St. Paul Central High Debate Team

This weekend was one for the books! The top 15 teams that advanced to the Octos are listed, congrats:

Bay Area Urban Debate League (BAUDL) Boston Debate League Chicago Debates Dallas Urban Debate Alliance Houston Urban Debate League Los Angeles Metropolitan Debate League Minnesota Urban Debate League Portland Urban Debate League Sacramento Urban Debate League - SUDL & Urban Debate League - WUDL for advancing on to the next round!

Keep following along for more tournament updates!🏆

We had a fantastic time this last weekend at NAUDL nationals with our UDL friends from Como Park and Washburn!! Congrats to everyone on a fantastic job.

Congrats Kiernan! ❤️🖤❤️🖤

Congratulations to Kiernan Baxter-Kauf of St. Paul Central High School, who was named as Minnesota's Heart of the Arts award winner by the NFHS and MSHSL!

Beyond her team's competitive success, Kiernan has invested time in helping "invisible" students at Hidden River Middle School find their voices.

MSHSL's article explains:

At Hidden River, Baxter-Kauf sees countless “masters of invisibility” and refuses to give up until they find their “lifelong sense of purpose.”

“My role is to walk with them through that discomfort,” Baxter-Kauf wrote. “I focus on helping them manage the visceral stress of public performance and, more importantly, teaching them how to engage respectfully with disagreement.

“In an increasingly polarized world, teaching a 13-year-old that they can disagree with someone’s ideas while still respecting their humanity is perhaps the most radical and necessary skill I can provide.”

Find the full spotlight in the comments.

At the 2026 MSHSL State Debate Tournament, the Kaplan family presented the annual Tamar Kaplan Student of the Year Award in honor of the life and personal qualities of Tamar Kaplan, MNUDL debate alum.

This year’s winner, St. Paul Central High Debate Team's Kiernan Baxter Kauf – also nominated for the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues Debater of the Year Award! – embodies the spirit Tamar represented: exceptional achievement paired with unwavering commitment to service. Her journey was a powerful metamorphosis from an "invisible" sixth-grader to a passionate mentor who has spent three years coaching at her former middle school.

Learn more about Kiernan’s debate experience, in her own words, and the qualities that earned her the nomination at the MNUDL blog below. 👇

Congratulations, Kiernan!

Last weekend was the MSHSL State Debate Tournament, and Central was the State Runner Up, and had an amazing time overall!!!

Central had 3 teams clear at the state tournament, 2 in Policy and 1 in Lincoln Douglas!

In policy:
Central CM got to quarters on a close decision to Eagan, and went 3-1 in the prelims! Congratulations to seniors Nathan Clark and Elliot Miller!
Central BB was the state runner up!!!! and placed second overall! The team of senior Kiernan Baxter-Kauf and junior Ben Berger also went 4-0 in prelims and were the first seed. Kiernan and Ben were also first and second MDTA All-State debaters respectively!

In Lincoln Douglas:
Central AM sadly did not break, but had a great time and is excited for the switch back to policy. Congratulations to section champion and junior Abe Mulrooney!
Central CW broke to quarters! They sadly lost, but we believe are the first Central LDer to break at the state tournament in Central history!! Congratulations to junior Charlotte Washington!

In other exciting news, Kiernan was the Tamar Kaplan debater of the year, which is an award and scholarship given to one Minnesota debater each year for outstanding academic, debating, and community service, which is a huge deal!

The SPC debate Instagram also has some great videos worth checking out. ❤️🐳🖤

6 of those debaters, plus two alternates, are from Central! Wish them luck this weekend!! ❤️🐳🖤

At Sections, our league qualified 22 debaters for the MSHSL State Debate Tournament in both Policy Debate and Lincoln Douglas debate! Please wish the best of luck to students from the following schools, who will compete against other qualified competitors at the MSHSL State Debate Tournament:

Central High School
Washburn High School
Tartan High School
Edison High School
Highland Park Senior High School
Roosevelt High School
South High School
North St. Paul High School

We want to give a shout out to our hardworking coaches, who have been preparing their students for this moment all season. They’ve done outstanding work guiding students to debate multiple perspectives concerning the future of US involvement in the Arctic.

Best of luck – and congratulations for making it to this moment!

Minneapolis Public Schools
Saint Paul Public Schools SPPS
ISD 622 North St. Paul - Maplewood - Oakdale

The St. Paul Central Debate Team is honored to be the host of the Tamar Kaplan Invitational, which we have hosted the past two years. Tamar was a fantastic Highland Park debater who was lost too early and we love being able to celebrate her life and legacy while inviting hundreds of our debate team competitor friends to join us.

Thank you for joining us for the Tamar Kaplan Invitational this weekend! We hold this tournament annually on the second weekend of November. It's named in memory of Tamar Kaplan, who was a former Highland Park Senior High School debater and integral to the debate community until her untimely passing in January 2013.

Before we share results later this week, please take a moment to learn about the legacy Tamar Kaplan left behind at the MNUDL blog. The link is in the comments.

Hey, Central Debate Team friends and family! Next weekend, we'll be hosting debaters from all over the state at Central for our annual debate tournament! As part of that, we could really use your help to bring things or volunteer. Mr. Jents sent out a link to sign up for that, or it's linked below! And more results from our fantastic Halloween debate tournament outing to come! For now, here's a picture of Central debaters in their award-winning group costume of Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin, celebrating the 75th anniversary of Snoopy and 85th anniversary of Charles Schulz graduating from Central!
https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F084EADA728ABFF2-59950485-2025 #/

This post from the Minnesota Urban Debate League highlights both the power of corporate giving and also is a great chance to see Senior Captain Kiernan Baxter-Kauf judge a debate! Check her out at about the 11:30 mark and a little before the 56 minute mark to hear about her judge qualifications and her decision, and watch the whole thing to figure out what you think in a debate between whether you'd rather have a vampire or a werewolf as your roommate!

2025 MNUDL Microsoft 5th Annual Debate - Vampires v Werewolves - The Great Roommate Debate Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

The Central Debate team has had a fantastic beginning of the season! Teams in elimination rounds at the Mid America Cup, winning varsity divisions at all 3 UDL tournaments we've attended, undefeated and tournament winning Novice A and B teams, and tons of speaker awards! Less than a month in, we've had 32 kids already compete at at least one tournament!! We'll post more pictures soon. But we're in the final stretch of our Snap! Fundraiser and we'd love your support to bring more debate to more kids and more tournaments, and any amount is appreciated. Go whales! ❤️🐳🖤

St. Paul Central Debate 2025 | Snap! Mobile Support St. Paul Central Debate 2025 and help us raise $9000

Welcome, Central Debate Families!! Thanks to all of our new and returning debaters who came last week for our kickoffs!

Tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday 9/16) from 4:45-5:30 we will have our beginning-of-the-season parent meeting! It will be in Mr. Jents’ room, 3406, at Central. We will be going over the tournament schedule, explaining what debate is all about, and getting to know you all!

We would love to see all of you there. Happy to answer questions here or direct you to the right place if you can't make it! ❤️🐳🖤