April 5, 2025 Tournament
CT Middle School Debate League Tournament
Saturday, April 5, 2025, 8:30 – 5:00
Central Middle School, 9 Indian Rock Lane, Greenwich, CT 06830
Sponsored by The English Speaking Union, Greenwich Branch
On behalf of Central Middle School and Coach Francis Norris-Oliva, the CTMSDL invites you to the final event of the 2024-25 season.
There are 2 divisions for this tournament: Championship and Open. Championship division is open to debaters who placed 1-15 as a speaker or open level team member at a previous tournament this season. Open is open to all other debaters. Both divisions will debate this motion for rounds 1 & 2: This House believes that the institution of the U.S. Presidency has become too powerful.
Round 3 will be an extemporaneous round for both the open and championship divisions. Please review the June 2024 Handbook. Page 4 explains the extemp format.
Awards will be given to the top 5 teams and speakers in both divisions.
Coaches should register on Tabroom.com for the event CTMSDLApr5 by midnight Wednesday, April 2. You may edit your teams up until 9:00 am April 5. Tabroom instructions are here. Championship teams must include 3 members. Open teams may be two members only if absolutely necessary.
Entries will be capped as follows:
| School | Championship | Open |
| AITE | 1 | 1 |
| Amity | 1 | 4 |
| Bethel | 6 | 3 |
| Central | 0 | 2 |
| Helen Keller | 2 | 3 |
| IAR | 0 | 11 |
| Memorial | 1 | 2 |
| Middlebrook | 4 | 6 |
| Nathan Hale | 0 | 1 |
| Ridgefield | 2 | 3 |
| Seymour | 0 | 3 |
| Smith | 1 | 4 |
| TEMS | 5 | 10 |
| Western | 2 | 2 |
| Westfield | 6 | 4 |
| Whitby | 0 | 5 |
| Total | 31 | 64 |
Coaches must register one judge per every 2 teams entered. Register your most experienced judges in the championship division. Please try to cover all of your entries with trained judges. Coaches should make sure their judges understand the information in the Judges’ Instructions and the Handbook prior to the event. CTMSDL will provide free coffee, donuts, pizza and drinks for judges.
Observers are welcome but Central is small so we’d like to keep observers to a minimum.
Schedule
| Arrival, Coaches check-in, lunch ticket sales | 8:30 – 9:00 |
| Welcome – Auditorium | 9:15 – 9:30 |
| Workshops: Debaters (optional), Judges (required) | 9:30 – 10:15 |
| Round 1 (prep ahead) | 10:30– 11:45 |
| Lunch | 11:45 – 12:30 |
| Round 2 (prep ahead) | 12:45 – 2:00 |
| Round 3 (extemp) | 2:00 – 3:30 |
| Games for Debaters (optional) – Auditorium | After R3 |
| Final Championship Round | 3:45 – 4:45 |
| Awards | 4:45 – 5:00 |
Debaters may buy pizza and drink tickets when they arrive. Pizza is $2 per slice and drinks are $1. BYO water bottles. Questions or comments? Please email Jen Posner at jen.posner@ctmsdebate.org.