about the team
Speech & Debate (also known as Forensics) is most simply described as competitive public speaking. Princeton High School Speech & Debate Team participates in two competitive leagues in New Jersey: the New Jersey Speech & Debate League (NJSDL; affiliated with the National Speech and Debate Association) and the Newark Catholic Forensics League (CFL; affiliated with the National Catholic Forensics League). Speech & Debate activities fall under five distinct categories; Speech, Lincoln Douglas debate (LD) and Public Forum debate (PF), Parliamentary and Congress. More information can always be found on the various league websites and on here on our team website resources page. There’s something for everyone in Speech and Debate.
Our Team
PHS Speech and Debate Team, a national championship team has produced extremely talented competitors, winning various national tournaments, including a National Champion in Public Forum in 2015. In recent years, we have consistently qualified for the prestigious Tournament of Champions (“TOC”) in Lexington, Kentucky. In 2018, we broke our own record again by sending 9 members of the PHS team to the TOC. In 2019, we broke into the outrounds in all national tournaments. LD made it to the final rounds at Princeton, Big Ridge and UPenn. As a co-curricular activity, we actively contribute to and draw from the academic sphere at PHS, and we are the most active and the largest academic organizations in the school. Forensics as an activity fosters respectful competition, good work ethic, standards of ethics, leadership skills, and mastery of the communicative arts. It is an excellent activity for students of all abilities and interests, and the skills they develop are routinely among the most desired within higher education and the private sector.