District 3 Debate Tournament

Friday and Saturday, February 27-28, 2026

Owyhee High School

Welcome to the 2026 D3 District 3 Debate Tournament, the IHSAA state debate qualifier!

Site: Owyhee High School, 3650 N. Owyhee Storm Ave, Meridian

Entry Deadlines:

Entries - due Wednesday, February 25 at 5:00 pm

Judges - due Thursday, February 26 at 5:00 pm

Schedule: Friday, February 27 - Rounds start at 4:00 pm

Saturday, February 28 - Rounds start at 8:00 am

Events: Friday/Saturday - Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum (2 rounds Friday and 4 rounds Saturday)

Saturday - World Schools Debate and Congressional Debate (4 rounds WSD and 2 sessions of Congress)

Schedule: See the tab for specifics on the approximate schedule (subject to change)

Judges: Make sure your entries are covered, and coaches may be entered as judges to help cover your entry. If you do not have enough judges, you will be asked to reduce your entry so it is covered.

Host Site Details:

Concessions: There will be limited concessions available. There are NO food options around, so come prepared!

Parking: Owyhee High School's school day ends at 2:39 pm on Friday, and the parking lots should be pretty clear by 3:00. Please have your students arrive after this time as there is one road that gets in and out of campus, and it can be a nightmare to navigate that one road if you are trying to do so at the same time the students are trying to leave. Bus loops are located behind the school at the north entrance. Competitors should park in the north parking lot (gymnasium, auditorium, big "O" sign), as this entrance will lead you straight into the Commons. Coaches and judges may also park in the west parking lot (flagpole, Owyhee High School sign) if you want, as this entrance will lead you right to the stairway leading to the judges' lounge and tab room. Judges will be in the library/media center; the tab room is in room 200, the classroom directly adjacent to the library.

Side note, you will notice a weird-looking detour if you enter from the south (Ustick). You cannot turn onto Owyhee Storm Road from Ustick at this time, so follow the detour signs to enter directly into our south lot on a temporary road. On Saturday, there won't be any issues with parking anywhere, but please do not have your students arrive before 7:15 am or so. I will arrive between 7:00 and 7:15 to unlock the doors and get rolling. Your students will wait in cold darkness until 7:15. I will probably make them wait outside until 7:30 for their (and your) insolence.

Required Forms: Coaches need to complete and upload, to tabroom, the Principal Verification Form and the Entry Seeding Form. These are located on tabroom.com.

Topics:

PF Debate will use the February topic.

LD Debate will use the January/February topic.

Congress will use the Spring D3 legislative packet.

World School will use, for the prepared topic: "This House, as the Federal Trade Commission, would ban online sports betting." Each team will debate this topic once on each side. The other 2 rounds will be impromptu topics.

Coach Pairing Session: Friday, February 27 - 11:30 am at OHS, Room 202 (Brendan's Classroom)

Reminder about entry restrictions: As this is the state qualifier, schools are limited to a total of 16 entries, with no more than 8 entries in any one format (this is total entries, not total people).

Questions? Please contact tournament manager Jeffrey Stoppenhagen at jeffrey.stoppenhagen@vallivue.org or tournament host Brendan Malloy at malloy.brendan@westada.org. Thank you!