Invitation

January 5, 2026

Dear Colleagues and Student Debaters,

On behalf of the administration and the entire Palo Verde Speech & Debate team, we cordially invite your team to participate in the Panther Classic Speech & Debate Tournament with us. The tournament will be held on January 23 & 24, 2026, featuring the best competitors from Southern Nevada.

Over the course of two days, individual speech events, debates, & congressional debates will be offered on the Palo Verde campus. Speech events will be offered with two preliminary rounds tabbed all the way through to determine the top 6 or 7 finalists for the final round. We are fortunate enough to be accepted as an NIETOC qualifying tournament in the speech events. All events that qualify will move onto Semi-Finals & Finals for the NIETOC Bids.

Coach verification will occur in the tabroom (rm#202) by 2:45 pm. Please remember to have debaters sign in with their coaches between 7:00-7:40 am on Saturday morning in the cafeteria. Coach verification will occur by 7:45 am in the Tab room and all unverified entries will be dropped. There will be three preliminary rounds, out rounds, and a final round in each debate event. Four debate formats will be offered. Students may enter Novice or Varsity divisions in Policy Debate; JV & Varsity Lincoln-Douglas debate and Public Forum; Congress rooms will be separated by JV House and Senate. The novice speech events have collapsed, providing an open division, and novice debate/congress have been combined with the JV debate division.

Students placing in the top three within their event will receive a trophy at the awards ceremony on Saturday night. Other top finishers from the break round(s) will also receive recognition and a medal at the Garrett Meriwether Awards ceremony. Please remember that students receiving awards should be in tournament attire on stage. Sweepstakes awards will go to the schools that place first through fifth and first through third in the small school sweepstakes.

On tabroom.com, you will find detailed information concerning tournament rules and procedures, entry forms and deadlines, a schedule of events, and some reminders of proper tournament etiquette. Please submit entries by Wednesday, January 21st, including drops by 3:00 pm on Thursday, January 22nd.

If you have any questions or need clarification on anything contained in this packet, please contact contact Shiela Berselli via bersesm@nv.ccsd.net or us at PVHS -- (702) 799-1450 ext. 4087

We look forward to having you on campus for our tournament.

See you in a few weeks!

Sincerely,

Shiela Berselli PVHS Speech & Debate Director

Sophia Manuel President

Lisa Schumacher, PVHS principal