Notre Dame High School is pleased to invite you to the Parliamentary Debate Warm Up tournament on September 14-15! This in person tournament is open to Varsity and Novice students in hopes of preparing for a rigorous tournament season! We recognize that many students are either new or out of practice in regards to in person tournaments, so this tournament is a great way to jump back into in person competition.

Please contact Mariel Cruz (mcruz@ndsj.org) if you have questions

Covid Safety Procedures -

-Masks will be recommended for all participants in round. N95/KN95 or surgical masks are recommended. Masks must be worn in round, but may be removed only when speaking.

-Outdoor space will be provided for eating and drinking. Parli Prep will also be conducted outside.

Topic Announce Doc - Please check here for topics and prep times

Tournament Rules and Procedures - Please see this doc for the tournament's rules and procedures. Please note, updates may be posted the weeks prior to the tournament.

Help desk:

If you encounter any problems during the tournament, please email mcruz@ndsj.org.

Please see this document for the Rules and Procedures for the tournament.

To report an incident to the Belonging and Inclusion Station, please fill out this form -

About the Tournament Location:

This tournament will be hosted in person at Notre Dame San Jose.

Address: 596 S. 2nd St.

San Jose, CA 95112

All students and judges must have Tabroom accounts in order to register for the tournament.

Schools may initially register 4 teams per division. Additional school entries will be waitlisted and can be added at tournament director discretion. The maximum capacity of the tournament in both divisions is 80 teams.

Students do not need to dress formally-this is a fun tournament, so casual dress is encouraged!

Topics

Topics will be announced 20 minutes before each round and students may use the internet, pre-prepared briefs, downloaded or paper articles to formulate arguments. Students can only prep with their partners, so no coach or team prep. Debates will utilize the 7-8-8-8-4-5 format for speech times.

Topics will be drawn from current events and topics of current relevant interest. Awards will be given to finalists and champions in the Open and Novice divisions.

The topic committee consists of coaches and former debaters. More information about the topic committee will be released closer to the tournament.

Judge Requirements

Varsity Judges: Please note, this year for varsity debate judge requirements, we will be asking for varsity debate judges to stay until the FIRST FULL elim round. This means, if Elim 1 is a partial doubles, all judges will be expected to stay until Elim 2, octofinals.

Novice Judges: Novice rounds will be Saturday only, and novice judges are obligated for all rounds on Saturday.

We also ask that schools provide judges that are unconflicted from the field. Judges with too many conflicts or constraints are just not usable, and makes the tournament harder to function, especially since this is a parli only tournament, and I don’t have other judge pools to use to borrow “clean” judges from.

If you have a judge that you think may have several conflicts that may cause issues with judging, please email the tournament director, so we can determine if your judge will be able to judge enough rounds for the tournament.

Schedule: All times are in Pacific Standard Time (PST)

PLEASE NOTE: NEW SCHEDULE FOR 2024-2025

Saturday Sept 14:

Registration: 7:30am-8:30am

Round 1 Topic Announcement & prep: 9:00am

Round 1 Starts: 9:20am

Round 2 Postings/Topic Announcement: 10:30am

Round 2 Starts: 10:50am

Lunch break: 12:00-1:30pm (longer lunch break to ensure time for participants to take advantage of downtown SJ food spots)

Round 3 Posting/Topic Announcement and prep: 1:30pm

Round 3 Starts: 1:50pm

Round 4 Postings/Topic Announcement & prep: 3:15pm

Round 4 Starts: 3:35pm

Round 5 Postings/Topic Announce - 5:00pm

Round 5 Novice and Varsity starts: 5:20pm

Novice Awards after conclusion of Round 5

Sunday Sept 15

School Check in - 7:30am-8:20am

Round 6 Varsity Posting/Topic Announcement and prep: 8:30am

Round 6 Starts: 8:50am

Elim 1 - Breaks Announced - 10:15am

Elim 1 Varsity Posting/Topic Announcement and prep: 10:30am

Elim 1 Starts: 10:50am

Lunch break - 12pm-1pm

Roll call, Elim 2 - 1:15pm

Elim 2 Topic Announce - 1:25pm

Elim 2 Round start - 1:45pm

Elim 3 announcement/prep: 3pm

Elim 3: 3:20

Elim 4 announcement/ prep: 4:50 pm

Elim 4 Start -5:10 pm

Elim 5 announcement/prep: 6:30

Elim 5 Start - 6:50pm

*elim round schedule may be adjusted, depending on entry size for varsity

Please note, ideally ND would like the tournament to end by 8:30pm on Sunday night. The Sunday schedule has been adjusted to hopefully allow for all elims to be completed. HOWEVER, if the tournament gets delayed to the point that a round would have to start after 8pm, the tournament staff reserves the right to waive all remaining elim rounds, and name the remaining competitors as co-champions, regardless of whatever point deductions may occur, due to NPDL point rules.