Competitive Circuits

The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) formerly known as the National Forensic League (NFL) was founded in 1925. NSDA offers a system of incentives for students to participate in debate and forensics. Students may earn points in accordance with their success at tournaments. After a student earns over 25 points he/she is eligible for lifetime membership in the NSDA. The points are cumulative for the students’ career. There is a one-time $15.00 membership fee which is paid by Ranch Speech and Debate. Students will receive a certificate that will  hang in the debate classroom and given to students upon graduation from Cypress Ranch High School. Only NSDA members are allowed to compete in the NSDA District tournament (this qualifies students for the NSDA National Speech & Debate tournament). Prominent NFL alumni include President Lyndon Johnson, Vice President Hubert Humphrey, Academy Award winner Don Ameche, Emmy Award winner Daniel J. Travanti, actress Shelly Long, television host Oprah Winfrey, news anchor Jane Pauley, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer and thousands of other leaders in politics, business, education, law and public service. Since its founding in 1925, NFL has enrolled over 1.2 million members in all fifty states. NSDA website 

Texas Forensic Association (TFA) is a statewide organization that was founded in 1972 and hosts the largest state speech/debate tournament in the nation. High schools across the state apply each year to be TFA State qualifying tournament. Students who place in these tournaments earn TFA State points. Students who earn 10 TFA State points in a given event qualify to participate in the TFA State tournament. The location of the tournament rotates between each of the five TFA regions. Information regarding the TFA can be found on: TFA website.

The website also includes a running total of qualification points for each school and student by event.

Debate is the League’s longest-running contest, dating back to 1910. A small group of debate coaches met in Abilene and enthusiastically began an interscholastic forensic program to motivate their students and provide them with a practical application for the skills they were developing. It was then that UIL was born. Ten teams representing ten divisions of the state competed in the first state tournament. One hundred years later, the UIL Cross-Examination Policy Debate State Meet is celebrated as the largest high school debate tournament in the nation.

At the first state meet, educators voted to add declamation as a state-qualifying contest. Since that time, the League has expanded speaking competition to include two debate contests, two public speaking contests and two oral performance contests. Thousands of students from across the state of Texas compete each year in Cross-Examination Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Extemporaneous Informative Speaking, Extemporaneous Persuasive Speaking, Prose Interpretation and Poetry Interpretation.

Three students will be selected to compete at District in each event. The top 3 placing students in our UIL District will advance to regionals, and the top 3 placing students in each event at region advance to the State Tournament and qualify for the TILF Scholarship pool. UIL website