Calif. Coast District Qualifier

for the 2025 National Tournament

BELLARMINE COLLEGE PREP - 960 West Hedding Street, San Jose, California 95126-1215 -Campus Map

Dear California Coast National Speech and Debate District Chapters and Affiliates:

You are cordially invited to attend this year’s qualifying tournaments for the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament. The qualifying tournament for Speech, Debate, and Congress will be held at Bellarmine College Prep from March 15-16.Congress will be hosted at Notre Dame San Jose on March 22nd. Big Questions will be held March 23, online via NSDA campus.

New for this year, for Speech and Debate, we will not have rounds on Friday. All rounds will begin on Saturday, and will continue into Sunday.

Remember, the procedures for this tournament are very different from those at league tournaments. If you are unfamiliar with those procedures, we encourage you to check out the tournament handbook, online - Click here for the -->Tournament Operations Manual.

Please re-familiarize yourself and your team with the event rules as written in the District Tournament

Manual 24-25, as listed in the manual above. Please make sure that your students fully understand and comply with the rules; it is hoped we can avoid much frustration, time delays and hurt feelings if everyone understands and complies with these rules.

In order to enter the tournament, please keep the following in mind, and note these are requirements imposed by the National Office. We cannot make exceptions. If you do not meet all registration or financial requirements, you will not be allowed to compete.

1. NSDA Fees - Only students who are paid members of the NSDA are eligible to enter. Schools with outstanding balances to the NSDA will be contacted prior to the tournament, so that payment can be made before the tournament.

2. NSDA and Tabroom Accounts - All competitors must have a Tabroom account AND an NSDA account linked to your school. Students who have not done so will not be eligible for the tournament. Coaches with Tabroom access can sync student accounts to their NSDA account.

3. NSDA Points - All competitors must also have 25 NSDA points to be eligible for the tournament. The 25 points don’t all need to be from this year. Students must meet the point requirement prior to registration. Only paid students with at least 25 points will appear on your Tabroom roster during registration.

4. Single Entry Letter of Intent - Each student double-entering also needs to complete a “Single Entry Letter of Intent.” Entry preferences can be entered on Tabroom. Students may double enter in any two events, EXCEPT they may NOT enter both extemps nor both team debate events. If a student is entered in both an individual event and a team event, they MUST attend Nationals in the team event unless both individuals qualify in their individual events. These are due at the beginning of the tournament.

5. Entry Limits - Finally, remember that you may enter no more than 4 entries in any event. Debate teams and duos count as one entry.

And remember that your total number of entries is constrained by the total number of NSDA members/degrees you have on record seven days prior to the tournament. (This is called your chapter strength.) You can check your strength online through your NSDA account.

If you have two entries in every event, you may claim an additional two bonus entries, though you still may not enter more than four in any single event.

If you have two entries in each and every event, and would like to take advantage of your resulting bonus entries tabroom should automatically recognize this.

The number of students we send to the National Tournament is based on the number of entries at this tournament. So please do whatever you can to help both yourselves, and your district, by taking advantage of as much of your entry limit as possible.

6. Fees and Payment - We have kept our entry fees the same as last year. That means entry fees are again $25/student. That means Duo, Public Forum, and Policy teams cost $50.

Please make purchase orders and checks payable to California Coast District, not to Coast Forensic League. Entry fees must be paid prior to the beginning of the qualifier. If a check has not been cut, I will take a cashier's check or personal coach's check, but students won't be allowed to compete if all fees are not paid.

Please check back here for updates regarding online payment options.

7. Judges - Because of exceptionally large judging requirements for this tournament, you are required to provide one judge PER ENTRY for team debate events (Policy and PF), and 1 judge per 2 entries for LD. We will notify coaches if the judge ratio will be decreased. Please contact us if your school needs assistance in finding judges to cover your school’s commitment.

We would ideally like to have 3 judges per debate prelim, and 2 judges per speech elim. If your school has extra judges to spare, please enter them into the tournament if you can. You can also refer them to our district committee, and we will hire them for the tournament.

8. Scripts - Interpers must have an original copy of the text (book, published manuscript etc) not the cut version at the tournament. For other prepared events, although manuscripts are not required, we encourage students and coaches to have them on hand in case of protests.

Please do not hesitate to contact Mariel Cruz, or our other committee members with any questions or concerns you may have. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Your District Committee

Mariel Cruz, Chair

Committee Members - Aaron Langerman, Xavier Liu, Karen Cruz, Scott Odekirk, and Charles Schletzbaum

SCHEDULE

March 15 - SATURDAY: At Bellarmine

• Debate R1: 9 am

• Speech R1: 11:30 am with an 11 am extemp draw

• Debate R2: 1 pm

• Speech R2: 3:30 pm with a 3 pm extemp draw

• Debate R3: 5 pm

March 16 - SUNDAY: At Bellarmine

• Debate R4: 8 am

• Speech R3: 10:30 am with a 10 am extemp draw

• Debate elim 1: 11:45 pm

• Speech Finals / Semifinals (OO): 2:30 pm with an 2 pm extemp draw

• *start time subject to be moved up if there are no double entries between speech and debate at this point in the tournament.

• Debate elim 2: 1:45 pm

• OO finals: (hopefully we can run concurrently with debate elim 2 or elim 3 if there are no double entries): 4 pm

• Debate elim 3: 4:30 pm

• Debate elim 4: 6pm (if needed)

• Awards: 7:30pm (earlier if last elim is not needed)

March 22 - SATURDAY: Notre Dame San Jose

School Check in - 9am-9:45am - CWL 2nd Floor

• Congress Round 1: 10am-12:30pm

• Lunch: 12:30pm-1:45pm

• Congress Round 2/Finals: 2pm-4:30pm

• Awards: 5pm

March 23 - SUNDAY: Online via NSDA Campus

• 8:15 AM - 8:45 AM - School Check in online

• 9:00 AM - Round 1

• 10:30 AM - Round 2

• 12:00 PM - Round 3

• 1:00 PM - 1:45 PM - Lunch Break

• 2:00 PM - Round 4

• 3:30 PM - Elimination Round 1

• 5:00 PM - Elimination Round 2

• 6:30 PM - Elimination Round 3 (if necessary)

• Additional Elimination Rounds if needed approximately 1.5 hours after each Elimination Round

• Awards Online after conclusion of the last elimination round.