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Joan M. Cargulia Grand Tournament, March 7th - at MELS

Eligibility: The only schools who are permitted to register for the Grand Tournament are the schools who submitted signed NCFL Data Cards before the January 31st deadline and have competed in at least two BQCFL tournaments. Our member schools are:

• Al Noor School

• Archbishop Molloy HS

• The Baccalaureate School for Global Education

• The Berkeley Carroll School

• The Brooklyn Latin School

• Cathedral Preparatory School and Seminary

• Channel View School for Research

• Christ the King Regional HS

• Coney Island Prep Charter HS

• The Mary Louis Academy

• The Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School

• Midwood High School

• Packer Collegiate Institute

• Poly Prep Country Day School

• St. Francis Preparatory School

• Uncommon Charter HS

• Uncommon Collegiate HS

• Uncommon Preparatory Charter HS

Events: The Grand Tournament permits the BQCFL to qualify six (6) entries in each NCFL event offered at its Grand National Tournament in May. Those events (all VARSITY events) are: Declamation, Dramatic Performance, Duo Interpretation, Extemp Speaking, Original Oratory, Oral Interpretation of Literature, Student Congress, Public Forum Debate, Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Policy Debate.

Entry Limits/Requirements: Schools may register no more than 4 entries in each of the following events: Student Congress, PF Debate, LD Debate and PD Debate. In speech, schools are permitted to register a maximum of 14 entries in speech, but no more than 4 entries in any one event. We will qualify the top 6 in every event offered and, if a qualifying student is unable to compete at Nationals, the qualification will pass down to the next student in line at the Grand. Every student who is registered for the Grand should have competed in at least one BQCFL-sponsored tournament earlier in this season, OR registered in an event at a BQCFL tournament in which insufficient registration caused the event to be canceled. In that case, the registration “counts” as participation. Similarly, no school may register students if the school has not participated in 2 BQCFL-sponsored tournaments prior to the Grand. The BQCFL-sponsored tournaments prior to the Grand include: 10/25 (at TMLA), 11/08 (at MELS), 11/15 (Interleague at SFP), 12/13 (at Berkeley Carroll), 01/10 (Chaminade), 01/17 (at TMLA), and 1/31 (at SFP).

Judging: Each school should register its most experienced adult judges for this very important tournament, and judge drops will necessitate that you drop the requisite number of students. The judging quota is a little different: in speech, you must provide 1 judge for every 4 (not 5) entries (or fraction thereof), 1 judge for Congress (it you are registering students in Congress), and 1 judge for every 2 entries (or fraction thereof) in all three (3) forms of debate. No HS seniors are permitted to judge. We will continue to employ a combined pool of PF and LD judges, but PD judges will be in a separate pool. As voted on by our moderators, at this year’s Grand Tournament we will require all debate judges to complete their own judge paradigms, as found on tabroom.com. A full explanation of the paradigm (including a comprehensive guide for its completion, prepared by the NSDA) is available on tabroom to guide each debate judge. Additionally, we encourage all judges to enter the NSDA website and click on “NSDA Learn” under the “Programs” drop-down menu to review its judging instructions and MultiCultural Competency Training.

Schedule: The Grand is also a longer competitive day than our regular season tournaments. In speech there are 4 preliminary rounds plus a final round. We count each student’s best 3 preliminary round scores in determining which students will advance to the final round. We expect to advance at least 6 entries in each event to the finals, and possibly 7 or 8, depending on the number of registrants. In Student Congress there will be 2, 2-hour preliminary sessions followed by a 2-hour SuperSession. All legislation in the packet is eligible to be debated. In PF and LD Debate we will offer 4 single-flighted preliminary rounds to be followed by elims, if necessary. In Policy Debate we hope to offer 3 preliminary rounds to be followed by elims, if necessary. Please note that this schedule is our traditional Grand schedule of events, but if the Directorate feels there is a need to adjust the schedule in any way, we will do so and communicate any changes to coaches ASAP.

We ask everyone to arrive promptly at MELS so we can start on time. Please make sure that everyone from your school arrives absolutely no later than 9:15 AM. This includes all competitors and judges. As always, inform one of the directorate of drops as they occur. We’d like to begin round 1 in all events as close to 9:45 AM, if possible. The extra round of speech makes this a longer day than usual, so starting promptly is a top priority.

Extemp Topic Areas: US Foreign Policy, Global Economics, Conflicts and Tensions in Africa, US Legal and Constitutional Issues, and Latin American Affairs.

Congress Docket: Legislation is posted to the tournament’s tabroom page and linked here. The specific legislation to be debated is at the discretion of debaters: all legislation on the docket is eligible.

We will use the February Topics in PF and LD.

Finances: All outstanding debts to the BQCFL must be paid by or at the Grand. This includes all tournament registration fees (depending upon the sliding scale of payment that applies to your school) as well as NCFL annual dues ($60). Please remember that your students will not be permitted to compete in this tournament if your school owes any money whatsoever to the BQCFL. All debts must be satisfied in advance. If you’re unsure if your school is in arrears, please contact Chip Frodella, our Finance Director, to review your financial status. Payment may be made via check, credit, debit, or Zelle/Venmo to Financial Director Chip Frodella.