Purple Sage District Qualifier

for the 2026 National Tournament

Main

Coaches of the new PURPLE SAGE NSDA district,

WELCOME To The 2026 Inaugural Purple Sage NSDA District Meet! We cannot wait to see the awesome things our students will show us and accomplish this year! Below are all the details about the upcoming National Qualifying tournament:

February 26-28, 2026

WHERE: Big Spring Intermediate Annex and Big Spring High School

Addresses:

BSI Annex 2000 Goliad Street

BSHS 707 E. 11th Place

SCHEDULE: See the attached schedule to the right for specific times and events. THE SATURDAY SCHEDULE IS FLEXIBLE. WE WILL NOT KNOW HOW MANY OUTROUNDS WE MIGHT NEED UNTIL WE SEE THE ENTRY NUMBERS IN THE NEW DISTRICT. PLEASE, do not leave campus without verifying schedule times. Students who are more than 15 minutes late to a round will forfeit that round.

-Congress starting Prelims at 11 AM on Thursday, and Finals at 10:00 on Friday (both at BSI annex)

-IEs/Debate starting at 4:30 PM on Thursday and 2:30 PM on Friday, and will finish out all of our rounds on Saturday, with the Awards starting ASAP after verification, all at Big Spring HS.

NO RESULTS SHOULD BE MADE PUBLIC UNTIL THE AWARDS ASSEMBLY.

ENTRIES:

The deadline for entering studentsis February 19 at 5:00 p.m.

We will allow double-entry, but you must complete the single-entry intent portion of the website upon registration. This includes students who compete in Congress and Big Questions Debate, as well as those who are nominated for WSD. Any student who does not have this info entered in Tabroom at the beginning of the tournament will not be allowed to double-enter. Please refer to the current District Tournament Manual (on the pages on the right) for entry restrictions.

Entry fees are as follows:

LD Debate $30

CX Debate $30

Public Forum $30

Big Questions $30

Duo $25

Individual Events $25

Senate & House $15

VERIFICATION:

-All titles of Duo, Humorous, Dramatic, POIs, INFO, and OOs must be entered online when you enter your students.

INTERP: You do NOT need to submit any of the scripts to us for interp beforehand. However, we will check them at registration and be ready with everything in case of a protest. You MUST bring all the hard copies or proof of publication of all interp events.

OO/INFO: You will need to email Savanna Winn (swinn@seminoleisd.net) the typed up speech that includes the following: highlighted, italicized, or underlined all quoted words, state the number of quoted words, include a works cited page in APA or MLA format, and attest by signature of both the coach and the student that the speech is the original work of the contestant. These are Due by February 12 @ 4 PM.

DEBATE:

Topics are listed on the NSDA website. Be sure to use the Jan/Feb LD topic and the February PF topic. The Congress Legislation is attached to the right. There is no pre-set order in prelims.

WORLD SCHOOLS:

If a student of yours is interested in WSD, make sure you fill out the application. It is under the Pages tab on the right. You will turn these in at registration along with the Entry forms. We will pick our district teams according to the NSDA's suggested rules. You MUST be willing to judge World Schools (this obligation takes you away from all other judging) to enter students for WS team consideration.

NSDA Student of the Year and Coach of the Year Nominations, as well as others, are due to Jennifer Adams by Sunday, February 14, 11:59 PM. The form can be found on the NSDA website.

JUDGES: Due to the growing need for judges for our district tournament, coaches will be assigned rounds as needed throughout the tournament. Those assigned a duty by the district committee will not be asked to judge except in an emergency.

Our goal is to provide a diverse pool of judges for our tournament. However, we CANNOT do this without your help. Please refer all potential judges you know to our judge chair (coby.evers@saisd.org). We will gladly contact them.

Or here is the form for them to fill out: PLEASE SHARE!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13Cy3nj-KUFZ1JctSz_psFkpDmeWTf1cwlf9EqhsaN0k/edit

We will not use first-year outs unless we get into a bind.

Judge pay:

$30 per IE/Duo round

$40 per Debate round

$100 per Congress round

If a judge needs hotel accommodations, they need to articulate that to the judge chair, Coby Evers, at coby.evers@saisd.org by FEBRUARY 12th. We will provide accommodations for Thursday and Friday nights in shared rooms.

Thank you all so very much, and we CANNOT WAIT to see you all and all the BIG things our students will do not only here, but at Nationals as well!

Best regards,

Your Purple Sage Committee

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Jennifer Adams at the following:

Phone: 432-935-1311
Email: jaadams@bsisd.esc18.net