Dear CFL moderator,

In this letter you will find information about the CFL national qualifiers for this year.

Date: Saturday March 4 Speech, Debate, Congress

Place: Fox Chapel HS
611 Field Club Road
Pittsburgh PA 15238

Times: Registration 7:45 - 8:15 (debate schools register early!)

Tentative schedule!!

Judges’ Meeting 8:30 - 8:45 -- or as soon as all schools are registered

Senate Prelims 8:30 - 11:45

Debate Round I 8:30

Extemp Draw 8:30

Round I 9:00

Round II 10:30

Round III 11:00

Senate Super Session­­ ­­­­­­ 12:30 - 3:00

Lunch 11:30 – 1:00

Speech Finals 1:00- 3:00

Announcements/Awards 4:00

Lunch: Lunch tickets must be purchased from Mark Matusiak BEFORE Saturday. Please remember that you cannot leave the campus to buy lunch, so plan accordingly. Please see the separate email sent about lunch, or check the lunch information on the CFL Tabroom website.

Registration: Four (4) entries per category for all events

PLEASE REMEMBER -

1. there are no adds on the day of the competition

2. fees are assessed as of Thursday, March 2 Noon – any drops after that time are expected to pay the registration fee

Fees: School fee: $10.00 per school

$6.00/person (duo, public forum, policy debate teams $12.00)

Judges: Speech - 1 for every 4 slots or fraction thereof

Debate - 1 for 1 or 2 contestants or teams; 2 for 3 or 4 contestants or teams

Congress - 1 for 6

Names of judges are to accompany the registration. Judges are expected to judge all events and are required to have prior experience.

Judges must be available for the entire day.

All tabbing will be online. Please be sure that your judges have a Tabroom account and are linked through their email accounts.

A school is assessed $25.00 per missed round per judge. If a student from the judge’s school qualifies for Nationals, that fee must be paid by April 1 in order for that student to attend the national tournament. If unpaid, the student ranked in the next position will take the original student’s place.

LD Debate: The NSDA March topic will be used.

PF Debate: The NSDA March topic will be used.

Deadlines: Registration and judges’ names should be submitted online at www.tabroom.com

THURSDAY MARCH 2 - NOON. Fees can be paid when checking in on the day of the tournament.

***Any school intending to enter the senate must submit at least one bill or resolution by Thursday February 23 on Tabroom. Legislation should be submitted electronically as a Word attachment using the template posted at www.ncfl.org and uploaded to Tabroom.com. Because the complete set of bills and resolutions will be posted on Tabroom (www.tabroom.com) on Saturday February 25, this is an absolute deadline!

CHECKS SHOULD BE MADE PAYABLE TO “Pittsburgh CFL”

Please check your copy of the NCFL constitution for questions concerning events. These rules apply at this qualifier. (Please note: Check the national website if you are uncertain about a rule!)

In LD and PF there will be 2 random rounds, and 2 high-low paired rounds. After that the top 8 students will be bracketed; winners of that bracket advance to nationals. Losers of that bracket will debate again; winners of the second bracket advance to nationals; losers are the alternates. PHSSL tie-breakers will be used in all debates to determine the winners.

In CX, if there are fewer than 10 entries there will be 3 random rounds of competition. If there are 10 or more entries, then there will run 2 random rounds, and then a bracket (as described above) will be created and applied.

In IE, the first 3 rounds are paired randomly (except for OI). After 3 rounds, the top two contestants in each speech event will automatically advance to nationals. The next 6 contestants will compete in a final round; after that round, the top 4 contestants will advance to nationals, and the 5^th and 6^th places will be alternates. PLEASE NOTE – in OI we will have four random rounds with 2 judges in rounds 3 and 4.

Because of the use of Tabroom software, there is a need for fewer people in the tab room than in past years. Therefore, the diocesan CFL committee will run the tournament, but we will run this as on open tab room (head coaches are welcome to be in the tab room but will not be involved in tabbing unless we seem to be short-staffed). Some head coaches will be asked to assume various tasks necessary for running the tournament: prep room coordinator, ombudsman, etc.

Thanks to all of you who joined the League this year; because of your involvement, we are able to take six entries in each category to nationals in Louisville KY this May!

The Pittsburgh CFL

Member schools of the Pittsburgh CFL (2022-2023)

Allderdice
Aquinas
Beaver Area
Bethel Park
Bishop Canevin
Central Catholic
Fox Chapel
Hampton
Mars
Moon
North Allegheny
North Catholic
Oakland Catholic
Our Lady of the Sacred Heart
Peters Township
Pine Richland
Seton LaSalle
Shady Side
South Fayette
Upper St. Clair
West Allegheny