Frequently Asked Questions

Question: How many students do you recommend for a class?

Answer: Two to Six students is a good range, but a class should generally be less than 12 students at the most.

Question: How long should a class be?

Answer: One hour is the minimum and two hours is the recommended maximum. For four students a hour and a half is recommended.

Question: Are there tournaments?

Answer: Yes, the National Speech and Debate Association (NFL) hosts hundreds of tournaments every year. We can help you or your students register and sign up, if your school permits it.

Question: Do you have your own team?

Answer: Coach Chapman officially coaches a middle school team that competes on the high school circuit. If your middle school (5th-8th) students are interested please let us know!

Question: Why do you have a middle school team in the high school league?

Answer: Allowing middle school students to do speech and debate at all is a new thing. There are few tournaments the are for middle school only.

Additionally, even at “middle school only” tournaments high school students have been know to sneak in.

And finally, it’s more fun this way! Coach chapman loves a good challenge and expects his students to take the hard way and have fun doing good it! When a 5th grader beats a 12th grader it is quite the sight.

 Question: Why don’t you also allow high school students on the team?

Answer: The high school speech and debate rules are different than that of middle schools. Generally high schools prefer to do things their own way.

If possible high school students should register with their speech and debate team on campus. Even if the coach or instructor is a bad teacher they can still register you for tournaments. Coach chapman can still be your “advisor”.

If your school is not supporting a speech and debate team exceptions can be made. However the rules are complicated and it is preferred that high school students register through their official school.

Question: What if your high school students compete against your middle school students?

Answer: Good! We expect the high school student to win but the middle school student should learn a lot from the experience.

And if the middle school student wins that’s fun too!

Question: What if I don’t join your team?

Answer: Nothing. Coach Chapman can be your official coach, un-official coach, or an “advisor”. The fee is the same and the National Forensic League has a system for such things.