The U Invitational hosted by University Schools

Coaches and Students,

You are invited to the inaugural annual speech and debate tournament, the U Invitational, hosted by University Schools. We are excited to be able to provide schools the ability to compete this weekend, even if it has to be virtual.

Keeping with the theme of the season, we will debate live, and all interpretation events will be asynchronous, to mirror state quals. All events and debates are guaranteed 3 rounds of competition. All rounds in debate will be powermatched. 

Equity Statement: 

University High School is passionately committed to fostering equity and inclusion within the Speech & Debate community. If there are barriers to participating in our tournament (like the entry fees, being new to the activity/lack of familiarity), please contact us. 

Our program is a new one, and we are fortunate to have the support of our school community and the larger Colorado Speech community. This activity will never grow to encompass the full range of schools and students if proactive steps are not taken. Please read our full equity and inclusion statement, along with our action steps, further into this invitation.

Events: 

Asynchronous Speech/Interp: Original Oratory, Program Oral Interpretation, Duo Interpretation (Split Screen), Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, Poetry Interpretation, Informative Speaking

Synchronous Debate: Lincoln-Douglas, Public Forum, Extemporaneous Speaking (combined, but will have international and US topics from which to choose) We will be using FEB topics for the tournament.

JUDGING:  We are hoping to provide a diverse judging pool of former competitors, community members, and parents. Our goal is to increase the community interaction with the activity, so we appreciate you acknowledging lay judges may be used for debate to help train new judges to become familiar with the activity. Teams should bring 1 judge for every 4 debate entries and 1 for every 6 IE entries.  

Coaches not wishing to judge or unable to cover their judge obligations may pay an additional $20 judging fee. As we’re learning this year, with a large pool of judges, we can run things online in a very timely manner—so please recruit/bring as many as possible! Judges covering school entry obligations will not be paid. As this is our inaugural year, we will not be paying judges this year (Covid makes paying very difficult, unfortunately) but we hope to offer that in future years. We are hoping the community can donate their time to help establish this tournament.

Right now, each team has the opportunity of five entries per event. If the number of judges grows, or you can provide more judges, we can allow additional entries. Registration can be found at www.tabroom.com

• In Synchronous events, doubling is not available, as they are all occurring at the same time. 

• Asynchronous triple entering is allowed, as is crossover to no more than 1 synchronous event. 

• Finals for all events will begin ASAP following the completion of preliminary rounds.  

• All undefeated debaters will receive a 4th round, provided enough judges are available.

•  Video links for asynchronous events are due Thursday, February 4, by 7:00 p.m.

Schedule: Due to this being the initial year, University Schools drew up a schedule that would allow us to operate with a limited number of judges. We are hoping for a single flight debate and will build the schedule to reflect this, but this may not be a reality. Thankfully the cushion built in this is a non factor! 

Interp Schedule 

Navy -Info, Humor, Poetry

White - Oratory, Duo, POI, Drama 

Navy 1 - 8:00 am-9:15 am

White 1 -9:30 am-10:45 am 

Navy 2 -11:00 am-12:15 pm

White 2-12:30pm-1:45pm

Navy 3 -2:00 pm-3:15 pm

White 3 - 3:35 pm-4:45 pm

Interp Finals -4:00 pm-5:00 pm

 Debate/Extemp (draw will occur at the start of round)

 Round 1 - 8:00 am-9:15 am

Round 2 - 10:00 am-11:15 am

Round 3 - 12:00 pm-1:15 pm

Finals - 2:00 pm-3:00 pm 

*The schedule is flexible and may run earlier than planned. We will push up interps if we are able to sign up enough judges

Entries:  Each school may enter a maximum of 5 entries in each event. You may add additional entries on to the waitlist and if room permits, I will add entries in as possible. Entries will be handled on a first-come, first-served basis. Registration will occur online at www.tabroom.com. 

Entry Fees: Fees are 10 dollars per student, 20 dollars for partnered events, based on the pre-registration numbers as of Thursday Feb 4. Please make checks payable to University Schools. Mailing address: 6525 w 18th Street Greeley CO 80634 Thank you!