St. Mary’s School is pleased to invite you to a free, in-person novice tournament to help kick off the 2022-2023 school year. We hope to make this a positive and welcoming experience for both new and returning students. 

The tournament will be held in-person at St. Mary’s campus. Ballots will be submitted online through Tabroom. Please visit www.tabroom.com to create a free account if you have not already done so. 

This tournament is open to novice competitors only. Novice competitors are defined as students who are in their first year of competition or who are in their second year but are trying a new event for the first time.

Judges will be varsity high school students and community members trained to give positive feedback and gentle constructive criticism. Please bring at least one judge for every five entries. Extra judges are welcome! First-time judges desiring additional training may be assigned to rooms as spectators if requested. 

OSAA Speech Handbook rules will be followed for all events. (This means no internet prep for Parli!) Judges may give supportive feedback to students after speeches if requested and if time permits. 

There will be three preliminary rounds for all events. Students may enter a maximum of two speech events and one standard debate event (LD, PF, Parli). Awards will be given to the top three entries in each event following prelims.

Please register on Tabroom by Thursday, 10/6 at 5pm: http://sonovice.tabroom.com

Schedule:

Check-in/Judge Training: 8:30 AM-9:00 AM 

Speech Round 1: 9:00 AM-10:00 AM

Debate Round 1: 10:00 AM-11:30 AM

Speech Round 2: 11:30 AM-12:30 PM

LUNCH: 12:30 PM-1:00 PM

Debate Round 2: 1:00 PM-2:30 PM

Speech Round 3: 2:30 PM-3:30 PM

Debate Round 3: 3:30 PM-5:00 PM

Awards/Team Building: 5:00 PM-6:00 PM

Event-Specific Information:

Public Forum will use the September/October NSDA topic: Resolved: The United States Federal Government should substantially increase its investment in high-speed rail.

Lincoln-Douglas will use the September/October NSDA novice topic: Resolved: Civil disobedience in a democracy is morally justified.