Welcome back to another season of speech and debate! As the school year returns, so does your weekly coach newsletter full of resources and community info from your friends at the NSDA.
The new membership cycle started August 1! If you haven't yet renewed your annual school membership, be sure to do so by the end of September to continue to receive this newsletter. Questions about speech and debate? Email us at info@speechanddebate.org or call us at (920) 748-6206. We're here to help!
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New Resources for Beginner Coaches
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Are you a new coach? Or know a newer coach who needs help? These resources, crafted by coaches, for coaches, teach the basics of team administration and coaching. All materials are included with your school's NSDA membership.
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Intro to Coaching Speech and Debate: This course introduces typical coaching responsibilities, team structures, and examples of what a typical day, weekend, and year looks like for coaches.
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Setting and Achieving Your Coaching Goals: This course describes how to set priorities and achievable goals and where to find the resources to help you succeed.
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Writing a Team Handbook: This resource takes you through the components of a comprehensive team handbook and provides an editable template to use to make your own.
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Choosing Competition Events: This resource guides students and coaches in choosing their preferred competition events. It describes each of the NSDA's 24 unique events and their approach to topics, preparation, and performance, and offers recommendations. It provides a broad overview of speech and debate events.
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Running Practices: This course teaches coaches how to run effective and purposeful practices, including how to choose a suitable practice space, how to create a practice schedule that works for your team, and common practice activities and formats.
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Intro to Tournaments: This course explains what to expect at a speech and debate tournament. It introduces online invitations and registrations, schedules, identifying where students will compete, and more.
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Building a Healthy Team Culture: This course explores how to identify and articulate your team’s values and techniques you can use to sustain a healthy culture.
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Managing a Team Budget: This course covers how speech and debate team budgets typically work and what coaches should understand before building a budget for their program. It describes how to identify financial and non-financial resources, estimate a season’s budget, request additional funding, and maintain a sustainable budget.
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$5,000 Team Grant—Apply by October 1
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Keith West dedicated his life to coaching and teaching youth in the ways of argumentation and debate. To honor his life and legacy, his family and friends have established the Keith West Memorial School Grant to provide one $5,000 grant, two $2,500 grants, and five $1,000 grants to teams who have strong potential but a significant lack of financial resources.
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Access September Resources
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We share new resources monthly to help teams practice events or prepare for changing debate topics. All NSDA materials are included with your school membership; any coach or student on your roster can access them via our topics page.
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District Qualifier Changes for 2026-2027
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District levels determine the number of qualifiers a district can send to the National Tournament in main events. In previous years, districts achieved their level based on:
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New individual student memberships as a district in the previous school year.
- New degrees from schools with paid membership during the previous school year.
- Charter chapters with paid membership in the previous school year.
- Chapters of any type with paid membership in the previous school year.
In an effort to simplify structures, beginning this school year, district levels are based ONLY on the number of NSDA member schools in a district. There are no participation limits based on the size of the school. All active member schools may enter up to four entries per event, as well as two in the Senate and ten in the House.
Your district's level for the year is available on your district page, accessible via your NSDA account. This video shows how to find it! More information about levels is available beginning on page 88 of the Unified Manual. This does not impact middle school programs.
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Final round videos from the 2026 National Tournament are releasing online on a rolling basis. With the new flat fee membership model, all member schools have access to all final round videos! Sort the resource table by date to see the latest rounds added, or peruse rounds of your choosing from the archives.
Final rounds are a great resource to get students excited about events, or to analyze as a practice tool. Our lesson plans include ideas on how to use the videos with your team.
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Save the Date: Last-Chance Qualifier
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The NSDA Last-Chance Qualifier is back for 2027! This online tournament presented by The Julia Burke Foundation gives NSDA members who don't qualify at districts one more shot at the 2027 National Tournament—with no entry fee. Plan to join us April 29-May 1. Registration opens January 7.
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Have an Impact on Future NSDA Topics
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Do you have a way with words? Are you passionate about shaping the topics for NSDA events? Here's your chance to get involved!
All coaches and former competitors are invited to apply to join a Wording Committee for PF, LD, BQ, or 2027 National Tournament topics! The wording committees' work has a direct impact on our tournaments. Each committee is responsible for researching, drafting questions, evaluating topic options based on the NSDA Topic Rubric, and attending a few virtual onboarding meetings with committee members between March and April.
Learn more about the topic writing process on the Topic Creation Hub. Applications are open for this unique opportunity! Submit now at www.speechanddebate.org/interest-form.
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