The Middle School League of Los Angeles is a school-based speech and debate league backed by the National Speech & Debate Association, and the first season runs from January 2027. Your school needs one staff member to coach the team, which means running a weekly practice and taking students to meets. That person does not need any debate experience, and everything else comes from us.
Bring speech and debate to your school
In most leagues a coach has to prepare students for several topics at once, across disciplines that have nothing to do with each other, and for a slate of events that each require different coaching skills. Tournaments add long weekend hours. We built this league around four principles instead.
Access. Speech and debate should be one of the activities a family actually weighs, alongside a sport or an instrument, at the age when students are working out what they are good at. Most families never encounter it until high school, so it rarely gets that consideration. A season has to be worth doing on its own terms. Some students will go on to compete in high school and some will not, and either way they leave having built arguments from evidence, written and delivered speeches, listened closely enough to answer someone, and held their ground in front of a room.
Sustainability. Most speech and debate programs die when a dedicated coach retires or burns out, because running a team takes more time and attention than most teachers can sustain. Replacing that coach is hard, since learning the sophistication of debate and the range of speech events is too much to ask of a new teacher. In this league there is one topic area for the whole season, every argument comes from a shared research packet we write, and the curriculum and practice plans come from us. Meets run two to three hours and never longer, most of them after school and a couple on Saturdays. The season has six meets, a clear start and end, and a half-day championship that follows the last one.
Predictable use of school resources. A school knows what a season costs before it commits to one. Meets have a fixed length, so transportation is a known expense rather than a bus driver paid for an open-ended day. There are only two events, which means one coach covers the whole team instead of a school needing separate expertise for each event on a longer slate.
Competitive Equity. In many events, a school that can hire research or argument coaches holds a real competitive advantage. Working from a shared packet removes most of it, because every student in the league argues from the same material and what separates competitors is how well they use it. Both events were chosen to work at the middle school level without specialized coaching, and in Original Oratory a student can speak from notes rather than memorizing, so students who have never competed can start in either one.
Why the league is built the way it is
how the partnership works
What your school provides
- One staff member to coach the team, with no speech and debate experience required, compensated according to your own policy
- About eight practices across the season, scheduled by the coach, in a room you already have
- Help recruiting students to the team
- Registering the team for meets, arranging transportation, and keeping families informed
- Participation in six meets between January and March, plus a half-day championship in late March or early April
- Hosting one of those meets on your campus
What the league provides
- The topic packet and all research materials, updated through the season
- Curriculum and practice plans, so a coach runs sessions rather than designing them
- Four hours of coach training, part live and part recorded, plus ongoing training through the season
- Help from the league leadership team whenever a coach needs it
- All scheduling, meet coordination, and judges
- NSDA charter membership for your school
- Membership in a century-old national honor society for every student who participates
What it costs
There is no fee to join the league, no charge for materials, and no cost for the NSDA charter or student memberships. Here is everything a school does carry.
Coach time. About forty hours all in, across the pre-season and the season. That is four hours of training, eight practices of about an hour, six meets of no more than three hours each, the half-day championship, and the administrative work any team involves. The coach is compensated according to your school's own policy.
Transportation. Five away meets if your school hosts one of the six, or six if it does not, plus the championship.
Facilities. A couple of rooms once a week after school for practice, and enough rooms to host one meet of two to three hours.
The league covers snacks at meets.
What Coaching Involves
A coach does not need to know anything about speech and debate before the season starts. The training runs four hours and covers both events, how a practice works, and what happens at a meet. Part of it is recorded and part of it is live, and the live sessions run on scheduled dates or by appointment, so a coach can fit them around a full teaching schedule. Training continues through the season, and the league leadership team is available whenever a coach has a question.
The season takes about forty hours in total. Four of those hours are training. Eight practices account for roughly eight more. Six meets take no more than three hours each, and the championship takes about half a day. The hours that remain go to registering the team for meets, arranging transportation, and keeping families informed. Nearly all of that time falls after school.
The eight practices are a guideline rather than a schedule the league sets. A coach can split one practice into two thirty-minute blocks, hold two practices in the week before a meet, or cancel a week when students need the break. The practice plans work the same way, because the league writes them for coaches to use rather than to follow exactly.
The championship is the only event that runs longer than a meet. It follows shortly after the last regular season meet, in late March or early April depending on scheduling, and it is built to celebrate every student who competed during the season rather than only the ones who placed at the top.
Fall 2026
The league
- Runs coach training, live and recorded
- Provides recruiting materials
- Builds the meet calendar
Your coach
- Completes four hours of training
- Recruits students to the team
December 2026
The league
- Sends the topic packet
- Sends curriculum and practice plans
- Sends the meet schedule
Your coach
- Reviews the materials
- Sets a practice time
January to March 2027
The league
- Runs all scheduling and meet logistics
- Recruits and trains every judge
- Keeps updating the topic packet
- Answers questions all season
Your coach
- Holds about eight practices
- Takes the team to six meets
- Hosts one meet on campus
Late March or April 2027
The league
- Runs the half-day championship
- Handles the awards
Your coach
- Brings the team to the championship
How to find a coach
(No experience necessary)
A coach can be anyone at your school who is passionate about helping students find their voice through argumentation, speech writing, critical thinking, listening, and research. The only other requirement is availability. Speech and debate coaches come from a vast range of departments and personality types, so the search is wider than it looks.
There is no personality type to screen for. These are simply things worth considering when you are deciding who to approach.
Perspective.Students lose rounds, and a season contains a lot of them. A coach who treats a loss as information rather than a disaster helps students move on from disappointment.
Students ahead of results.A coach who wants to win at all costs puts pressure on students that middle schoolers do not need.
Honesty.Students get better when someone tells them plainly that an argument was weak or that a round did not go well. A coach who is willing to have that conversation is worth more than one who only encourages.
Comfort with conflict between students.World Schools is a team event, and partnerships have friction. A coach who can work through that is an asset.
Separating the argument from the person. Students need help understanding that arguing a position is not the same as being that position, and that an argument against theirs is not an attack on them.
What a teacher will want to know
Do I need to know speech and debate? No. Four hours of training covers everything you need. Some of it is recorded and some is live, and the live portion runs on scheduled dates or by appointment, so you can fit it around your calendar. The topic packet contains all the material, and league staff are available all season.
How much time is this?About forty hours across the whole season, which covers training, eight practices, six meets, the championship, and the administration any team involves. The championship is a half day, and it follows shortly after the last meet.
When does it end?Late March or early April, once the championship is done. The season has a start date and an end date, the same way a sports season does.
The two events
We chose these two events for their focus on advocacy and persuasion, and because they build the skills the league is built around: argumentation, speech writing, critical thinking, listening, and research. Both have high school equivalents, and the skills carry further than that, into every debate event and many speech events a student might take up later.
A student competes in one event at each meet and can try the other over the course of the season.
Original Oratory is an advocacy speech. A student writes it, delivers it in a round, and the goal is to persuade. The event is built around the craft of that writing, and a student keeps adjusting and honing the same speech across the season rather than starting fresh each time. Students may memorize it or speak from notes, and they are judged on both the content and the delivery. Competitors are ranked against the others in their round.
World Schools Debate is a three-on-three debate on a motion, which is the statement being debated. Motions are announced two weeks before each meet and draw from the shared research packet, so students prepare in advance and still have to think on their feet in the round. Teams prepare both sides, which is how students learn to see and understand a perspective that is not their own. Judges award a win and a loss after each round.
A World Schools team can carry up to five students even though a round is three on three. A student who misses a meet does not break the team, and a student who wants to try Original Oratory can do that without leaving teammates short.
When to Enroll
Enrollment is open now and closes December 15, 2026. A school that enrolls late is not behind. Training is four hours, part live and part recorded, and the live sessions run on scheduled dates or by appointment, so a coach who joins in December gets the same preparation as one who joined in August.
Enrolling early does help with one thing. The meet calendar is built around the schools that have signed on, so a school that enrolls in the earlier has more say in where its league sits and when it hosts.
The next step is a twenty-minute call. Mike will walk through the season, answer questions about staffing and logistics, and tell you what joining would look like at your school specifically.
If your school is ready, you can enroll now instead. The enrollment form takes a few minutes, asks you to confirm the commitments listed above, and is not a contract. It covers one season.