Dear Middle School Speech and Debate Coaches:

We would like to invite you to Olle Middle School’s tenth annual speech, drama, and debate tournament. We had hoped to offer a face-to-face tournament this year, but the uncertainty surrounding the omicron COVID variant has forced us to pivot to a virtual tournament.

We appreciate your patience as we have navigated this challenging environment.

Events

We will offer the following events this year:

Asynchronous Events: Impromptu Speaking, Duet Improvisation, Duo Interpretation

Synchronous Events—Section A: Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Original Oratory, Original Spoken Word Poetry, Program Oral Interpretation, Prose Interpretation

Synchronous Events—Section B: Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Informative Speaking, Poetry Interpretation, Storytelling, Vocal Solo

Synchronous Debate Events: Congressional Debate, LD Debate, PF Debate, World Schools Debate

Please note: We do not plan to break brackets in debate.

Rules for each event can be found by clicking on Events & Divisions to the right of your screen. You can also find information about our schedule, tournament rules, recording guidelines, and entry fees.

NSDA Campus

We will be using the NSDA Campus platform for all synchronous (live) events. To guarantee a smooth tournament experience, please have your students test their ability to connect to NSDA Campus at https://campus.speechanddebate.org/. They should practice entering NSDA campus rooms from the device and location they will be using on the day of the tournament.

In my experience, the majority of problems with NSDA Campus occur when students try to access it from their school buildings. If your students will be accessing Tabroom from your school building (or another restricted network), please read over the IT specifics and frequently asked questions at https://www.speechanddebate.org/campus-tech/. Make sure that your district IT department has opened the necessary ports and whitelisted the necessary domains.

Judging

As we move our tournament online, we will still attempt to provide the best judging possible. We believe that quality, constructive judging is crucial to the development of middle school performers. Consequently, our judging pool consists of trained adults from our faculty, alumni, and community, as well as carefully selected high school students who have successfully participated in high school speech, drama, and debate. 

To make sure we have enough judges, we are asking that each school provide judges for the categories they are competing in:

Asynchronous Events: 1 judge for every 12 entries

Synchronous Events: 1 judge for every 12 entries

LD/PF/World Schools Debate: 1 judge for every 2 entries

Congressional Debate: 1 judge for every 12 entries

Because of our schedule, the same judge can cover asynchronous events, synchronous events, and one division of debate.

If you are using high school judges, they need to be in the 10th grade or higher. No 9th grade judges, please.

Entry Limits

Registration will open on Monday, January 24. When registration opens, each school will be initially limited to 6 entries per event. (Schools will be initially limited to 2 world schools debate teams.) On Friday, February 4, we will begin to take entries off of the waiting list as space allows. To maintain competitive balance, we will pull evenly from all schools. You will have the ability to prioritize your waitlisted entries.

Deadlines

The deadline for entries and judges is 4:00 pm on Friday, February 18.

The drop deadline is 8:00 pm on Tuesday, February 22. Videos for asynchronous events are also due at this time. Drops after this deadline will forfeit the original entry fee. 

A $10.00 fee will be charged for debate drops after noon on Friday, February 25.

Awards

This year, we will hold an awards ceremony at the conclusion of the tournament. 

Additionally, the following entries will receive medals:

all individual event finalists

all Congressional Debate finalists

quarterfinalists, semifinalists, and finalists in LD, PF, and World Schools Debate 

We will also present sweepstakes plaques to the top three individual competitors and the top three schools.

We will deliver awards to schools within the Houston area, and we will ship awards to schools outside of the Houston area. To help us do this, please include your mailing address in Tabroom under Refund Contact Info.

Entry Fees

Please mail entry fees to…

Olle Middle School Speech and Debate Team

c/o George Tennison

9200 Boone Road

Houston, Texas 77099

All mail is processed by our front office staff. To ensure the proper crediting of your account, please send all payments to the attention of George Tennison.

Questions

If you have any questions, you may contact George Tennison at (281) 983-8455 or gttennis@ga.aliefisd.net. We look forward to seeing you in February.

Sincerely,

Mr. George Tennison—Director of Speech and Debate