South Carolina District Tournament
2025 — SC/US
South Carolina District Qualifier
for the 2025 National Tournament
District Tournament - Speech - March 1, 2025
SC District Tournament Registration
March 1, 2025
February, 2025
Dear South Carolina Coaches,
It’s time to start thinking about the District National Qualifier Tournament. The members of the District Committee and I look forward to hosting your team at this combined Carolina West and South Carolina district tournament to be held in person at Asheville HS in Asheville, NC. North and South Carolina students will NOT compete against each other, but the two districts will share facilities and judges. The strong judge pool is essential for the contest that determines South Carolina’s qualifiers to the 100th Anniversary NSDA National Tournament, held in person this June in Des Moines, Iowa.
The March 1 SC tournament will include DI, DUO, HI, INFO, OO, POI, and USX. This in person tournament will be SATURDAY ONLY. Each event will include three preliminary rounds and a final round.
As in previous years, the District Qualifier Congress will be held apart from the other events. The District Congress event was February 1st as part of the Eastside HS tournament. International Extemp will be hosted on Feb. 8 at JL Mann, and LD/PFD will be a VIRTUAL tournament, scheduled for Feb. 24-25 after school hours. More info is available in Tabroom.
Below you will find directions for the online registration forms and pertinent information for the March 1st event. Please pay close attention to deadlines as many of the due dates are absolute. We want all SC NSDA high schools to participate!! This year, we want to qualify many more students if we fill our events. Please help with your participation!
Questions: If you have questions, please email or call Gail Nicholas (SC district chair): Cell phone 864-270-8556 or email at nickfam@charter.net
Important Reminder: You are responsible for reading – prior to the District tournament – the entire 2024-25 NSDA High School Unified Manual at https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-unified-manual/
The 2024-2025 (updated January, 2025) manual contains new and updated materials concerning the tournament and the events.
Please make sure your judges read the event descriptions also found in the High School Unified Manual.
Our district speech qualifier tournament for all events (except IX) will be held March 1 at Asheville HS in Asheville, NC. Registration for that tournament will be at http://southcarolina.tabroom.com. For all speech events, we will be using the new version of the NSDA Unified Manual, with the link on the page above.
We are pleased to announce that SC is a Level 2 district which means we will qualify two contestants in all events which have at least 4 entries from at least 2 schools.
All judges must be registered in Tabroom.com and must plan to use the online ballots in Tabroom. Make plans to have laptops/devices for all rounds judged. We ask that all judges complete the NSDA certifications found in Tabroom.
Due February 21th – Registration at http://southcarolina.tabroom.com – for students and judges. Initial registration needs to be done by this date (7 days in advance of the tournament). You will have until Wednesday, February 26th, at NOON to make changes without charges. After that time, any changes must be emailed to Gail Nicholas. Please read the rules about substitutions and drops.
No changes except drops may be made within a 48-hour window of the tournament.
We look forward to seeing all SC schools at the District Tournament!
Gail Nicholas, SC District Chair
Committee Members:
Greg Cook, Riverside HS
David Dejesa, Riverside HS
Jonathan Dorn, Eastside HS
Pete Martin, Riverside HS
Chuck Nicholas, Bob Jones Academy
More District tournament information:
Proof of membership: Due to the nature of school entry limits, we ask that you update your students’ NSDA points through the NSDA’s Point Application at least 10 days prior to the tournament. Students must have a minimum of 25 NSDA points on record, as well as be registered and paid individually through the NSDA website to be eligible to compete at the District Tournament. Tabroom.com will have a list of your eligible students.
Number of entries: No team is allowed to enter more than four in any one category except congress. Total number of entries for each school is determined by the number of degrees the school has on record seven days prior to the tournament. To determine the number of entries your school may bring, refer to the chart on page 92 of the District Tournament Operations Manual. The NSDA rules count duo teams, PFD teams, and policy teams as ONE entry.
1. Each school is permitted up to four entries in each event as long as the entries do not take you over your allotment quotas.
2. Our district will qualify at least two students to Nationals in all events since we are the Level 2 status with school membership.
3. Each interp contestant must submit the Bibliography form for all pieces done in the performance. This is done directly into Tabroom.com and does not require a printout. Hard copies of the original sources (as well as a marked copy with highlighted lines) should also be available at registration as well as throughout the entire tournament. Any challenges will require that the original sources be shown.
4. Each interp contestant/coach must have the Script Verification Cover Sheet filled out and submitted in your Tabroom.com registration.
5. All Informative and Oratory contestants must have available throughout the entire tournament their written speech with bibliography.
There must be at least 4 entries and at least 2 schools entered in all speech and debate events in order for the event to be valid.
Double Entries: Read page 94-95 of the Tournament Manual. The District committee has voted to use the rules found under “Double Entry” districts. Remember that no doubling is allowed at Nationals. Each double entered student must complete a single entry letter of intent signed by all required parties BEFORE the tournament begins. This form is located in the southcarolina.tabroom.com registration site. Congress participants will be allowed to take part in the District tournament as well as the Congress tournament. All students who participate at the District Congress, must fill out the single entry intent form if competing at the District tournament.
In addition to the doubling information found in the NFL manual, the district committee has agreed on the following rules:
1. Contestants may double between the 2 Extemps (IX/DX).
2. Contestants may double between one debate event and one Extemp.
3. Students may NOT double in LD and PFD.
Student Codes: Your students’ codes will eventually show up in the Tabroom.com registration of your school.
Drops and Substitutions: Email (nickfam@charter.net). No changes will be accepted by telephone. If you have questions about the process, please feel free to call (864) 270-8556 which is Gail’s cell and voice mail. No changes except drops may be made within a 48 hour window of the tournament. If you need to make last minute drops on the day of the tournament, you can reach Gail Nicholas at BJA on her cell phone at 864-270-8556. Texting is another way to reach Gail.
Awards: Students making the final round in each event will earn South Carolina Awards.
The 2 qualifying students in each event will also earn NSDA Awards.
The NSDA also provides Sweepstakes awards.
Observers: In order to make the tournament as fair as possible for all competitors, everyone is asked to follow these policies about observing:
1. No competitors or judges may observe debate rounds until the FINAL round.
2. No competitors may observe speech rounds until they are out of the competition (in other words, until semis and finals).
3. Judges may not observe until they are dismissed from the pool. All judges are obligated through finals if needed.
Judges: For speech events, a judge will be required for every 4 (or portion there of) entries. We ask that all our judges do the judge certification location in Tabroom.
DISTRICT CHECKLIST
February 21, 2025 - District entries must be registered online with Tabroom.com - more specifically at www.southcarolina.tabroom.com
The full registration forms (with your principal's signature) are no longer required for registration at Districts. You only need to download and sign the School Consent Form and Single Entry letters located in the “nsda forms” tab in the tabroom registration.
February 26, 2025 Changes may be made to district entries without charges until NOON pm on this date. (southcarolina.tabroom.com)
March 1, 2025 (FINAL REGISTRATION – more info later on where/how)
1. Typed original orations/informative speeches should be available at the tournament both days.
a. All quoted words should be highlighted, counted and totaled
b. Include the following statement with the coach’s and student’s signatures: “This is the original work of this student and no more than 150 words are quoted.”
c. All orations/informatives must include a Works Cited Page in APA or MLA format – see pages 54-55 of manual.
2. Single Entry Intent Forms completed (by all students double entered and by all students who participated in the District Congress tournament). This is located in Tabroom.com.
3. You will be asked to sign a Judges’ registration form acknowledging commitment through final rounds.(Remember- you must provide sufficient qualified judges)
4. Proof of payment of all fees (PLEASE!!! This is important.)
5. Payment of NSDA dues still owed (make separate check to the NSDA)
6. Home and cell telephone numbers – contact numbers for the tournament days. d. Email address
Fees:
Make all checks payable to the South Carolina National Forensic League (SC NFL).
Fees for the District Tournament will be $20 per entry. A school may opt to pay the entire balance at one time on March 1 (this would include Congress, IX, Debate, etc.)
Remember that a CX team or a PFD team or a Duo team counts as two entries for fees - $40.
You must pay for each person who is on your registration as of NOON February 26. Plans for the tournament are made based on original registrations. There will be no charge for substitutions; however, substitutions may only come from your NSDA membership.
$20 for each individual student entry (speech and debate)
$200 for each judge dropped or missing (and not replaced) after registration is received.
$30 School fee (all schools)
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$75 Judge fee for Saturday of the tournament for EACH round missed. We will make every effort to find your judge or allow you to offer a replacement before this fee is charged. PLEASE NOTE: For liability reasons, each school must have an adult present at the tournament site for the duration of the tournament. We cannot accept independent entries per NSDA rules. ONLY the faculty coach of record can register the team online and fill out the hard copy paperwork. Please adhere to this very important rule. Big Questions is open for registration. The committee will determine if this event will be held based on the required Per NSDA rules. Big Questions must have TEN participating students representing at least TWO total schools or we cannot hold that event or qualify anyone to nationals. However, you can enter as many BQ students as you wish. There are no entry caps. Students may enter one other speech event. World Schools Teams – 2 teams will be formed after the March 1 tournament. If you are interested in participating on a World Schools team, you must do the following: 1. Each student interested MUST fill out the Single Entry Intent form no later than March 1 at 8 am. This form is located in Tabroom. 2. Each school participating in World Schools MUST provide a judge that will travel to Nationals for the week. 3. Each school participating should provide coaching time as well. 4. All students on a team must be will to meet and practice before Nationals. |