Speech and Debate Information

Location: Lindale High School is located at 920 E. Hubbard St. Lindale, TX 75771.  You may get personalized directions by visiting clicking here.

Hotels: There are several great options for hotels that are located right off of I-20 and along Highway 69.  Contact Rory McKenzie for more details.  We also have a hotel page with our recommendations.

Entries:  Entries will be accepted until our spaces are filled.  We have a limited number of rooms, so plan on entering early!  All entries dropped after 4:00 pm on Monday, October 24^th will lose their original entry fee.  Drops made after 5:00 pm on October 28^th may lose their entry fee AND receive a fee worth the original entry fee.  We reserve the right to charge nuisance fees for drops that are not communicated with us in a timely fashion.  Get your drops in AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!!!  Please text or call us on Saturday morning if you have speech and debate drops.

You will have the ability to make changes on this site up until the day before the tournament.  Please email any changes after that point.  Communication between sponsors and the tournament directors prior to the tournament is of the utmost importance in running a tournament that gets out on time or early.  Please help us in this endeavor.  We encourage all sponsors to text day-of drops ahead of time to Rory McKenzie (903-245-9150) so that it does not delay the beginning of the tournament.  This includes any judge changes as well.

Entry Limits: The only entry limit is our building capacity.  Please utilize our waitlist and we will update it as frequently as we can!

Cross-Entering: In debate, students may enter one debate event.  Students may enter as many speech events as they like, but if they enter more than two, we will not hold rounds for them and they compete at their own risk.  In academics, students should pay attention to the schedule to make sure they are not conflicting.  Students may enter academic events and debate events but do so at their own risk.  We will not hold rounds for academics.

Awards: We will offer 1^st through 6^th in every academic event as well as debate, speaking, and interp events.  For the UIL academic events, we will award a first-place team plaque for the events that have a team award in each division.  A top journalism and speech team will be given as well.  Awards for academic events will be given at verification for those events.  At verification, sponsors can pick up their tests as well as any awards they received.

Judges/Graders:

• Cross-Examination Debate – One judge for every two entries, or portion thereof.
• Lincoln-Douglas – One judge for every four entries, or portion thereof. 
• Congressional Debate  – One judge for every six entries, or portion thereof.
• Individual Events – One judge for every six entries, or portion thereof.
• Academic Events – One grader for each event you have students participating.

NOTE: Speech and debate judges can fulfill multiple quotas, with the following exceptions.

o   Judges may fulfill one debate (CX, LD, PF) commitment.

o   Academic event graders should check the schedule to see if they are able to grade and judge.  A replacement judge may be necessary.  The system will not allow academic graders to also judge speech and debate events.  If this fits with your schedule and you believe that you can do both, please email Rory.

*All judges must be entered on the website by Monday, October 24^th at 5:00 pm or you will be assessed missing judge fees.  After this time your judge fees will be assessed even if you bring an extra judge with you.  We need to get an accurate idea of how many judges to hire.  Provided judges are always preferred to fees.  Schools of judges who are scheduled to judge rounds and do not pick up ballots will be assessed a fee of $25 for every missed round.  We would prefer you bring judges as opposed to paying fees, but if you are paying fees we just need to get an accurate idea of how many outside judges to hire.  Committing to a judge and then not providing that judge will result in a missing judge fee assessed on the day of the tournament.

Topics:

• Cross-Examination Debate – 2022-2023 NFHS Topic
• Lincoln-Douglas Debate – Fall UIL Topic; (Depending on interest, we may had a separate division for the Universal Healthcare Topic.)
• Congressional Debate – The current TFA docket will be used. ***Update: 3,5,7,9,11 (Prelims) and 6,10,12,13,16 (Finals)

Fees:

• Missing Judge - $125
• Individual Event - $10
• LD, Congress Entry - $20
• CX Entry - $40
• Academic Entry - $10

Payment of Fees: Schools should bring a check payable to Lindale High School Speech and Debate to cover all fees.  If you are not able to have a check prepared in time, please have proof of payment and leave a copy of it with the registration table.  All accounts must be paid in full within 30 days.  All delinquent accounts are subject to a $100 fee.

Student Behavior: All competitors and visitors are held to the rules and regulations of the Lindale Independent School District.  A coach (or another teacher) from every school, or a parent must be on campus at all times while students from the said school are present.  Parents/Guardians may attend the tournament with (and be responsible for) their child(ren) if a school representative is unavailable.  Failure to comply with these guidelines may result in forfeiting the school from competition.

Other Notes:

• We will make every effort as a tournament to run on schedule and will attempt to accelerate when possible.  We ask for your patience and cooperation in the event that this is not possible.
• We believe that oral critiques and disclosure are valuable teaching tools in debate.  However, due to the incredibly tight schedule, we are asking that all judges turn in ballots within five minutes of the last speech.  Critiques can be given after the ballot has been turned in.  An oral critique does not replace a well-written ballot, as that is helpful communication at this time of the year between the judge and coach.
• During the tournament, we will provide a hospitality room for coaches and judges and a concession stand for competitors.  Schools are free to bring their own food or (if time permits) leave campus for lunch and are asked to clean up all trash in tournament common areas.
• Questions should be directed to Rory McKenzie.