Parkersburg High School is pleased to host its annual Isenhart Speech and Debate Tournament on Wednesday, 18 November 2020, through Saturday, 21 November 2020. The tournament will have two components:

*An asynchronous speech tournament for the following prepared speech events: Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, Poetry Interpretation, Program Oral Interpretation, and Prose Interpretation. Competitors must make links to videos available by Tuesday, 17 November 2020, at 12:00 PM, and those videos will be judged preliminarily on Wednesday (beginning @ 12:00 PM), Thursday, and Friday (ending at 11:55 PM), 18-20 November 2020, as judges have time. Final rounds of those events will be judged on Saturday, 21 November 2020, for events having 12 or more entries.  Events with 12 or fewer entries will have four rounds of competition.

*A synchronous speech and debate tournament on Saturday, 21 November 2020, that includes the following events: Broadcasting, Extemporaneous Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Lincoln Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, and SPAR Debate. Students may enter up to two (2) synchronous events subject to the restrictions that appear below.

Event Rules. We will follow WVSDA rules, which are virtually identical to NSDA/NCFL rules, for most events.

*WVSDA event rules are available at the following link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1zkCkA-1yyk7p-E5ZZYwZCNXrfqhxM-mW/view?usp=sharing 

*The exceptions: Broadcasting and SPAR Debate. The rules for those events appear under Event Descriptions.

Junior Varsity. A junior varsity student is someone in their first or second year of high school competition or a middle school student.

Rounds. Assuming the number of entries justifies it, we will have three preliminary and up to two elimination rounds in all asynchronous speech events. Assuming the number of entries justifies it, we will have three preliminary and one elimination round of all synchronous speech events. WV tournaments run debate a bit differently than most other states. We allow students to compete in both Public Forum Debate and Lincoln Douglas Debate (or other events). So we will have time for only four preliminary rounds of debate events. (We start power-matching after Round 1.)

Synchronous platform. NSDA Campus.

Asynchronous videos. To submit an asynchronous video for judging, the following needs to be done: (1) make the video of the speech or performance; (2) store the video in a storage location that allows you to create an electronic link to the video (and provide those with the link access to the video); we recommend YouTube; (3) copy and paste the link into the Piece/Quals video link box associated with the entry.

Maximum Entries per Event. We are capping all speech events at 36 entries and will break them into novice and varsity divisions if that number is exceeded.

Maximum Entries per School. Each school may enter no more than six (6) students/teams in speech events and four (4) students/teams in each division of debate events but may waitlist others, and they will be added if room is available and adding them won't create judging issues.

Maximum Entries per Student. A competitor may enter up to four events subject to the following restrictions: (1) No more than two of those events may be synchronous (Saturday) events. (2) No student may enter more than one of the following four (4) events - Broadcasting, Extemporaneous Speaking, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and SPAR Debate - but may enter Public Forum Debate or Impromptu Speaking with any of the four (4) events.

Schedule. The tentative schedule has been posted.

Judging Obligations. The tournament will employ three (3) judging pools:

(1) A pool of judges to judge asynchronous events on 18-20 November 2020 - judges must judge their assigned rounds over those three days but may determine when they judge them. A school must make one (1) judge available for every five (5) entries in asynchronous speech events.

(2) A pool of judges to judge both synchronous and asynchronous speech events on Saturday, 21 November 2020. A school must make one (1) judge for every five (5) entries in synchronous and asynchronous speech events for 21 November 2020. (Judges will be assigned to judge asynchronous event elimination rounds throughout the day so those events count in fulfilling judge obligations.)

(3) A pool of judges to judge debate events on Saturday, 21 November 2020. A school must make one (1) judge for every two (2) entries in debate events for 21 November 2020.

Hired judges are available on a first-come, first-served basis. Schools will be charged $6 for each speech slot uncovered by a judge and $15 for each debate slot uncovered by a judge.

Judging Qualifications. To be eligible to judge, a judge must be more than one full school year removed from high school.

Entry Fees. $12.00 per entry in speech events and Lincoln-Douglas Debate and $20.00 per team in Duo Interpretation and Public Forum Debate. Checks should be mailed to the address on your printed invoice.

Drop Fees. We charge: (1) $5 per student entry dropped and $20 per judge entry dropped between the entry deadline and the end of the day before the tournament starts; (2) $20 per student entry dropped and $40 per judge entry dropped on the day the tournament starts but before registration starts; (3) $50 per student entry dropped and $100 per judge entry dropped on the day the tournament starts but after registration starts; and (4) $50 per round that a judge does not show up to judge. Drop fees may be waived for good cause shown.

Live Steaming. We may live-stream some final rounds of asynchronous events and possibly some synchronous events. Before doing so, we will verify with the coach that the competitor's parent (or the competitor if over age 18) have consent the video's use in a live stream.

Awards. Assuming an event has twelve (12) or more entries, awards will be provided to students who finish in the top six (6) places or advance to elimination rounds in speech events and to the top six debaters or debate teams in each event division. If there are fewer than twelve entries in an event, awards will be provided to students who finish in the top half of competitors in the event.  Sweepstakes awards will be based upon the top four (4) entries in each event.

If you have any additional questions, please email wvsdahelp@gmail.com, and we will answer them, possibly on a FAQ Tournament Page, so that others can see the answers too.