2024 Greenhorn Novice Speech

Invitational Tournament

Saturday, February 17, 2024

Cajon High School - 1200 Hill Drive - San Bernardino, CA

The Cajon Speech and Debate program is pleased to invite you to participate in the second Greenhorn Novice Speech Invitational on February 17th, 2024, at Cajon High School in San Bernardino. This tournament is Cowboy-themed! Have your team get in the spirit by wearing their best cowboy duds instead of suits! (Suits are okay, too - just not as much fun.)

This tournament is open to high school and middle school students in their first year of speech competition. We are offering NOVICE divisions in all CHSSA high school speech events, as well as a fun event, Tall Tales. This is a one day event with three preliminary rounds plus finals.

Students can double enter in two speech events per pattern with the exception of Extemp (single entry in pattern B).

As detailed below, some non-novice students will be eligible to judge. We encourage you to start your current students into judging while they are still competing - this is the perfect opportunity!

We reserve the right to merge events as entries warrant, but will do so to best preserve the spirit and character of each particular event. Due to the size of the Cajon program, we may limit the tournament size prior to the published registration deadline, so early registration is advised. We are looking forward to hosting all of you as we prepare our novices for the end of their first season of Speech.

DEADLINES

Registration Opens: December 20, 2023 8:00am

Registration Closes: February 13, 2023 5:00pm

Fees Freeze: February 13, 2023 5:00pm

Nuisance Fees Begin: February 13, 2023 5:00pm

Drop Deadline: February 15, 2023 5:00pm

Judging Due: February 16, 2023 10:00pm

Please contact us directly for any changes after the February 15th deadline. Late adds may be allowed if space permits.

FEES

School Fee $20

Speech $10 per entry

Duo entry $20 per entry

Please make checks payable to "Cajon High School ASB.” Institutional or personal checks are acceptable. Our school’s business office is unable to process your credit card payments. Please contact Mark Stowitts directly in order to pay through Venmo or Zelle.

JUDGES

Schools are expected to provide one judge per each five speech entries or fraction thereof. Experienced high school varsity competitors may judge as long as they 1) are current juniors or seniors and 2) have more than 250 NSDA points.

All judges should have completed the NFHS Adjudicating Speech and Debate Course and reviewed the NSDA Cultural Competency judge handout and/or video. The fee for a missing judge is $100 - but we don’t want that money, we want judges! Please contact Mark Stowitts if you have questions about your judging requirements. It is unlikely that hired judges will be available, but you can also check that with Mark.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY, and INCLUSION POLICY

We believe that the cross-cultural understanding that forensics develops in understanding how different people experience the world differently and understanding different sides of an argument is one of the most important life skills that the activity develops. We are proud to support the ongoing efforts of the NSDA and other forensics organizations to promote understanding. We will include relevant language on our ballots and address judge sensitivity during our judge training.

ACCESSIBILITY POLICY

Cajon High School is wheelchair accessible.

GENERAL RULES

School registration in part or whole may be rejected due to space considerations so please register early! The tournament will consist of three preliminary rounds of speech plus finals. We reserve the right to combine divisions if the entry warrants.

EVENT RULES

We will follow CHSSA rules for high school events plus Tall Tales rules listed in the right sidebar. Disputes will be resolved at the sole discretion of the tournament director. All original speeches are expected to be the original work of the student for the current school year.

PATTERNS

Speech Pattern A:

novice Humorous Interpretation (NHI), novice Impromptu Speaking (NIMP), novice Original Oratory (NOO), novice Original Prose and Poetry (NOPP), novice Program Oral Interpretation (POI) and novice Tall Tales (NTT).

Speech Pattern B:

novice Declamation (NDEC), novice Dramatic Interpretation (NDI), novice Duo Interpretation (NDUO), novice mixed Extemporaneous Speaking (NEXT), novice Informative (NINF), and novice Original Advocacy (NOA).