North Texas Longhorns District Qualifier

for the 2021 National Tournament

Individual Events

The Individual Events portion of the North Texas Longhorn NSDA district will take place on Thursday, Friday & Saturday, February 18-20. The events that will be offered will be the main events offered by the NSDA (Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Duo Interp, Program of Oral Interp, US Extemp, Foreign Extemp, Original Oratory, and Informative Speaking). You may see the rules for those events by finding the Unified High School Manual on the NSDA website. Please be sure to find the one that is about the Pilot Rules for the district tournament. They are very similar but there are some notable differences. See the information below for the things you will need to know to effectively compete in the tournament.

TOURNAMENT LOCATION

All events will be taking place online using Tabroom.com and the NSDA Campus platform. All events, except for the extemp events, will be done asynchronously. We will provide information as to the uploading of videos for all events in a later email. That will include deadlines and expectations. We will also communicate the extemp speaking procedures and how we will conduct that online contest as well. Expect procedures similar to what you have become accustomed throughout this year.

ENTRY REMINDERS

You may enter the tournament by submitting the names of your competitors on this website. Please adhere to the entry qualifications necessary for the tournament.  You must provide the following:

·           single entry intent form  (instructions are on the information page)

·           Please note that you also must submit the titles of the interp selections your students will be using.  You also must be willing to provide the text of your original oratories as well. NSDA rules do not require the district committee to examine those unless they are called into question. You do not have to submit the original script unless the cutting is called into question. You must then be able to provide any original scripts. 

You must provide all of that information seven days prior to the tournament date. Please submit your entry and information by Thursday, February 11. Please submit proper payment with you on Thursday, February 18.  That will allow us to meet all of our necessary expenses in a timely fashion. In addition you must supply the following:

JUDGE PROCUREMENT AND PROCEDURE

All coaches are encouraged to submit names for possible judges to the district committee. The district committee will be responsible for the procurement of judges for the tournament. If you have individuals wishing to be in the judge pool for the tournament, please give their names and contact information to one of the district committee members.

We will follow these procedures in procuring judges:

Potential judge pool procured February 9

Notify judges of hiring February 11

If you know of persons interested in judging at the tournament, please have them contact David Huston (david.huston@gcisd.net) 

Please note: Because we have had difficulty in procuring judges in recent years, the district committee has determined that each school must be willing to provide up to two rounds of judging for each of the individual events and debate tournaments. Please enter that judge's name(s) on the appropriate part of this website. We will use these judges only when our hired judge pool has been exhausted or those individuals can no longer judge entries that are left in the tournament. Judges affiliated with schools may be hired by the tournament, but may not be counted against a school's obligation unless those persons are willing to be named as the school's designated judge. 

Use of computers at the tournament

We have chosen to be a pilot for the implementation of computers in all appropriate events at the tournament. In Individual Events, extemporaneous speaking competitors will be allowed to access the internet during the extemp draw. They may not communicate with other competitors or coaches while doing so. The rules for that use may be found in the Unified Manual for Piloted Events/Computer Use. As has been allowed in the past, computers may be used to store extemp files. 

TOURNAMENT DUTIES

The district committee understands the importance of this tournament. Much criticism is often leveled at individuals and the committee because of a lack of transparency and people not understanding how things are being done. That will not be the case at this tournament. All coaches will be expected to accept a role of some kind. We will need volunteers to run the extemp draw .  The district committee will make those assignments based on the entries we receive for the tournament. We ask that you accept the assignment and take your duties seriously.  Our goal is to allow any coach that wishes to fully understand how students have been assigned to sections, how judges have been assigned, how the tabulation was conducted, and how final rankings have been determined to be provided with that information. We are hoping that will minimize problems and allow all to feel as if their students indeed had the best chance possible to qualify for the national tournament. Please expect an e-mail in the week before the tournament detailing those assignments.  We thank you in advance for your cooperation in these efforts.

Special tabulation information: The NSDA is moving to an online balloting system, especially for debate, using the tabroom.com website. At the end of each round, coaches will be able to see ballots and results by logging on to the website. There is a built in audit system for the website that may supercede the need for an audit committee. 

ENTRY FEES AND PAYMENT

The entry fee schedule is listed on the information page. Please note the change in the PO Box address. Entry fees should be made out to:

North Texas Longhorn NSDA District

c/o Jordan Innerarity

PO Box 836661

Richardson, TX  75083

***SPECIAL NOTE: WE MAY BE USING CROSS EXAMINATION IN THE FINAL OF THE EXTEMPORANEOUS SPEAKING EVENTS. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOUR STUDENTS ARE PREPARED FOR THAT PROCESS. We will let  you know if we are planning on keeping that practice.