Santa Clara University 

Dempsey-Cronin Memorial Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament 

Santa Clara, California

Friday – Sunday, November 21-23, 2014 

For instructions on how to use Tabroom and register for the tournament, please see the full tournament invite download file on the right side of this page.

Dear Colleague: 

Santa Clara University Philalethic Debating Society invites you and your squad to participate in the Rev. James J. Dempsey SJ- Marty Cronin Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament to be held on the weekend before Thanksgiving, Friday-Sunday, November 21-23, 2014.  

The tournament is named in honor of the late Rev. James J. Dempsey, S.J. and Coach Marty Cronin. Fr. Dempsey was a long time college coach at Santa Clara University and co-founder of the collegiate Northern California Forensic Association, the regional league that exits today.  Mr. Marty Cronin was an outstanding teacher and coach at both Santa Clara University and Douglas County High School in Nevada where he was also a league officer and mentor to many debaters and secondary coaches.  He was a past officer in the Nevada state high school forensic association and active in state politics.  Both Fr. Dempsey and Marty Cronin personified what is great about forensics and debate education.

Again this year we're asking schools to call in to confirm registration the Thursday afternoon before the tourney to expedite early rounds on Friday and Saturday. We are starting ALL debate events Friday to end earlier on Sunday with elims. Sunday elimination rounds are staggered between debate and events.

If you have any questions regarding the tournament or registration, please email Melan Jaich (mjaich@scu.edu).

NB: Our Philalethic Spring Invitational will be March 27-29, 2015.

Web Registration

Entries will only be accepted on-line at http://www.tabroom.com. It will take you a few minutes to set up your school's account, but once that is done, the system is a breeze. Plus, the system will save all your judges and competitors - so when you enter the next tournament that uses this system, you will not have to type the judges and competitors names again. To enter go to www.tabroom.com. Please note that high school tournaments and college tournaments are separated. You can find the SCU Dempsey Cronin Invitational under the National Circuit (NatCir) for high schools on Tabroom.com.

Deadlines 

The system will accept entries and changes until NOON Monday, November 17, 2014. Make drops and adds on the web page after that up until the tournament begins.  All space in debate and events will be allocated on a first come, first served basis; register early.   Changes or drops after Monday, November 17, 2014 at NOON will be charged a $10 nuisance fee.  All schools must phone in Thursday, November 20, 2014, to confirm their registration to 408.554.4793.  Schools not phoning may have their registration canceled. 

Tournament Hotel 

The San Jose Airport Park Hotel (formerly Holiday Inn) will be the designated tournament hotel with a special rate for Dempsey participants with rooms for up to four people at a $79.00 rate. Please contact the hotel reservations department at (321) 800 7707 to arrange housing. The hotel also has free shuttle service to/from SCU via the VTA #10 bus.   

Fees

Use this form to compute how much you will owe at registration: 

FEES:  __1__ School Fee X $50                              = ______ 

____ number of Event entries/Congress entered X $15= _____

____ number of Duo Teams entered X $25                =_____ 

____ number of Parli. teams/P. F. teams X $50          =_____ 

____ number of LD entries X $40                              =_____ 

____ number of Policy Teams X $60                        = _____   

Penalties for Not Providing School Judges: 

____ Event entries/Congress entries uncovered X $15 = _____

 ____ Duo entries uncovered X $20                           = _____

____ Parliamentary teams/Public Forum teams X $40 = _____ 

_____L-D entries uncovered X $30                           =  _____ 

____ Policy Teams uncovered X $70                           = _____  

Total Fees = ____________ 

Please make checks payable to

 "Santa Clara Debate".  Fees are due at 'check in' at SCU the weekend of the tournament.  

Topics

L/D Debate Topic: NFL September/October Topic  

Policy Debate Topic:   National topic on Oceans 

Public Forum: NFL November Public Forum Topic                  

Parliamentary Debate: three topics will be provided each round; each team is allowed one strike each.

Divisions  

Novice and Open Division in Debate and Events except Congress. Novice is defined as a student's first year of competition. 

Patterns

Debate Pattern: Policy, Parliamentary, Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas Debate plus Congress in one pattern. 

Events Pattern: Extemporaneous/Dramatic Interpretation /Expository/Original Prose Poetry / Oratorical Interpretation/ Impromptu /Persuasive /Humorous Interpretation/Thematic Interpretation and Duo Interpretation.    All Individual Events will be combined into one pattern to make the schedule more efficient.  Double entries in Events are allowed but be warned that it may be a challenge to make it between rooms. There has been trouble in the past with double entered students being dropped from one of their events, so double enter students are your own risk!

General Tournament Rules

School registration in part or whole may be rejected due to space considerations - please register early! Every year several schools cannot attend or have their entries restricted.

The tournament will consist of six preliminary debate rounds and the three preliminary rounds of events. All divisions will receive trophies. We reserve the right to combine divisions if the entry warrants.  

Events Rules  

Generally we use CHSSA rules but there are exceptions that include:  Persuasive will include both advocacy (Original Advocacy) and other "persuasive" speeches (Original Oratory).  Extemp is combined national and international. 

For public forum prelim rounds, we will not be using coin flips to determine sides. Teams will debate the side they are given on the postings for each round. 

Parliamentary debate will have open prep, including internet, but only during prep. Only hand written notes made during prep are allowed during the debate round. 

 Semifinals will be held in individual events with 50 or more entries or the discretion of the tournament director. Undersubscribed events may waive finals. Due to scheduling, we will only be breaking to Octos in debate events, entries permitting. 

 Schools entering Duo teams should also email a list of Duo names to Mjaich@scu.edu to confirm that the web entry is correct (yes, last year we had issues with the web entry being wrong).  

Congress Rules

Congress will have one open division only. Please designate the PO's with a 'po' for every ten entries. Please note that Congress is listed under IE's. Please enter Congress judges into the IE judge pool. Please see tournament invite for Congress bills. Tournament invite can be found on the right side of this webpage. Congress bills will be posted closer to the date of the tournament.

Sweepstakes Rules

The tournament awards a sweepstakes for overall performance small and large entry schools and best speaker awards for team debate divisions.  Small schools are those schools with fewer than 20 entries.

Sweepstakes is based solely on students advancing into elimination rounds in both IE and Debate. Varsity IE entries earn 1 point for breaking into Semis and 2 points for breaking to Finals. Varsity debate entries earn 2 points for breaking to eliminations (2 points for LD entries and 4 points for Team events). Novice entries earn 1 point per student breaking to eliminations. 

Judging

Each judge covers two teams (Parli or Policy); four Public Forum teams/ four Lincoln Douglas debaters/duo entries or six event entries in each pattern. School will pay a judging penalty fee per event slot, Congress entry, Lincoln Douglas/Duo Interp or debate team not covered by school judges. Judges are committed one round past where their school drops from competition. Judges are assumed to be experienced and prepared to judge their assigned events or debate formats. Debate judges are free to determine style questions at the beginning of each round. School judges who fail to take ballots when assigned may have their team fined the aforementioned penalties per round.   Please contact us if you're unsure of your judging commitment. 

Schools with multiple judge changes during the weekend should not enter names per se but just "School Judge 1", "School Judge 2", etc.  So for example, Memorial High would add "Memorial Judge 1", "Memorial Judge 2", etc.  This would make it much easier to assign ballots at the judging table.

2014 SANTA CLARA U. Dempsey-Cronin Invitational Tournament SCHEDULE

(Please note that parking is $6 on Friday before 8pm; Free on Saturday & Sunday. There is also free street parking nearby)    Directions to SCU can be obtained from www.scu.edu. 

Thursday, November 20

4pm-9pm Confirm registration by phone (408.554.4793).  If busy leave a message and return number and we'll get back to you!

Friday, November 21

1pm-3pm   Fees Paid Debate Schools - Benson Center, Parlor A

3pm-5pm   Round I   LD and Policy Only

5pm-7pm   Round II  LD and Policy Only/Round I Parli/PoFo

7pm-9pm   Round III  LD and Policy Only/Round II Parli/Pofo

Saturday, November 22

7am-8am  Final Registration - Event ONLY Schools - Benson Center, Parlor A

8am-10am  Rd IV LD Policy /  Rd III Parli PuFo / Congress Rd 1 (Bills 1-2)*

10am-Noon  Round I  Events

Noon-2pm  Rd V LD Policy / Rd IV  Parli PuFo / Congress Rd 2 (Bills 3-4)*

2pm - 4pm Round II Events

4pm - 6pm Rd VI LD Policy / Rd V Parli PuFo / Congress Round 3 (Bills 5-6)*

6pm - 8pm  Round III Events

8pm LD and Policy Breaks

10pm Events Breaks

Sunday, November 23

8am-10am  Round VI Parli PuFo/Octos LD Policy /Congress Sems (Bills 7-8)*

10am-Noon All Individual Events Semifinals 

Noon-2pm   Octos Parli PuFo /Qts LD Policy /Congress Finals (Bills 9-10)*

2pm - 4pm    Events Finals

4pm - 6pm  Qts Parli and PuFo / Semis for LD and Policy

6pm - 8pm  Sems for Parli and PuFo / Finals for LD and Policy

8pm - 9pm  Finals Parli and PuFo Single Flighted

*Please see invite for Congress bills. Tournament invite will be found on the right side of this webpage. Congress bills will be posted closer to the date of the tournament.