Hole In The Wall District Qualifier

for the 2021 National Tournament

Hole-in-the-Wall District Tournament 2021

February 15-20, 2021

Greetings!

This invitation contains important information about this year’s Hole-in-the-Wall, NSDA, National Qualifying Tournament. Also included is a Coach Checklist to help you through the process. This year, Districts will be held online as a synchronous tournament (except for Duo, which will be asynchronous, split-screen). 

Congress will be held on Monday and Tuesday (Feb 15-16) and all other events will be held on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Feb 18-20). All competition during the week will take place after school beginning no earlier than 4:00 PM. On Saturday, competition will begin at 8:00 AM, and awards will take place in the evening.

Registration

Registration will take place on Tabroom.com. This is also the website where you will submit piece information and register judges. 

Website: http://holeinthewall.tabroom.com. 

Please sign up early to help us anticipate total numbers; you may make adjustments and changes as needed. Final registration on Tabroom is due Friday, February 12th.

Events

Students may enter multiple events (up to 3 if one is Congress). There is no doubling in 2 Debate events or in both Extemps. Students may enter two team events (e.g. CX and Duo) provided both teams have the same partners and have completed SELI Forms correctly. Events offered:

Speech - Humor, Oratory, US Extemp, International Extemp, Informative, Drama, Duo, POI

• Duo will be an asynchronous event, pre-recorded with split-screen (see Guide for help, and NSDA’s demonstration of split screen videos).

Debate - Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum, Policy

• LD - Resolved: States ought to ban lethal autonomous weapons.

• PF - Resolved: On balance, the benefits of urbanization in West Africa outweigh the harms.

• CX - Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.

Congress - House or Senate

• Please submit your (2) bills/resolutions by Friday, January 29th, 2021 to Eric Johnson, eric.johnson@k12.sd.us.

Rules

Please explore and examine the current high school unified manual:

https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-unified-manual/

There are three important rule changes that will apply to this year’s District tournament:

1. Interp selection

• The definition of allowed “Interp Source Material” has been expanded; please read details 1, 2A-D: New Pilot Rules 2021.

2. Internet use

• “If a district tournament is held online, that district must use the pilot internet rules for debate, Congress, and Extemp.” (NSDA Changes to District Tournaments).

• The rules for the “Use of Internet in Rounds” has been expanded; please read the details for Debate, Extemp, and Congress: Pilot Internet Rules for Debate.

3. Policy prep time 

• Prep time in Policy Debate has been expanded to eight minutes: New Pilot Rules 2021.

For any questions about new rules or rule changes, please contact Marcus Viney prior to the District Tournament. In line with NSDA tradition, we ask that any challenges or protests regarding rules be made in advance of rounds where possible.

Judges

All teams will be asked to provide judges for the tournament. We ask that judges covering a team’s obligation are entered on Tabroom, but also on the HITW Judge Sign Up:

https://forms.gle/c9ZK7Y72dc5ZeS8S8

• 1-7 entries* = 1 full time judge that can do most all of the events and commits to a minimum of 10 time slots in which there are events actually running. This does not mean that they will get ten rounds - we just need the flexibility of assigning the slots.

• 8-14* = 2 full time judges that can do most all of the events and each commit to a minimum of 10 time slots in which there are events actually running. This does not mean that they will get ten rounds - we just need the flexibility of assigning the slots.

• 15-21* = 3 full time judges that can do most all of the events and each commits to a minimum of 10 time slots in which there are events actually running. This does not mean that they will get ten rounds - we just need the flexibility of assigning the slots.

Judges that are fulfilling school obligations need to be available to judge a variety of events and be available for the duration of the tournament. An “outside” judge may be recruited, but a judge fulfilling a judge obligation will not be eligible to be paid. We will honor judge strikes only if it is determined that there are enough judges pre-registered for the tournament. We will pay college students $15 per Debate round and $12 per Speech round.

Platform

We will use Zoom for Congress. Students should become familiar with Zoom and make sure that they update to the latest version. Duo will be the only asynchronous event; links (uploaded as YouTube marked as “unlisted” or Google Drive file shared as “anyone with link can view” should be submitted on your Tabroom.com account by Monday, February 15th). For all other events, we will use NSDA Campus. Please have your students test NSDA Campus here: Testing NSDA Campus.

Awards

Our plan is to conduct awards on Zoom livestream so that finalists and qualifiers can be recognized and celebrated. For this reason, we will need all competitors to complete and submit Media Release Forms. Coaches should share the Release forms in a Google Folder with Marcus Viney: vineyspeechanddebate@gmail.com. Blank Media Release Form Found Here.

New This Year

Message from the NSDA: 

After months of careful consideration, we have made the decision to host the 2021 National Speech & Debate Tournament online for middle school and high school students due to the ongoing pandemic.

We understand that your district’s team recruitment, online tournament scheduling, and participation numbers have been impacted this year. To help alleviate concerns over entry numbers and ensure your students can be represented at the National Tournament, the entry requirements for earning qualifiers to the online 2021 National Tournament have changed. Districts will stay at their current level for the remainder of the 2020-2021 school year.

For 2020-2021 district tournaments ONLY, the following revised scale will apply:

Level 1 districts:

• 4 entries = 2 qualifiers

• 16 entries = 3 qualifiers

• 32 entries and up = 4 entries

Level 2 districts:

• 4 entries = 2 qualifiers

• 10 entries = 3 qualifiers

• 20 entries and up = 4 qualifiers 

Level 3 districts:

• 4 entries = 2 qualifiers

• 10 entries and up = 4 qualifiers

Expanded Access to National Tournament Supplemental Events:

For the 2021 National Tournament only, the NSDA Board of Directors has decided to expand competition opportunities to more member students and schools by implementing the following change to supplemental events. Every member school that participates in the district tournament series will have the opportunity to enter up to two non-qualifying students in supplemental events at the online 2021 National Tournament. These students must have attended the district tournament but not earned qualification in any event. This applies to every school that participated in the district tournament, regardless of whether they qualified other students to the National Tournament, and it only applies to the 2021 National Tournament.

Schedule

The following schedule is tentative and may change depending on entry numbers. Congress events will be held Monday and Tuesday (Feb 15-16), and all other events - Thursday, Friday, and Saturday (Feb 18-20).

Coach Checklist

• Read the General Information page on Tabroom.com

http://holeinthewall.tabroom.com

• By January 29th, submit congress legislation to Eric Johnson:

Eric.Johnson@k12.sd.us

• By February 5th, submit preliminary registration on Tabroom.com.

• By February 12th, finalize registration on Tabroom.com, including interpretation and oratory/informative titles.

• By February 12th, sign up judges on Tabroom.com, and have all judges fill out the HITW Judge Form.

• By February 12th, share the following forms in a Google Folder with Marcus Viney: vineyspeechanddebate@gmail.com (Please contact me for help with Google Sharing).

• School Consent Form (link)

• Speech Entry Form (link)

• Debate Entry Form (link)

• Congress Entry Form (link)

• Interpretation Bibliography Forms (link)

• Script Verification Cover Sheets (link)

• Single Entry Letter of Intent (SELI) Forms (link)

• Bonus Entry Form (link)

• Manuscripts of Interpretation, Oratory, and Informative entries

• Highlighted copies of original scripts for Interpretation entries

• Media Release Form (link)

• By February 15th, submit Duo links, and send a check to cover your entry fees:

Hole-in-the-Wall NFL District

C/O Marcus Viney

East High School

2800 East Pershing BLVD

Cheyenne, WY 82001

Contact

District Chair: Marcus Viney, 970-310-0011

Cheyenne East HS, WY

vineyspeechanddebate@gmail.com

Committee Member: Walter Farwell

Buffalo HS - Buffalo, WY

wfarwell@jcsd1.us

Committee Member: Andrew Dennis

Cheyenne Central HS, WY

andrew.dennis@laramie1.org

Committee Member: Eric Johnson

Sturgis Brown HS, SD

eric.johnson@k12.sd.us

Committee Member: Robert Speirs

Spearfish HS, SD

rspeirs@spearfish.k12.sd.us