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Welcome to Dardanelle High School and the opening tournament of the River Valley Speech and Debate League’s fifth season! We’re excited to welcome students, coaches, judges, families, and guests for two days of speech, debate, learning, and community.

This year’s “We’re Just Peachy” Season Opener is an in-person state-qualifying tournament for the Arkansas State Championshiphosted at Dardanelle High School.

Why “We’re Just Peachy”?

The name goes all the way back to RVSDL’s very first tournament in 2022.

Our trophy shop accidentally misspelled SPEECH as SPEACH on the league’s trophy nameplates. Rather than let a small mistake ruin the day, we laughed, rolled with it, and decided we were “just peachy.”

What began as an inside joke tournament name became a pretty good description of the league we wanted to build: welcoming, flexible, good-humored, and more interested in growth and opportunity than perfection.

Five years later, we’re still Peachy.

Our Mission

The River Valley Speech and Debate League was founded to provide local, affordable, robust competition for students in the River Valley, with particular attention to smaller schools and programs that may have limited resources.

Our original service area centered on Yell, Logan, Pope, Conway, Perry, and Johnson Counties, along with free instructional resources, workshops for teachers and students, and regular opportunities to compete close to home.

While state qualification requirements have changed how qualifying tournaments must operate, our purpose has not: keep barriers low, create meaningful opportunities, follow the rules, and advocate for students—especially those from small-school programs.

Tournament Events

This tournament currently includes Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, Impromptu Speaking, Poetry, Declamation, Duet Improv, Storytelling, Dramatic/Song Lyric Interpretation, IPDA Debate, and Public Forum Debate.

We also continue working to expand access for multilingual competitors, including opportunities involving Spanish-language debate, Spanish-language interpretation, and English-language performance opportunities for ESL students when entries and tournament logistics permit.

Our Schedule Is a Little Different

RVSDL tournaments intentionally use an unconventional Thursday/Saturday split. Please check the posted tournament schedule carefully so you know when your events occur.

Our individual-event preliminary rounds also work differently from many tournaments.

Rather than performing Poetry once Thursday, once Saturday morning, and once Saturday afternoon, for example, competitors may be assigned a single approximately two-hour event block. During that block, they perform their piece three separate times for three preliminary-round judges.

In other words, competitors function almost like they are “double entered” within the same event block: they move between assigned rooms and complete all three prelim performances during that window.

This system allows us to offer substantial competition while keeping the tournament compact and affordable.

Students and coaches should read the schedule carefully. Do not assume the tournament follows a traditional round-by-round format.

Before You Arrive

Please use the Documents / Uploaded Files section of this Tabroom tournament as your primary source for tournament information.

There you will find the materials you need, including the:

Tournament Guide • Schedule • Event Rules • Procedures • Additional Tournament Information

Please review those documents before contacting tournament staff with logistical questions; many common questions are answered there.

Judges & Tournament Costs

This is a small, community-centered tournament, and keeping participation affordable is a major part of our mission.

For that reason, we are not seeking paid judging services and are not interested in solicitations or requests to hire paid judges. Our tournament relies on school-provided judges, coaches, volunteers, alumni, parents, and members of our community.

Avoiding unnecessary judging and staffing expenses is one of the ways we are able to keep tournament costs low for participating schools and students.

We appreciate those who want to support speech and debate; the best way to support this tournament is by helping us preserve the affordable, community-based model on which the league was founded.

Most Importantly—Welcome.

Whether this is your first speech and debate tournament or one of hundreds, we hope you find a place here to compete seriously, learn something, meet people, take some risks, and enjoy the experience.

We believe competition can be rigorous without becoming hostile, rules can matter without losing our humanity, and small schools deserve access to meaningful competitive opportunities.

That was true when a misspelled trophy plate started an inside joke in 2022.

It is still true as we begin Year Five.

Welcome to Dardanelle. Welcome to RVSDL.

We’re Just Peachy.