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Welcome to the 2025-26 Montana High School Association Speech & Debate season! We are happy to kick it off with you at Billings West High School on November 8th, 2025. In kickoffs past, the Billings schools have happily hosted drama events with the help and partnership of coaches from nearby schools like Shepherd and Huntley Project. However, Miles City and Roundup are also hosting tournaments on the 8th; we have decided not to host drama events this year. We hope to return to the tradition of hosting all three categories next year, but in the meantime if you would like to send students to compete in the speech and debate events we offer, we will gladly welcome them.

Cost:

The deadline for adds or drops is Friday, November 7th, at 5:00 PM. Please note that if you must drop a student after the November 7th deadline, you will be charged for that student as though they attended the tournament. All drops should be sent to either Catherine Wetmore or Steve Macartney.

We will send an email out at the beginning of November requesting the names of coaches who will be attending and their coaching preferences. Please indicate those coaches who should be included in the judging pool and those who have experience running Extemp Draw. Your coaches will be notified of their assignment on November 6th. All tabbing will take place through Tabroom.com.

Cordially,

Tournament Format & Procedures

• Any event with fewer than 5 entries will not be run.

• We are hoping to have a dedicated network for the tournament. When we know the network’s name and password, we will email it to you.

• As indicated on the schedule below, we are opting to offer all students four rounds of competition for this kickoff tournament instead of a break to elimination rounds. We believe that offering students, certainly new ones, more opportunities to perform and compete in front of judges is the most important concern at this stage of the season.

• Final placing will be made based on prelim scores and tie-breaks according to AA tie-breaking. Debate will be based on record and AA tiebreaks after four rounds.

• Sweeps points will be awarded following AA speech and debate scoring

• Awards will be held in the auditorium after Round 4. The top eight students in each event will be recognized.

• Please refer to the MHSA Handbook for all relevant tiebreak and sweepstake information.

• The Tabroom will be in the Library.

• Breakfast and lunch will be available to coaches and judges in rooms.

• The Extemp Draw Room will be in the band room.

Debate Topics:

Students in Legislative Debate will debate the first topics of the season: foreign (Diplomacy) and domestic (Indigenous Peoples).

We will be using the NSDA’s September/October topics for both Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum.

LD: Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, plea bargaining is just.

PF: Resolved: The United Kingdom should rejoin the European Union.

Policy Resolved: The United States federalgovernment should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic.

Extemporaneous Speaking

Extemporaneous speaking will allow the use of internet-enabled devices.

A. Preparation: As soon as a question is chosen, the contestant will prepare a speech without

consultation and without references to prepared notes. Students may consult published books,

magazines, newspapers and journals or articles, including internet enabled devices either used

in the draw or those materials published from internet sources, provided:

1. They are originals or copies of whole pages.

2. Provided those originals or copies are uncut.

3. There is no written material on that original or copy other than citation information.

4. Topical index without annotation may be present.

5. Files stored either on a computer or electronic device hard drive or cloud storage system.

All files in this format must meet the same guidelines as printed sources.

6. Active research from the internet during the round that meets the established criteria

found in the “Guidelines for Use of Internet Enabled Devices.”

B. No other material will be allowed in the Extemp prep room other than stated above. Extemp

speeches, handbooks, briefs and outlines, including those stored on cloud storage systems or

published on websites created for that purpose, are prohibited from the Extemp prep room.

Students may not use the internet to gain help from coaches, other students, or any person,

such that it would prevent the speech from being the original work of the competitor. Students

are prohibited from accessing outlines and speeches that have been written prior to their draw

time. Underlining or highlighting in Extemp will be allowed if done in only one color on each

article or copy. Electronic device use must comply with the “Guidelines for Electronic Device

Use in Debate Events.” Printed copies of information from online computer services may be

used. Electronically retrieved evidence used in any Association Extemp competition must

conform to the same citation standards as evidence used in debate events as described in the

the MHSA Speech, Drama and Debate handbook.

Tournament Staff Contacts

Stephen Macartney (Debate, Fees)

Email: macartneys@billingsschools.org

Phone: (406) 696-4745

Catherine Wetmore (Tabroom.com, Add/Drops)

Email: wetmorec@billingsschools.org

Phone: (406)690-1891 (cell)

Schedule

Saturday, November 9th

Round 1: 8:30 AM Ext Draw/Debate

9:00 AM Speech

Round 2: 10:30 AM Ext Draw/Debate

11:00 AM Speech

Round 3: 12:30 PM Ext Draw/Debate

1:00 PM Speech

Round 4: 2:30 PM Ext Draw/Debate

3:00 PM Speech

Awards are tentatively scheduled to start at 5:30 PM or as close to the end of Round 4 as possible.

Payment

Please make all checks payable to:
West High School

℅: Steve Macartney

2021 St. Johns Ave.

Billings, MT 59102