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Dear Central Nebraska Speech Coaches,

Welcome to the beginning of a brand new speech year! I hope that your year has started smoothly! My name is Jordan Engle. I am from Grand Island Central Catholic, and I am honored to serve as this year’s CNFL president! This letter is to inform you of the Central Nebraska Forensic League (CNFL) speech meets and to invite you to join our organization.

Becoming a CNFL Member

It is our hope that, as an organization, we can come together to provide a wonderful and fair competition, as well as a quality learning experience among schools of varying sizes in our area. In our efforts to keep this as affordable as possible, our membership fees for this year will be $125 per school. This fee allows you to enter one or both meets with an unlimited number of entries.

To become a CNFL member:

Please fill out this Google Form
Send a check made out to CNFL for the amount of $125 to

Jordan Engle

GICC

1200 Ruby Ave.

Grand Island, NE 68803

Registration and checks are due by December 12th, 2025.

CNFL Tournaments/Registration

Our two tournament dates are Saturday, January 17, 2026 and Saturday, January 31, 2026. Both meets will be held at Grand Island Senior High.

When registering for our tournaments, please note that all entries will be registered on speechwire.com. This is a change from years past. I will invite all schools via Speechwire who have paid membership dues after the membership deadline passes on December 12.

Registration for each tournament will be due the Sunday night before the meet. If a school registers from Monday through Wednesday before the tournament, they will be assigned a $100 late fee. No registration will be allowed after Wednesday.

Students may enter up to three events per tournament. There will be novice and varsity divisions of competition.

Novice means this is the student’s first year competing in speech.
If a student has competed in ANY event in previous years, this student is expected to compete as Varsity. This includes any group events the student is part of even if others in the group are first year speakers

January 17 Tournament format is 3 rounds, no finals. Novice events will medal to 10. Varsity will medal to 15 in individual events with the top ten medaling in group events. This is the same as we have run both meets in the past.

January 31 Tournament. Please see below. At the spring meeting, the group decided that at the later January meet, students could benefit from the “pressure” of performing in finals. We will use the below format for this second tournament.

Varsity Solo events will hold 2 preliminary rounds, then will break to a Champs and Honors Final, each with 6 performers. In the champs round, we will have 3 judges, and in the honors round, 2 judges. Then, at awards, 3 additional “surprise” medals will be given, with a maximum number of 15 medals awarded.
Varsity Group Events will hold 2 preliminary rounds, then will break to a Champs and Honors Final, each with 5 performers. In the champs round, we will have 3 judges, and in the honors round, 2 judges. Then, at awards, only the finalists will receive medals, with the maximum of 10 being given.
Novice Solo events will hold 2 preliminary rounds, then will break to a Champs and Honors Final, each with 5 performers. In the champs round, we will have 2 judges, and in the honors round, 1 judge. Then, at awards, only the finalists will receive medals, with the maximum of 10 being given.
Novice Group events will hold 2 preliminary rounds, then will break to a Champs and Honors Final, each with 5 performers. In the champs round, we will have 2 judges, and in the honors round, 1 judge. Then, at awards, only the finalists will receive medals, with the maximum of 10 being given.

For both meetings, you will need to provide one judge for every six entries or pay $75 per judge for the entries not covered. Please be responsible to bring well-educated and knowledgeable judges. We all want our kids to come away with ballots full of quality critiques and room for growth.

CNFL will not be providing meal tickets to coaches, judges, or bus drivers. We will not be using meal tickets this year. Please plan to have your bus drivers, coaches, and students pay for their meals at the concessions!!!

As in the past, CNFL will continue to have a hospitality room for light breakfast items in the morning and light snacks in the afternoon.

Finally, we recognize that there are many coaching changes each year. If we have sent this to you incorrectly, you notice that someone is not on this list, or if you know of a school interested in attending our meets, please forward this email to them or let me know so I can connect with them! If you have any questions or need assistance in any other way, please let me know!

Thank you never feels like enough, but I truly want to thank all of you for the time and energy you pour into your students and teams. You are making a difference every day!

Sincerely,

Jordan Engle

GICC