Lone Star District Qualifier

for the 2020 National Tournament

In light of the current situation, the Lone Star NSDA will use a selection process for its 2020 NSDA qualifiers. 

The application links are on the LINKS  page to the right. (last option)

Dear Lone Star NSDA District Coach,  

This year's District Tournament series is being held over four days in April.

The District Congress tournament will be held Thursday, April 23 at Prestonwood Christian Academy (part of Prestonwood Baptist Church), 6801 W. Park Blvd., Plano TX 75093.  Novice Congress will be held at the same time and location with the first five entries from each school having priority. 

***The deadline for submitting Congress legislation is March 11th on this website. Upload under the Congress Information tab. 

The IEs/Debate tournament will be held Friday and Saturday, April 24-45, at Plano Senior High, 2200 Independence Pkwy, Plano, TX 75052. 

The Big Questions tournament will be held at Trinity HS, 500 N Industrial Blvd, Euless, TX 76039, on Saturday, May 2nd. Entries will be submitted via this website and invoiced at the same time as the district entry. Names can be changed later as long as students are registered NFL members by the entry deadline. Any credit remaining for unused entries will be applied to next year's fees. 

Applications for the District World Schools teams and nominations for district awards should be submitted via the World School Application tab and are due on April 15th, with the exception of the Student of the Year nomination, which is due March 11th. The District Committee will review those nominations and submit our choice for National Student of the Year by April 1st. All award nominations can be accessed via the Awards and Nominations tab. 

Please consider bringing as many students as your school is allotted. The District Tournament is a wonderful experience and our District offers some of the best talent in the entire country. Even your younger, less-experienced students will benefit from observing outstanding competitors from across the metroplex. Students must be members of the NSDA; the total number of members and degrees on file 7 days before the tournament determine a school's allotment of entries. It is important that your student's points be entered in a timely manner to ensure maximum participation in the District Tournament and at NSDA Nationals.

Four entries (maximum) per event per school are allowed in IE’s and debate. The formula for allotting entries to each school is indicated in the NSDA District Tournament Manual, which can be found at  www. speechanddebate.org

This year we will be using the District Tournament (pilot plan) for running the tournament and for all event rules where applicable.  Double entries will be allowed for Debate/IEs, but coaches will be required to submit single letters of intent at registration.

Entry fees are $25 for Congress entries, $35 for each IE event, and $70 for each debate event. Big Questions entry fee is $15.  There is also a $85.00 Hospitality fee. The District Dues fee of $85 has been added to the invoice to avoid separate billings; the fees remain unchanged. The deadline for entry is 8:00pm on April 16, 2020.  Drops after this point will forfeit the entry fee. 

NOTE: Schools with credits remaining from last year will have those reflected on the invoice once they enter.

The judge recruitment form will be emailed to numerous judges that have judged for Lone Star in the past. Please email the form to any highly qualified judges that won’t be coded against 2-3 schools in our district. Such coding will preclude their use during the tournament so we won’t be able to hire them. We need help from all Lone Star coaches in our search for judges. The Judge Application form has its own tab on our website. 

Judge payment schedule for 2020: 

Single IE/Debate rounds - $20, Standby - $10

HI/DI/OO/DUO/POI/IS judge available all rounds - $150 flat fee

Debate judge available all rounds on Friday only - $80 flat fee

Debate judge available all rounds on Saturday only - $80 minimum

Debate judge available all rounds Friday and Saturday - $160 minimum

IS/Extemp/Debate judge available all rounds Friday and Saturday - the higher of a $200 flat fee or per round 

Congress judge - $125 flat fee for entire day OR $60 for morning or afternoon only

 **** Please note that decision on full availability is decided by committee, not by person submitting form. Judges will be paid at the tournament/s. Schools bringing large entry numbers should NOT encourage their own alum (if they competed with current team members) to apply as it will be difficult to use those judges. Lone Star coaches will NOT be utilized in the judge pool except as a last resort, but coaches from other districts may be recruited.

Judge recruitment forms should be submitted via the Google Doc form on this website. The Lone Star District Committee will notify those judges that will be hired. The deadline for judge applications to be submitted is Thursday, April 2nd.

Fees you will need to send BEFORE registration at the tournament (note - you are encouraged to submit one check for all events - checks must be mailed by April 17th  in order to guarantee receipt and deposit before tournament): 

1) Any fees owed to the NFL national office - check your school membership report for status  

2) Entry fee check made payable to Lone Star NSDA, mailed to our District Chair: 

Cindi Timmons, 1842 Pecan Grove, Carrollton TX 75007.

A PERSONAL CHECK WILL BE REQUIRED IF SCHOOL CHECK NOT DELIVERED BY REGISTRATION! NO STUDENT WILL BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE UNTIL ALL SCHOOL FEES ARE PAID. PERSONAL CHECKS WILL BE DEPOSITED ONE WEEK AFTER TOURNAMENT IF SCHOOL PAYMENTS ARE NOT RECEIVED.   

Materials you will need to have at registration:

1) Tournament registration forms (for Congress and IE/Debate tournaments) - download available after entry.  

2) Single entry letters of intent/auto-qualifier form - available as one form now. 

3) Interp materials (review requirements in the District Tournament Manual)  

4) Oratory and Informative Speech copies (review requirements in the District Tournament Manual) - submitted via Turitin on the Oratory and Info Speech tabs.

5) ALL NATIONAL AND DISTRICT FEES MUST HAVE BEEN RECEIVED BEFORE COMPETITION BEGINS. 

If you have any questions, please contact Cindi Timmons at ckdtimmons@gmail.com or 214-683-3356.