Our Tournament Invitation is available on this link

Please review our tentative tournament schedule. Debate pattern will include LD, PF, and Parliamentary, Congressional and SPAR.

Policy debate will have a separate schedule with 3 rounds on Saturday and 3 rounds on Sunday.

A Congressional Debate Schedule is posted on the right side of this page.

This tournament will use the JAN/FEB LD Topic and the JANUARY PF Topic.

The Dempsey-Cronin Memorial Invitational 2020-21

Dear Colleagues:

Santa Clara Debating Society and La Reina High School cordially invites you and your team to attend the Fr. James J. Dempsey SJ- Marty Cronin Memorial Speech and Debate Tournament, held on the weekend Saturday-Sunday, January 30-31, 2021. This tournament will be held on the NSDA Campus platform.

The tournament is named in honor of the late Rev. James J. Dempsey, S.J. and Director Marty Cronin. Father Dempsey was a longtime college coach at many notable institutions and co-founder of the collegiate Northern California Forensic Association. Mr. Marty Cronin was an outstanding teacher and coach for many years who serviced the community and helped create a competitive atmosphere where his students thrived. Cronin was president of the Douglas County Professional Education Association, an officer in the Nevada state high school forensic association and active in state politics. Both Fr. James J. Dempsey and Marty Cronin represented the best of this community. In accordance with their values, we hope to provide an educational and competitive event for your students.

This tournament will NOT be offering bids for NIETOC and is NOT designated as a bid tournament for the UK TOC. Our tournament is intended to provide additional opportunities for Middle School, Novice and JV competitors that have been harder to locate in this pandemic year.

Logistics

Location/Platform

This competition will take place online on the NSDA Campus platform. All Congressional Debate rounds will be on Saturday only. All Speech rounds will be on Sunday only. Policy, LD, PF and Parliamentary will complete all Prelim rounds on Saturday. All rounds will be single-flighted in order to reduce screen time for both competitors and judges.

Time Zone

Due to our school’s location in California, all times for the tournament will be on Pacific time.

Required Forms

We are requiring every school’s coach to sign this form for their entire team.

Registration, Waitlist, and Limitations

Registration

Entries will be accepted online at http://www.dempsey.tabroom.com.You can also locate the tournament name from the Tabroom homepage to register. You can also search for the tournament by entering "Dempsey Cronin Invitational" into the search box. You can find the Dempsey Cronin Invitational under the National Circuit (NatCir) for high schools on Tabroom.com.

Waitlist Process

Teams will clear the waitlist once their entries are covered by judging or by tournament-approved hired judging requests. TBA entries will not clear the waitlist. If you feel you have teams waitlisted despite these conditions being met, please contact the tournament.

Independent Entries

Independent entries are welcome at the Dempsey-Cronin Memorial tournament. All independent entries must have an adult coach or adult parent who can be reached if/when needed by the tournament.

Deadlines and Schedule

Dates and Deadlines

Online registration will accept changes until 6:00 pm Friday, January 29, 2021. You are able to add or drop up until the day of the tournament; however, drops made after Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 6:00 pm will be charged their entry fee.

Judge changes are due at the Drop/Fees Freeze deadline - Wednesday, January 27, 2021 at 6:00 pm. If you would like to buy out of judging, you must request hired judging (via email or Tabroom) by Wednesday, January 20th at 6:00 PM. Requests made after this deadline may or may not be able to be fulfilled.

Hired Judging Request Deadline 1/20/2021 @ 6:00 PM PST

Drop Deadline - Fees/Obligations Freeze 1/27/2021 @ 6:00 PM PST

Judge Deadline - Changes Freeze 1/27/2021 @ 6:00 PM PST

Add Deadline - New Entries Due 1/29/2021 @ 6:00 PM PST

Entry Name Change / Online Drops Freeze 1/29/2021 @ 6:00 PM PST

Schedule

Saturday - Debate Schedule

Registration/Check-in for schools entered in Debate will be Saturday, January 30 from 7:00am-8:00am.

Saturday - Congressional Schedule

Registration/Check-in for schools entered in Congressional Debate will be Saturday, January 30 from 7:30am-8:30am.

Sunday - All Speech and Debate Elims Schedule

Registration/Check-in for schools entered in Speech will be Sunday, January 31 from 7:00am-8:00am.

Fees and Fines

Entry Fees

We have set entry fees at what we feel is a reasonable rate. If you feel cost is a barrier to your team’s ability to participate, please email us at mjaich@lareina.com and CC cjb670@nyu.edu. Discounts and waivers will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The Dempsey-Cronin Memorial Invitational is committed to equity of access for all competitors and schools.

School Fee - $50 (Charged to all institutions that register)

Congressional Entry - $20

Congressional Judging - $100 per Judge

Policy Debate Entry - $40

Lincoln-Douglas Entry - $40

Public Forum Entry - $40

Parliamentary Entry - $40

Debate Judging - $125 per uncovered entry

Speech Entry (Except Duo) - $20

Duo Interpretation Entry - $30

Speech Judging - $25 per uncovered entry

Payment Information

Please send a check once your entries have cleared the waitlist. Please make this check payable to "La Reina Debate". Please mail to:

La Reina Debate
Attention: Melan Jaich

106 W Janss Rd., 

Thousand Oaks, CA 91360

Double Entry Limitations

Students are able to enter in one Debate event and up to 2 Speech events. 

Students who enter in Extemp can only do Extemp during the Speech pattern, but may still register for a Debate event.

Congressional Debate will be treated as a Debate event for the purposes of Double Entry.

Debate will be divided into Open, JV, and Middle School divisions.

Middle School students can enter into any division their coach deems appropriate.

Judging Commitment

Judging Coverage Ratios

Each Judge covers up to 2 entries in Debate.

Each Judge covers up to 5 entries in Speech.

Each Judge covers up to 6 entries in Congress.

Multi-Division Debate Judges

Debate Judges are intended to reside in one division only. If you have a unique situation and wish to request a judge cover one entry in each of two divisions, please contact the tournament by the judge hire request deadline. Accommodations can often be made if requested in advance and will be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Judge Qualifications

All judges are required to have a linked Tabroom account. This is to ensure they have access to both their ballots and the competition rooms on the NSDA Campus platform.

Judges covering Open division competitors must be over the age of 18 and have graduated from high school.

Judges for JV and Middle School events can be current high school Juniors or Seniors with significant forensics experience.

We highly encourage all judges to review the NSDA Cultural Competency resources (www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/) and take the course. If you are new to judging, you can also refer to the Adjudicating Speech and Debate course available on the same link.

We expect all judges to act in a manner that is inclusive, equitable, and offers constructive criticism to the competitors, regardless of their background or experience.

Elimination Round Obligations

All judges are committed to judge one round beyond when the last student from that school/institution is eliminated from competition in that division. 

This means that if you have 3 PF judges and one of your PF entries advances to the Quarterfinal round, ALL 3 judges are committed to judge the Semifinal round. 

All judges are obligated through the first complete elimination round. For example, if we run a partial octofinal debate all judges are obligated through the quarterfinal elimination round.

Please make sure your judges are available for their full commitment. Missed rounds will incur fees as we have to replace those judges with hired judges or school judges beyond their commitment.

All Speech judges are committed to the first elimination round, and all Congress judges are committed through the Final round.

Judge Double-Entry

Judges can cover EITHER Debate or Congress, and may also be entered to cover Speech events. If you wish to double-enter a judge, you can do so by registering them first as a Speech judge, and then they can be added to cover a Debate category. Please indicate current high school judges by using the flag on the judge entry screen.

Hired Judging

School’s that wish to buy out their judging requirement will be charged $250/judge for the entire tournament or $125/day of judging. This fee covers the cost of hiring a judge to fill that spot for the weekend. Please notify us if you would like to buy out your judge commitment by the hired judging request deadline. Each judge covers two Debate entries; five entries in speech or six entries in Congress.

Judges Wishing to be Hired

If you wish to be a hired judge for the Dempsey-Cronin Memorial Tournament, please fill out the Google Form linked here. 

We will be requiring every judge we hire to complete the NFHS Protecting Students from Abuse training course prior to the tournament. 

We also strongly recommend the NSDA Cultural Competency Course. You can access each of these courses via the NSDA Judge Training Webpage: (www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/).

Equity and Other Issues

If, at any point in time, during the tournament there is an issue we are requiring the person who is bringing up the issue to fill out a google form so they can be contacted by the Ombudsperson, Steve Clemmons. This will help streamline the process. The decisions of the Equity Officer / Ombudsperson are final.


Entry Fees:

____ number of Individual Event (Speech) entries/Congress entered X $20 = _____

____ number of Duo entered X $30 =_____

____ number of Policy, LD, Parli, and PF entries X $40 =_____

Public Forum:

We are running the January topic. 

We are assigning sides in prelims, but in elims we will implement a coin flip. Evidence must be shared upon request from either an opponent or judge.

Parliamentary :

The Parliamentary topic for each round will be announced 20 minutes before the round start time. Individual breakout rooms for each school for parli prep will not happen, coaches are responsible for supplying team rooms.

Congress:

Legislation is posted on our tabroom main page. There will be three prelim rounds and one final round. All three pieces of legislation will be used in the final round. Each school will be asked to provide one Presiding Officer/Parliamentarian to conduct the Congressional Debate round. You can email your PO/Parliamentarian to cjb670@nyu.edu.

Coach Viewing:
We are asking that one coach be put up from each team that can be added to the backend of the tournament so they can view the rounds. We feel like this would help locate students more efficiently and it would help keep the coaches more informed if their students are having tech issues. 

This is a privilege. Under no circumstances is a coach to watch a debate their competitor is not competing in. It can be revoked if we find out this has been violated.

 **ALL TIMES ARE PACIFIC**