Calif. Coast District Qualifier

for the 2022 National Tournament

TOURNAMENT LIVE DOC - CLICK ME FOR LIVE UPDATES AND IMPORTANT LINKS

Update 3/21

-We are still taking entries for Congress and Big Questions. You can still sign up on Tabroom.

-You can check out the Topic Primer for the Big Questions topic, linked the right side of this page.

Dear California Coast National Speech and Debate District Chapters and Affiliates: 

You are cordially invited to attend this year’s qualifying tournaments for the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament. The qualifying tournament for all NSDA speech and debate events will be held online via NSDA Campus on March 18-20. 

You can also register on this website for the Student Congress and Big Questions Qualifier, online via NSDA Campus on March 26-27. 

Please remember, that ALL DEBATES BEGIN FRIDAY, 3/18. Please note that your judges (one per student) and students should be ready for rounds by 4:30pm. 

Remember, the procedures for this tournament are very different from those at league tournaments. If you are unfamiliar with those procedures, we encourage you to check out the tournament handbook, online here - Tournament Operations Manual.

Please re-familiarize yourself and your team with the event rules as written in the District Tournament

Manual 21-22, as listed in the manual above. Please make sure that your students fully understand and comply with the rules; it is hoped we can avoid much frustration, time delays and hurt feelings if everyone understands and complies with these rules. 

In order to enter the tournament, please keep the following in mind, and note these are requirements imposed by the National Office. We cannot make exceptions. If you do not meet all registration or financial requirements, you will not be allowed to compete. 

1.Only students who are paid members of the NSDA at least 7 days prior to the tournament are eligible to enter. Therefore, all points must be on record at the National Office by Friday, March 11th.  

2. All competitors must have a Tabroom account AND  an NSDA account linked to your school. Students who have not done so will not be eligible for the tournament. Coaches with Tabroom access can sync student accounts to their NSDA account. 

3. Schools must complete the School Consent form for each national tournament they are attending. This form can be found on Tabroom. Please be sure to upload the form before each national qualifying tournament.

4. Each student double-entering also needs to complete a “Single Entry Letter of Intent.” Entry preferences can be entered on Tabroom. Students may double enter in any two events, EXCEPT they may NOT enter both extemps nor both team debate events. If a student is entered in both an individual event and a team event, they MUST attend Nationals in the team event unless both individuals qualify in their individual events. These are due at the beginning of the tournament. 

5. Entry Limits - Finally, remember that you may enter no more than 4 entries in any event. Debate teams and duos count as one entry.

And remember that your total number of entries is constrained by the total number of NSDA members/degrees you have on record seven days prior to the tournament. (This is called your chapter strength.) You can check your strength online through your NSDA account. 

If you have two entries in every event, you may claim an additional two bonus entries, though you still may not enter more than four in any single event. The link to the form to claim the additional two entries is on Tabroom.

If you have two entries in each and every event, and would like to take advantage of your resulting bonus entries, Tabroom should automatically recognize this.

6. All fees owed to the NSDA MUST be paid before you are allowed to compete in the tournament. They will not let you compete if the check is in transit to Ripon. Therefore, please bring any fees owed to the national office directly to me after March 11th or included with your registration materials. 

7. Please note that these checks are payable to California Coast District NSDA; We cannot cash a check payable to Coast Forensic League.   

We have kept our entry fees the same as last year. That means entry fees are again $25/student. That means Duo, Public Forum, and Policy teams cost $50. Due to a small surplus, we are not charging district dues this year. 

Please make purchase orders and checks payable to California Coast District, not to Coast Forensic League. Entry fees must be paid prior to the beginning of the qualifier. If a check has not been cut, I will take a cashier's check or personal coach's check, but students won't be allowed to compete if all fees are not paid. 

If you are paying by check, please mail checks to the following address. Please include the "c/o" so that I'll be able to find them.

Mailing Address:

Notre Dame San Jose

c/o Mariel Cruz

596 S. 2nd St.

San Jose, CA 95112

To pay online, please use this PayPal link - PayPal.Me/cacoastnsda

You can also request a Zelle link by contacting the district Chair. 

8. Judges: Because of exceptionally large judging requirements for this tournament, you are required to provide one judge PER STUDENT. That means you will need to provide two judges for one debate team or one duo. We will notify coaches if the judge ratio will be decreased. Please contact us if your school needs assistance in finding judges to cover your school’s commitment. 

9. Scripts - Interpers must have an original copy of the text (book, published manuscript etc) not the cut version at the tournament. For other prepared events, although manuscripts are not required, we encourage students and coaches to have them on hand in case of protests. 

Please do not hesitate to contact Mariel Cruz with any questions or concerns you may have. 

The number of students we send to the National Tournament is based on the number of entries at this tournament. So please do whatever you can to help both yourselves, and your district, by taking advantage of as much of your entry limit as possible.  Thank you! 

Sincerely,

Your District Committee 

Mariel Cruz, Chair

Committee Members - Aaron Langerman, Xavier Liu, Karen Cruz, and Scott Odekirk