She would later learn the impact from the SUV caused her torso to shatter like a windshield; she was left with more than 20 fractures across her pelvis: a broken right sacrum, cracks in her pubic bone and multiple fractures of her acetabulum. She also had a broken fibula and a torn medial collateral ligament. In shock and shaking uncontrollably, she was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, a speedy trip that ignited an excruciatingly slow recovery. She started at a trauma center, then moved to a rehabilitation center, then endured months of intensive occupational and physical therapy from home. 

As the spring turned into summer, the physical pain subsided but it was replaced by a searing emotional pain. She missed the rest of the school year at Ransom Everglades, including major end-of-year speech and debate tournaments. The outpouring of love, support and kindness she felt from speech and debate students and families only amplified her feelings of loss and despondency: she feared a future without her passion.
 
“For me, speech and debate is the perfect outlet for everything I believe in,” Hamm said. “I believe students need a voice. I have always believed students need to be heard … I don’t care if they win in speech and debate. I care about the confidence they gain in performing, the confidence they gain through the struggle ... They find a different way of looking at the world.” 

Her passion for that process drove the 12-plus-hour workdays that put her in the wrong place at the wrong time. It also drove her determination to get back to what always has been precisely the right place for her: The classroom. When the sun dawned on a new school year last August, Hamm was, indeed, back on campus, teaching two speech and debate courses and leading the school’s competitive team. Though less nimble, still afflicted by residual pain and stiffness, and extra cautious as she resumed her daily walks to and from school, she was brimming with enthusiasm. “When I came back, I was determined to be as creative as the kids were willing to be,” she said. “I was going to push them to try different things … I was so happy to have the opportunity to be creative again.” 

Her students have tapped into that creativity in ways that have electrified the entire program. Claudia Alejandra Colina-Güere ’25 and Lucas Sanchez ’27 assembled and refined a brilliant Duo Interpretation of Walkout by Edward James Olmos, which chronicles the peaceful efforts of Chicano students to bring change to the school system in Los Angeles. Colina-Güere and Sanchez earned first place last fall at the 2024 Yale Invitational in New Haven, Conn., and the 41st Annual Florida Blue Key Speech and Debate Tournament in Gainesville, and they also won first place in January at the Sunvite Tournament in Fort Lauderdale.  
“The first time I saw Coach Hamm after her accident was in August,” Sanchez said. “Within minutes of catching up about our summers, she shifted the conversation to my goals for the upcoming speech and debate season and how we could work together to achieve them. That’s just who she is – deeply invested in her students, equipping them with the tools to share their messages with thousands of students and teachers across the nation.

“When it came to our Duo, Coach Hamm always reminded us that we had an important message to share,” Sanchez added. “I speak for Claudia and myself when I say this piece has transformed us – not only through the performance itself but through the dedication we, as partners, and Coach Hamm have poured into ensuring this message is heard.” 

Added Colina-Güere: “She’s taught us to dig deeper and find the stories that represent us, our heritage, and to use our voice as a means to inspire – not to gain trophies.”

Miranda Silva ’26 and Daniela Garcia ’26 also put together a masterful Duo Intepretation with Hamm’s guidance, theirs on In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez, a historical fiction novel on three female revolutionary protestors in the Dominican Republic who are killed by the dictator. Silva and Garcia won first place in Duo Interpretation at the Jan. 17-19 Cavalier Invitational in Durham, N.C., and have posted other top finishes. Meanwhile, many other team members at RE have earned strong placements under Hamm and assistant coach Justinmar Perez.  

Hamm all but recoils from recitations of her students’ achievements because awards and plaques don’t begin to capture what she seeks – and has gained – from the speech and debate stage. She grew up in Minnesota in the ’60s, working on stage sets, costumes, tech and lights, and dreaming of the opportunity to perform. In eighth grade, she made the “declamation” team at her school, her first foray into speech, and she continued that pursuit through high school. Life got hard fast when she went to college; the child of a single mother, Hamm went from school to school seeking the best scholarships and financials aid deals until she completed a degree in theatre from St. Cloud State (Minn.) University. That led to a teaching job at a Catholic school in Dubuque, Iowa, where she directed musicals and was asked to lead the speech and debate team. At the time, she knew nothing about debate, but agreed to take it on.  

She recalls sitting at her kitchen table with her husband, two small children and new speech and debate students, operating on the “let’s learn together” philosophy. Within a couple years, one of her students would win a state championship, and Hamm would begin a rise in coaching that would take her to jobs in Iowa, New York, Nebraska, throughout Europe, South Korea and, finally, Miami in 2015. She produced student champions and taught coaches. She was so respected, in January 2024 at the Barkley Forum at Emory University in Atlanta, she was inducted into the prestigious national Golden Key Society for excellence in coaching. Fellow coaches lauded her for professionalism, character, leadership and respect for the forensics community – hallmarks of her decades in the field.
 
The award reaffirmed her belief in the life-changing opportunities offered by speech and debate. She wants the pursuit to transform her current students’ lives like it transformed hers back when she first experienced the incalculable power of precisely aimed words, and as she climbed back from last spring’s accident. She remembers her exploration of the discipline as a young coach when she first dived enthusiastically in. 

“This,” she recalled thinking, “was the coolest thing ever.” 

Some 40 years, multiple jobs, countless awards – and one horrific accident – later, she still feels the same way. And for that, her students are eternally grateful.