 16,509 points based on her students’ accumulation of more than 160,000 points in speech and debate.

On attaining a total of 1,500 points, coaches are entitled to wear a diamond-set NFL key or pin. Additional diamonds accrue at 3,000, 6,000, 10,000 and each 3,000 points thereafter. The minimum time for each diamond is five years as an NFL member coach.

The National Forensic League is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational honor society founded in 1925 by Bruno E. Jacob. Its purpose is to encourage and motivate high school students to participate in and become proficient in the forensic arts: debate, public speaking and interpretation.

Jacob selected the diamond as an award for coaches because its beauty symbolizes brilliance and its hardness symbolizes devotion to duty.

Since its founding, NFL has enrolled more than 1,307,458 members in all 50 states, U.S. possessions and several foreign countries. More than 93,000 high school students and over 6,500 high school teachers are active members.