Papillion-LaVista High School Tournament of Kings

Debate Tournament

Papillion LaVista High School

42 E. Centennial Drive, Papillion, NE 68046

(coach) 402-682-1506

The PLHS Debate Tournament will take place on December 16, 2017.  We will offer competition in Policy, Lincoln Douglas, Congressional Debate and Public Forum.   

This tournament will follow all NSAA bylaws.  This is a high school only tournament.  Students must be eligible according to NSAA and may only compete for the school in which they are currently enrolled.  The NSAA bylaws can be viewed at nsaahome.org.  Additional disclaimers exist at the bottom of this invitation.

Schedule (is tentative and will adjust according to efficiency and number of entries) –

Awards (tentatively being planned) –

¨      Policy – Five speaker awards in each division, along with team awards for semifinal and final participants.

¨      Congress – A gavel to the presiding officer as well as medals to the top six speakers and a trophy to the champion in each house.

¨      Lincoln-Douglas – Five speaker awards in each division along with awards for quarterfinalists and above.

¨      Public Forum – Five speaker awards in each division along with awards for quarterfinalists and above.

¨      Sweepstakes – Trophy will be awarded to the top team.

Online Entry –

Entries will only be accepted online via www.tabroom.com.  Deadline for entries is Wednesday, December 13, 2017.   Fees and judge requirements will be assessed at this time.  Changes or drops can be emailed after this date to tiffany.bukacek@gmail.com.

Fees –

Policy Team -- $25                                          Lincoln-Douglas Debate -- $20

Public Forum -- $20                                         Varsity Student Congress -- $15

Novice Student Congress $15 

Judge Coverage (judges are obligated to one round beyond their team’s elimination)

n  Policy -- One judge per two teams.  May be hired for $200.  (We really need your judges.)

n  Lincoln-Douglas – One judge per two debaters.  May be hired for $150

n  Public Forum – One judge per two teams.  May be hired for $150

n  Congressional Debate – One judge per six debaters or part thereof.  May be hired for $10 per debater.

** as we are all aware, judges can be hard to come by, please make every attempt to bring your own judges as hired judges will be limited and may result in entries being denied.

Policy Debate –

Varsity and Novice divisions will have four prelims (powered after two) breaking to semis (or whichever makes sense based on number of entries).

Lincoln-Douglas Debate –

We will be using the November/December topic. Novice topic will be the same as the Varsity topic. Will follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 format with 4 minutes prep time.  Varsity and novice divisions will have five prelims (powered after two) breaking to quarters (or whichever makes sense based on number of entries).

Public Forum Debate –

We will use the December topic. Novice topic will be the same as the Varsity topic. Varsity and Novice divisions will have five prelims (powered after two) breaking to quarters (or whichever makes sense based on number of entries). 

Congress –

Bills can be found on Google Docs

¨      We will utilize NFL style of congress at this tournament. Each school will be assessed a judging fee for each six students.  This fee will be $60.  You can alleviate this fee by bringing a judge for each six entries.  This fee will be prorated.  So, if you bring three students you can pay $30 or bring a judge.  Your judges may only be used for ½ a day in congress, so please let me know which other event they would be willing to judge.  These judges will all be finished before awards. 

¨      Note – these judges will only point record.  There will be three point recorders in each session.  These point recorders will switch at noon.  There will be no student vote.  The point recorders will rank each student in the session.  The parliamentarian’s vote will be used as a tiebreaker. 

¨      No computers will be allowed in congress.

Concessions --

We are planning a variety of tasty treats for you and your team, available in the Kings Corner.

Contact Info --

You may reach me via cell phone at 402-682-1506.  Email – tiffany.bukacek@gmail.com. Phil Maas is also available to respond to questions and can be reached via email – pmaas@paplv.org.

Additional Disclaimers --

For events which are designed to be team events (Policy and Public Forum debate), registration of teams intended to be maverick are NOT acceptable. This exception was originally created when one team member fell ill or otherwise could not make it the morning of competition and would enable the lone teammate who could still attend to participate at the last minute. Team debate is designed for teams - therefore, planning to attend a tournament as a single participant instead of as a team will not be allowed. This is how the NSCTA State Championship tournament is conducted and will be conducted this way at our tournament as well.

Additionally, any entries in a novice division must be a competitor (for team events, BOTH competitors on the team) who is in their first year of debate competition. This means if the student has earned ANY NSDA points prior to August of this year, they are NOT a novice. If they had 1 competition last year, but was for a different event - it does not matter - they are no longer a novice and our tournament will not accept their entry at the novice level. If you believe an exception should be made, we will consider this if you submit a request as this exception is understandable for policy debate in many situations, as in others.

Any other rulings which are made during the tournament and have not been spelled out are at the discretion of the tournament director. All rulings will attempt to be made according to commonly accepted principles and it is understood, not every rule is spelled out and may need to be a judgment call based on existing situations. Please be patient and understand we are making every attempt to be fair and maintain typical tournament standards and expectations.

Head Coach – Tiffany Bukacek

Assistant Coach – Phil Maas