A Message from our Director Michelle Boswell

Dear Fellow Coaches,

As a the parent of a former speech and debate competitor, as well as a speech and debate coach, I have learned firsthand that this activity has the power to change lives. No other activity has the power to help a wide variety of students develop their voice. Through the intensive development of critical thinking, research, writing and oral communication skills, speech and debate students not only excel in the classroom, but also as members of an increasingly competitive workforce.

The Dogwood Speech and Debate League’s driving mission is to promote interest in interscholastic forensics by encouraging a spirit of fellowship among both students and coaches, a spirit of professionalism among coaches and by conferring upon deserving candidates awards recognizing their achievements. In order to achieve our mission, we will:

• Offer six regular season tournaments featuring standardized rules for ease of preparation;

• Offer novice competition in debate events at all tournaments;

• Offer a rotating list of novice only individual events divisions at all competitions and identify the best novice at each tournament in each category;

• Offer an all novice championship to be hosted at the end of the season;

• Acknowledge the special accomplishments of both individual competitors and schools;

• Host coach workshops at the start of each year to encourage professional development and growth; and

• Assist in judge trainings in order to help improve the quality of feedback our students receive.

We hope you will join us for the 2021-2022 competitive season!