Last year Blaine High School was placed at 66 among the top 100 high schools across the United States for “strength” of it”s National Forensics League (NFL) team which encompasses Blaine Speech and Debate. As the NFL coach for blaine Mr. Ross Eichele explained, the “strength” is determined by the membership of the teams, both in numbers and proficiency across the various speech and debate categories. Based on the performance at a tournament and individual is awarded NFL points and as he or she  accumulate points ranks/merits are gained. Each person counts as one point toward the overall strength of the team and each rank that individual received cumulates for additional points meaning that Blaine has a successful team. Although successful, team strength is also a member number game. According to Mr. Eichele the average speech team is about 15 to 20 and the average debate team is about 8-15 in number, Blaine has approximately 70 in speech and more than 50 in debate so not only is Blaine a successful team, but and incredibly large one as well. Being large isn’t all it takes and neither is it being successful rather it is the combination of both that places Blaine High School among the top 100 in the country