Dear Texas Middle School Speech and Debate Coaches:

We would like to invite you to the Fifth Annual Texas Middle School Speech and Debate State Tournament. This year’s tournament will be held on May 2-3, 2025. The tournament will be held at Thomas Jefferson High School and Walnut Hill International Leadership Academy in Dallas, Texas.

Eligibility

This tournament is open to sixth, seventh, and eighth graders who reside in the state of Texas.

Club-Based Entries

This tournament is only open to accredited public and private schools. Club-based entries cannot compete at this tournament. Students must compete for the school at which they are enrolled for compulsory attendance purposes. Contestants found to be violating this rule will be disqualified.

Teams must be accompanied by an employee of the accredited public or private school that they represent.

To help us enforce this policy, schools are required to upload the TJSDA School Certification Form.

Events

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 tentative schedule and tournament rules.

Section A (Students may enter 2 events in this pattern, but they may not enter debate events.)

Dramatic Interpretation, Declamation, Prose, Informative Speaking, Program Oral Interpretation, Original Spoken Word Poetry, Impromptu Speaking

Section B (Students may enter 2 events in this pattern, but they may not enter debate events.)

Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Original Oratory, Poetry, Storytelling, Duet Improvisation

Debate (Students may enter 1 event in this pattern, but they may not enter section A or B.)

Congressional Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, Policy Debate, Public Forum Debate, World Schools Debate

Please note: We will not break brackets in debate.

We reserve the right to cancel events with fewer than 8 entries.

Entry Limits

Registration will open on Saturday, March 1, 2025. When registration opens, each school will be initially limited to 6 entries per event.

On Monday, March 24, 2025, we may take an additional 2 entries off the waitlist if space allows.

The deadline for new entries is Friday, April 11, at 11:59 pm. Fees will be frozen at that point, and you will not be able to add new entries.

Entry Fees

This year, we are waitlisting all entries until entry fees are paid. The final deadline for entry fees will be Friday, April 18, 2025.

Entry fees will be as follows:

Individual Events: $20 per entry

Duet Improvisation and Duo Interpretation: $30 per entry

Congressional Debate and Lincoln-Douglas Debate: $20 per entry

Public Forum Debate and Policy Debate: $30 per entry

World Schools Debate: $50 per entry

School Fee: $50 per school

Payment Information

Checks should be made payable to Dallas Urban Debate Alliance and mailed to:

PO Box 670564

Dallas, TX 75367

Payment may also be made by credit card by using the DUDA donation link found at: DUDA Web Payment

Click the “Other” choice and then enter the amount owed. Your Tabroom invoice will be updated as soon as payment is received.

Judging

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

Individual Events: 1 judge for every 6 entries

LD/PF Debate: 1 judge for every 3 entries

World Schools Debate: 1 judge for every 2 entries

Policy Debate: 1 judge for every 2 entries

Congressional Debate: 1 judge if you have Congressional Debate entries (Congressional Debate judges may be pulled into the LD or PF pool if necessary.)

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

All judges should be entered in Tabroom by Friday, April 11, 2025.

Judge Accreditation

By April 25, all judges in the Middle School State Tournament must have completed the required judge accreditation modules and claimed their badges in Tabroom.com.

• To complete a module means that the judge has watched the video, scored 100% on the corresponding quiz, and claimed their badge in Tabroom.com. Thank you for helping us ensure that all students at the State Tournament have high quality judging!

• All judge accreditation modules can be found at www.speechanddebate.org/judge-accreditation. Judges must create or log in to a free NSDA account before beginning.

• After judges have completed a module, they must navigate to Tabroom.com and select “Upcoming” under the Judging header on the right side of the page. They will see all required accreditation modules listed under the Middle School State Tournament header. They should select the blue and white edit button next to the relevant module, certify that Yes they have completed it, and “Save Answers.”

• Individual Event Judges: Must complete the following modules – Level 1: Intro to Multicultural Competence, Level 1: Intro to Judging Speech, Level 2: Judging HI, DI, and DUO, Level 2: Judging Extemp, Level 2: Judging OO and INF, and Level 2: Judging POI.

• Congress Judges: Must complete the following modules—Level 1: Intro to Multicultural Competence, Level 1: Intro to Judging Congress, and Level 2: Judging Congressional Debate.

• Policy Judges: Must complete the following modules—Level 1: Intro to Multicultural Competence, Level 1: Intro to Judging Debate, and Level 2: Judging Policy Debate.

• Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum Judges: Must complete the following modules—Level 1: Intro to Multicultural Competence, Level 1: Intro to Judging Debate, Level 2: Judging Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and Level 2: Judging Public Forum Debate.

• World Schools Judges: Must complete the following modules—Level 1: Intro to Multicultural Competence, Level 1: Intro to Judging Debate, and Level 2: Judging World Schools Debate.

Judge Buy-Outs

Schools are required to bring at least one judge per judge category in which they have entries competing (Congressional Debate, Individual Events, LD/PF Debate, Policy Debate, World Schools Debate).

If a school owes more than one judge in a category, they may choose to buy-out their obligation for $160 per judge. Judge buy-outs are not guaranteed. Judge buy-outs must be requested by 11:59 pm on Friday, April 11.

Food and T-Shirts

Students will have the opportunity to purchase concessions during the tournament.

Additionally, schools will be able to preorder box lunches for Saturday. An order website will be available to participating schools the week of April 14.

Finally, schools can pre-purchase tournament T-shirts for $15.00 on the Concessions tab. The deadline to order T-shirts is Friday, April 11.

Questions

If you have any questions, you may contact George Tennison at gttennis@ga.aliefisd.net. We look forward to seeing you in May.

Sincerely,

Your State Tournament Coordinating Committee