If you haven’t already, contact CVFL. We’ll connect you with an experienced coach who can serve as a mentor and liaison to help you find coaching and administrative support.

Identify an adult that will be able to attend tournaments as a representative of your school. This will typically either be a teacher, but can also be a dedicated parent, depending on your school district’s policies. Your CVFL liaison may be able to help with this.

Identify the events you plan to participate in. If you’re having trouble deciding, some good starting debate events are Parliamentary Debate (note: speech times in CA are now 7/8/8/8/4/5) and Congress; good starting speech events are Impromptu, Informative Speaking, and Declamation. Regardless of what event you decide, if you’re a new student, you’ll be placed in the Novice division with other new competitors.

Use our step-by-step guide to create school accounts on Tabroom.com and NSDA’s website. You will use these to register for competitions.

Have each competing student and judge create an account on Tabroom.com.

Register for CVFL competitions (helpful links on the Tournament Calendar).

Find adults who can attend the competition and judge for your school. More info on judging can be found here.

Get ready to speak!