Dear Middle School Speech and Debate Coaches:

We would like to invite you to Olle Middle School’s ninth annual speech, drama, and debate tournament. This year, our entire tournament will occur online. We will offer the following events:

Asynchronous Events: Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Poetry, Poetry Slam, Prose, Oratory, Storytelling, Vocal Solo

Live Speaking Event (March 3-5): Extemporaneous Speaking

Live Debate Events (March 6): Congressional Debate, LD Debate, PF Debate

Rules for each event can be found by clicking on Events & Divisions to the right of your screen. You can also find information about our schedule, tournament rules, recording guidelines, and entry fees.

We will be using the NSDA Campus platform for all live events. You can test your ability to connect to NSDA Campus at https://campus.speechanddebate.org/.

As we move our tournament online, we will still attempt to provide the best judging possible. We believe that quality, constructive judging is crucial to the development of middle school performers. Consequently, our judging pool consists of trained adults from our faculty, alumni, and community, as well as carefully selected high school students who have successfully participated in high school speech, drama, and debate. 

To make sure we have enough judges, we are asking that each school provide judges for the categories they are competing in:

Asynchronous Events: 1 judge for every 12 entries

Congressional Debate: 1 judge for every 12 entries

Extemporaneous Speaking: 1 judge for every 12 entries

LD/PF Debate: 1 judge for every 4 entries

As we get closer to the tournament, I will let you know how much we plan to use your judges.

Registration will open on Thursday, February 4. When registration opens, each school will be initially limited to 6 entries per event. On Wednesday, February 10, we will begin to take entries off of the waiting list as space allows. To maintain competitive balance, we will pull evenly from all schools. You will have the ability to prioritize your waitlisted entries.

All entries (including judges) must be final by 6:00 pm on Monday, March 1. Videos for asynchronous events are also due at this time. Drops after this deadline will forfeit the original entry fee. 

A $10.00 fee will be charged for debate drops after 8:00 pm on Friday, March 5.

If you have any questions, you may contact George Tennison at (281) 983-8455 or gttennis@ga.aliefisd.net. We look forward to seeing you in March.

Sincerely,

Mr. George Tennison—Director of Speech and Debate