We are pleased to invite you to participate in the Sixteenth Annual Broad Run Spartan Invitational Speech & Debate Tournament, to be held at Broad Run High School in Ashburn, Virginia. Your students will be able to choose from nine Speech events — Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Original Oration, Poetry Reading, Prose Reading, Storytelling, and Impromptu — and four debate events (Student Congress, JV & Varsity Lincoln-Douglas, JV & Varsity Policy Debate, and JV & Varsity Public Forum).

The tournament will be held Saturday, January 28, 2017.
Broad Run is located at 21670 Ashburn Road, Ashburn, Virginia 20147.

Congress Legislation Packet is available on the menu to the right.

This tournament-created agenda ensures a diversity of authors and topics, and is designed to fairly provide a challenging range of debate based on the legislation submitted and the time available during sessions. Legislation is included in the packet on the basis of school affiliation, not author, and selections were made to create a reasonable research expectation for all attendees. No legislation was excluded due to quality. 

Note that Pairings and Balloting for Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, and Public Forum will be online this year (Pairings and room assignments will be texted/emailed to competitors and judges). This will provide significant improvements to tournament management and competitor and judge communications. Consequently, all competitors and judges must have Tabroom.com accounts linked to your team's Competitors and Judges Tabroom Rosters. 
Instructions for setting up accounts and online balloting are on the menu to the right.

There is no school fee

$30 per Public Forum or Policy team

$20 per Lincoln-Douglas or Congress team

$20 per Speech entry (Duo Interp is $25)

$60 per hired judge (limited availability; request early)

Dates & Deadlines:

Congress legislation is due by January 6. 

 Checks must be made out to "Broad Run Debate & Speech" and mailed to—

Ron Richards
Broad Run High School
21670 Ashburn Road
Ashburn, Virginia 20147-4710

—or turned in at tournament registration. (Please, no cash, and do not make checks out to Broad Run High School.)

Registration for all events is 8:00 – 8:30 am at Tab (Library). This schedule is tentative. Each round will be announced via text and email, as well as paper postings in the Cafeteria and Judges Lounge. Student Congress sessions are 8:45 – 12:00 and 1:00 – 4:00.

Tentative Schedule

Student Congress will consist of two three-hour sessions (morning and afternoon); topics are not predetermined, but legislation must be appropriate to the event, and designed to promote debate. The agenda is determined by the tournament in a random pattern to vary topics and the region of sponsorship; the order of debate can be amended, but requires a 2/3 vote. Each speech will begin with a mandatory one-minute questioning period (the first affirmative or negative speech on each piece of legislation will have two minutes), supplemented with direct questioning in 30-second blocks of back-and-forth between the speaker and questioners recognized by the presiding officer.

Laptops are allowed for flowing and evidence retrieval, but absolutely no connectivity allowed. Each chamber will set a legislative agenda prior to the first Session, and may include any piece of legislation published in the tournament packet in any order, even if the author (or representative of the author’s school) is not present.

Legislation is due by 11:59 pm, Friday, January 6, and will be published by Monday, January 9. Submit it to BRHSCongress@gmail.com. Legislation must be submitted using the Congress Bill and Congress Resolution templates provided via the links in the menu to the right.

We will follow NCFL rules. Review the tournament Congress Packet for specifics on format, schedule, judging/scoring, and other procedures (available on the menu on the right). All competitors and judges should be knowledgeable of its contents. (WACFL and VHSL schools, be advised that there are differences from WACFL and VHSL tournament Student Congress sessions.)

Entry Fee:  $20.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-5 entries. You may not cover Congress entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. A judge orientation will be offered at 8:30 AM.

We offer two divisions of Lincoln-Douglas, Varsity and JV. We will use the NSDA January-February resolution, “Resolved: Public colleges and universities in the United States ought not restrict any constitutionally protected speech.”

Entry Fee:  $20.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-4 entries. You may not cover LD entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM at the tournament. Ballots are submitted online, so Lincoln-Douglas judges must have linked Tabroom.com accounts, and laptops are recommended (other devices with wifi capability will work, but adding RFD and Comments text is easier on a full keyboard). Instructions for account set-up, linking to the team roster, and ballot submission are available on the Info menu to the right.

We offer two divisions of switch-side Policy, Varsity and JV. We, of course, are using the NSDA 2016-17 resolution, “Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its economic and/or diplomatic engagement with the People’s Republic of China.”

 Entry Fee:  $30.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-2 entries. We ask that you make every effort to provide experienced judges, and you may not cover Policy entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM.  Ballots are submitted online, so Policy judges must have linked Tabroom.com accounts, and laptops are recommended (other devices with wifi capability will work, but adding RFD and Comments text is easier on a full keyboard). Instructions for account set-up, linking to the team roster, and ballot submission are available on the Info menu to the right.

There are two divisions of PF, Varsity and JV. We are using the NSDA February resolution, “Resolved: In order to better respond to international conflicts, the United States should significantly increase its military spending.”

Entry Fee:  $30.

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-4 entries. You may not cover Policy entries with judges from other divisions. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM the day of the tournament.  Ballots are submitted online, so Public Forum judges must have linked Tabroom.com accounts, and laptops are recommended (other devices with wifi capability will work, but adding RFD and Comments text is easier on a full keyboard). Instructions for account set-up, linking to the team roster, and ballot submission are available on the Info menu to the right.

The tournament includes competition in Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Original Oration, Poetry Reading, Prose Reading, Storytelling, and Impromptu. Our tournament’s timing has always been intended to provide a warm-up to Virginia High School League (VHSL) conference and regional competitions. The Spartan Invitational will be able to give VHSL competitors an opportunity to polish their performances, and everyone the ability to extend their tournament season.

Entry Fee:  $20 (Duo Interp is $30).

Judges: Schools must provide one judge per 1-6 entries. You may not cover Speech entries with judges from other events. A limited number of hired judges may be available at $60 per judge. We will offer a judge orientation at 8:30 AM.

In Policy, Public Forum, and Lincoln-Douglas debate, medals will be presented to each of the top three speakers. Trophies will be presented to the top three entries in each division of Debate and Speech. The top four entries in Student Congress will receive a trophy. A sweepstakes trophy for each category of competition will be presented to the top school in the corresponding category, and a beautiful, overall sweepstakes trophy, the Spartan Cup, which rivals the best college tournament cups, will be awarded to the school with the most sweepstakes points in all five events.

 Food and snacks will be available for purchase in the morning and for lunch, served by the Broad Run team parents.