Overview

Somerville High School is part of the Boston Debate League, which organizese the debate season and provides extensive support to coaches. Each school is assigned a Program Manager who can answer questions, help run practices, co-plan, and help with any other team needs. BDL also provides all of the materials that students need to debate including evidence packets, lesson plans and activities, and topic education materials. 

Responsibilities

• help run practices once per week after school,
• register students for the program and manage team logistics (snacks, tournament sign-ups, etc.), 
• chaperone students at the three remaining BDL tournaments (Nov 17-18, Jan 12-13, Feb 9-10), which can be split with the co-coach.
• Meet a minimum of once a month on with your program manager for planning or other support
• Conduct pre-registration and registration for tournaments before deadline
• Chaperone students at tournaments and other BDL events
• Judge at tournaments as needed
• Participate in coach community meetings and start-and end-of-year meetings with BDL and school leadership
• Recruit new students for the debate team and build team culture to retain existing students
• Build debate knowledge when necessary (with assistance from BDL)
• Communicate with Program Manager when questions or concerns arise
• Read and respond to emails from BDL and Program Manager
• Attend End-of-Year Awards Ceremony
• Track team budget, submit receipts, and take practice attendance in Team Tools google doc

Time commitment

During the debate season (September - March), a coach should be present for two hours of practice per week (may be before, during, or after school, depending on coach preference and school schedule). Coaches should also attend each of the 6 monthly debate events throughout the season such as tournaments and debate workshops (may be split between multiple coaches).