The 2015 National Debate Coaches Association National Championships will be hosted by the Sanford I. Berman Debate Forum on the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on April 11-13, 2015. Registration is now open.

We will offer competition in Lincoln-Douglas debate, Policy debate, and Public Forum debate.

This year we are requiring that fees be paid in advance. Failure to pay in advance will result in a $100 charge.

Please make checks payable to:

NDCA

and send them to:

NDCA

c/o The Harker School

Attention: Jenny Alme

500 Saratoga Avenue

San Jose, CA 95129

Students competing in the tournament must be accompanied by an adult who is an employee of the school or school district the student represents. To fulfill the requirements of this section schools must fill out and send in Appendix C. Please email Appendix C to pacedebate@gmail.com. You could also fax it to 1-425-740-9130.

In order to ensure students accurately represent the material they read in debates parents must consent to their children being audio recorded. To fulfill the requirements of this section schools must fill out and send in Appendix D. Please email Appendix D to pacedebate@gmail.com. You could also fax it to 1-425-740-9130.

Policy debate and public forum debate competition is considered a team activity. Both students on a participating team must attend the same school, represent that school and be eligible to participate in extracurricular activities for that school. Even if the school district allows some students to compete with other schools within the district the NDCA National Championships will not allow those entries. If the tournament director determines that a given entry does not represent a school that entry(ies) may only file an appeal to the board if they registered for the tournament prior to March 15th. Coaches acknowledge that by entering the tournament that their teams are in compliance with the tournament rules. It is the obligation of the coach to file an appeal prior to March 15th if there is a situation that stretches the limits of one of the rules, such as the definition of the word “school”.

For the 2015 NDCA National Championships the tournament entry procedures for Public Forum and LD debate will be waived and all entries will be immediately admitted into the tournament until there are 80 entries. If 80 entries is reached after March 15 the tournament director will continue to admit entries on a first come first served basis until the entry limit of 100 is reached. If 80 entries is reached prior to March 15 the tournament director will suspend entries and send a notice to the ndca-l that there are only 20 spots remaining in the tournament. One week after the notice is sent to the ndca-l the tournament director will begin releasing teams off the waiting list using the qualification procedures in the tournament procedures document.

Each member school of the NDCA is entitled to enter one team in policy debate. All additional teams must qualify using the process detailed in the tournament procedures at debatecoaches.org. If there are less than 80 entries as of March 1 the tournament director will admit teams on the waiting list on a first entered, first released basis up to 4 teams per school. If the entry limit of 100 is still not reached then the tournament director will admit teams from the waiting list on a first entered, first released basis until the entry limit is reached.

Complete tournament procedures are available here:

http://www.debatecoaches.org/tournament-rules-procedures/

The tournament director will be Tim Mahoney, pacedebate@gmail.com.

Feel free to contact Tim if you have any questions about the tournament that aren’t answered on the website.