Hello! Hello! IHSSA Debate Directors!

We are beyond excited to host your school at the 2025 IHSSA State Debate tournament this weekend, January 10/11. We are thrilled you are offering your students this forever opportunity! The tournament will be held at the Ankeny campus of DMACC. Building 5 will house the tournament headquarters. Please review this MAP of the campus.

Some reminders of rules/regulations for the IHSSA tournament:

1. SCHEDULE: Registration will be in building #5 (Student Center) between 10:30 - 11:15 on Friday. Round 1 of Policy, Lincoln-Douglas, and Public Forum begins at 12:30 pm on Friday. 

JUDGE REMINDERS: a required Public Forum for all coaches/ judges at 11:30 in the Little Theatre.

Student Congress Judges has a General Meeting at 12:30.  

LD/POLICY Judges will have a check-in at 12:15. 

Saturday's first round for all events is at 8:00 am. 

Review the full schedule HERE.

2. PAYMENT: FULL payment is required prior to the contest or on the day of. A PO is not a sufficient form of payment. Please be responsible and pay your entry fees in full prior to the event.   

3. JUDGES HIRE: Each school is responsible for hiring their own judges. If you would like an IHSSA Judge hire, it is $200/Judge. 

4. JUDGE NO SHOW FINE: If your own hired judge does not show, your school will be assessed a $200 PER round fine.  

5. IHSSA Constitution Rules: Please make certain you are familiar with the rules for the events found at this IHSSA CONSTITUTION Link. In addition here is the IHSSA POLICY regarding the USE OF AI LINK. Additional constitutional updates can be found HERE. 

6. ONLINE BALLOTS: PF, LD, and Policy judges will use online ballots through Tabroom.com; paper ballots will not be printed. Judges, please make sure you bring a laptop or tablet to complete your ballots! If you're new to online ballots, review this how-to sheet.

7. ONLINE PAIRINGS: Pairings for PF, LD, and Policy will be released online through Tabroom.com. Students can navigate to ihssa.tabroom.com and click the Pairings tab to see when and where they are debating.

8. PARADIGMS: Judges in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas must have a judging paradigm. Please log in to Tabroom and click "Paradigm" under the Judging header on the right side of your account. Answer the questions found on this form for Policy and this form for LD in your paradigm.

9. HIRING: We are hiring LD and Policy judges! Please email Lauren Burdt (lauren.burdt@speechanddebate.org) if you know judges available to be hired in those events. 

10. FOOD: Food options including vegetarian and gluten-free options will be available onsite by Johnston Booster Club will be serving food Friday from 12:00 NOON - 6:00 PM and also all day Saturday.  You are encouraged to support the Booster Club as they are filling a need for our IHSSA Family.  We appreciate their willingness to assist the IHSSA. Likewise, they will certainly appreciate your willingness to support them. 

11. PF JUDGING: Because we host two divisions of Public Forum, the Judges tab of your school's Tabroom registration will show that your school's judges are in a different division than your competitors. As long as your judging tab is not highlighted red, that means your obligation is covered and no action is needed! Feel free to reach out to me to confirm you're all set if you have questions.

12. CHARACTER COUNTS…GREATLY!: Please review with your students expectations about taking care of facilities and leaving things better than we found them.  We are most grateful to DMACC for their generous partnership with the IHSSA and hope to continue this relationship. 

Last reminder - don't forget to enter judges by the 11:59 pm deadline on December 19. 

In the spirit of speech education,

Lauren Burdt, IHSSA Debate Contest Manager & Stacy Hansen, IHSSA Executive Director