Recruiting New Debaters for T5

For our non-RCC schools, the larger span of time between T4 and T5 affords coaches the opportunity to make a recruiting push to include additional students in their debate program. Aside from the enticement of performance incentives — season-long participation performance and Allstate Expanding Opportunities — there is the little matter of helping change the trajectory of more students’ lives by having them learn to argue from textual evidence, to think critically about others’ views, to refute clearly and persuasively, in the crucible of competitive academic debate.  Also, in the principals meetings that the Chicago Debate Commission has been conducting over the past month principals have consistently said that one of their primary objectives is to increase student involvement in their debate program.

Be aware that students who debate in fewer than 10 rounds this season will be eligible to debate in the JV (first-year) Division next year. So they can get some “free practice” at T5 and debate all spring and all year next year as first-year debaters.

The Chicago Debate League would point to several resources that can help you recruit additional students, all of which appear on the Coaching Resources page:

• David Song’s excellent Top Ten Recruiting Tips
• Student Recruiting Ideas
• CDL Recruitment Poster A
• CDL Recruitment Flyer #1

We can also ship you additional recruiting posters at any time, upon request.