Calif. Coast District Qualifier

for the 2024 National Tournament

Dear California Coast National Speech and Debate District Chapters and Affiliates:

You are cordially invited to attend this year’s qualifying tournaments for the National Speech and Debate Association’s National Tournament. The qualifying tournament for Speech, Debate, and Congress will be held at Bellarmine College Prep from March 22-24. Big Questions will be held March 30, tentatively to be held online.

Please remember, that ALL DEBATES BEGIN FRIDAY, 3/22. Please note that your judges (one per team/2 LD debaters) and students should be ready for rounds by 4:30pm.

Remember, the procedures for this tournament are very different from those at league tournaments. If you are unfamiliar with those procedures, we encourage you to check out the tournament handbook, online - Click here for the -->Tournament Operations Manual.

Please re-familiarize yourself and your team with the event rules as written in the District Tournament

Manual 23-24, as listed in the manual above. Please make sure that your students fully understand and comply with the rules; it is hoped we can avoid much frustration, time delays and hurt feelings if everyone understands and complies with these rules.

In order to enter the tournament, please keep the following in mind, and note these are requirements imposed by the National Office. We cannot make exceptions. If you do not meet all registration or financial requirements, you will not be allowed to compete.

1.Only students who are paid members of the NSDA prior to the tournament registration deadlines are eligible to enter. Therefore, all points must be on record at the National Office by Monday, March 18th.

2. All competitors must have a Tabroom account AND an NSDA account linked to your school. Students who have not done so will not be eligible for the tournament. Coaches with Tabroom access can sync student accounts to their NSDA account.

3. Schools must complete the School Consent form for each national tournament they are attending. This form can be found on Tabroom. Please be sure to upload the form or send them in before each national qualifying tournament.

4. Each student double-entering also needs to complete a “Single Entry Letter of Intent.” Entry preferences can be entered on Tabroom. Students may double enter in any two events, EXCEPT they may NOT enter both extemps nor both team debate events. If a student is entered in both an individual event and a team event, they MUST attend Nationals in the team event unless both individuals qualify in their individual events. These are due at the beginning of the tournament.

5. Entry Limits - Finally, remember that you may enter no more than 4 entries in any event. Debate teams and duos count as one entry.

And remember that your total number of entries is constrained by the total number of NSDA members/degrees you have on record seven days prior to the tournament. (This is called your chapter strength.) You can check your strength online through your NSDA account.

If you have two entries in every event, you may claim an additional two bonus entries, though you still may not enter more than four in any single event.

If you have two entries in each and every event, and would like to take advantage of your resulting bonus entries tabroom should automatically recognize this.

6. All fees owed to the NSDA MUST be paid before you are allowed to compete in the tournament. They will not let you compete if the check is in transit to Ripon. Therefore, please bring any fees owed to the national office directly to me after March 16th or included with your registration materials. Online payments

7. We have kept our entry fees the same as last year. That means entry fees are again $25/student. That means Duo, Public Forum, and Policy teams cost $50. Due to a small surplus, we are not charging district dues this year.

Please make purchase orders and checks payable to California Coast District, not to Coast Forensic League. Entry fees must be paid prior to the beginning of the qualifier. If a check has not been cut, I will take a cashier's check or personal coach's check, but students won't be allowed to compete if all fees are not paid.

Please make online payments via PayPal here.

Online payments can also be made via Zelle to the email address - cacoastdistrict@gmail.com

Checks can be sent to the following address. You can also drop off checks the day of the tournament.

California Coast District

C/o Mariel Cruz

Notre Dame San Jose

596 S. 2nd St.

San Jose, CA 95112

8. Judges: Because of exceptionally large judging requirements for this tournament, you are required to provide one judge PER ENTRY for team debate events, and 1 judge per 2 entries for LD and Speech. Congress will require 1 judge per 6 students. We will notify coaches if the judge ratio will be decreased. Please contact us if your school needs assistance in finding judges to cover your school’s commitment.

We would ideally like to have 3 judges per debate prelim, and 2 judges per speech elim. If your school has extra judges to spare, please enter them into the tournament if you can. You can also refer them to our district committee, and we will hire them for the tournament.

9. Scripts - Interpers must have an original copy of the text (book, published manuscript etc) not the cut version at the tournament. For other prepared events, although manuscripts are not required, we encourage students and coaches to have them on hand in case of protests.

Please do not hesitate to contact Mariel Cruz with any questions or concerns you may have.

The number of students we send to the National Tournament is based on the number of entries at this tournament. So please do whatever you can to help both yourselves, and your district, by taking advantage of as much of your entry limit as possible. Thank you!

Sincerely,

Your District Committee

Mariel Cruz, Chair

Committee Members - Aaron Langerman, Xavier Liu, Karen Cruz, and Scott Odekirk