Virginia NFL District Tournament

 

 

The Virginia District of the National Forensics League will conduct its national qualifier tournament on February 3 & 4, 2012, at the Best Western Hotel in Culpeper, VA and Madison County High School in Madison, VA. The tournament is open to all schools listed as members of the Virginia District of the National Forensics League. Check the NFL website to determine your school’s eligibility ( www.nflonline.org ).

 

Locations

 

The congress tournament will be held on Friday, February 3, at the Best Western Hotel, 791 Madison Road, Culpeper, VA.  (540) 825-1253.

 

The speech and debate portions of the tournament will be held at Madison County High School, on route 29 in Madison, VA.

 

Hotel

 

Donald Hitt has arranged for a block of hotel rooms to be reserved for us at the Best Western hotel in Culpeper. The hotel is located at 791 Madison Road, Culpeper, VA.  The hotel has a block of rooms reserved for our group. The block is reserved under NFL Speech & Debate and will be open until January 15. I highly suggest that coaches estimate the number of rooms they will need and call the hotel immediately to reserve rooms within this block!  The hotel number is 540-825-1253. Do not book more rooms than you will need! The rooms are reserved at $77 plus tax per night.

 

Any team bringing a bus to the hotel site—either for lodging or just for the competition—MUST park it behind the hotel and NOT in front of the hotel!

 

Events

 

 The tournament will feature competition in all NFL events, including original oration, international extemporaneous speaking, domestic extemporaneous speaking, dramatic interpretation humorous interpretation, duo interpretation, Lincoln-Douglas debate, Public Forum debate, policy debate, and student congress. The tournament will follow NFL rules for all events, so schools are encouraged to check the NFL website (www.nflonline.org ) to obtain the specific rules for each event.

 

Entry limits:

·        Entry limits are determined by the NFL based upon the number of memberships and degrees the school has on file with the national office one week prior to the tournament. Coaches should make sure they are entering all points for all students into the NFLonline database on a monthly basis. No student will be allowed to register unless he/she has earned NFL membership by the date of registration. Coaches can view their school’s entry limits by accessing the NFLonline website via this link: http://www.nflonline.org/points_application/reports.php ; enter the number “098” in the blank for district and hit enter. This action will bring up the district page where the entry limits are listed.

 

·        In order to send a full delegation to the national tournament, the district tournament must meet the following minimum quotas:

o       Congress—minimum of eight schools entering at least one person in the Senate chamber.

o       Paired events (CX, PF, DUO)—minimum of 10 teams in each event.

o       Individual events (IX, DX, HI, DI, OO)—minimum of 12 entries in each event.

 

·        The district committee asks that each school attending the tournament commit to entering at least one person in the Senate chamber of Congress and one student in either DX or IX to help us meet these minimum requirements.

 

·        If the district meets the quotas listed above, we will qualify for the District Bonus offered by the National Executive Board and will be able to send three in each event (except congress) to the national tournament instead of two.

 

·        Schools are limited to a maximum of four entries in each separate category.

 

Double Entry:

·        NO DOUBLE ENTRY will be permitted for students entered in CX, LD, and PF. In order for the tournament to run efficiently and finish at a reasonable hour on Saturday night, the debate and speech portions of the tournament must run concurrently, so double entry between speech and debate is not feasible. Double entry in two debate events is absolutely not feasible. All competitors are welcome to enter the Congress portion of the tournament since it is technically a separate tournament and precedes the opening of the debate and speech portions of the tournament.

·        Competitors may double enter in speech events; however, a student should not enter both IX and DX, nor should a student enter both HI and DI.

·        Each student is allowed to enter two events PLUS Congress.

 

Fees

 

In order to keep the costs of the tournament to a minimum while providing trophies, hospitality for the judges’ lounge and covering operational costs, tournament fees will be as follows:

 

School entry fee                                     $25

DI, HI, OO, LD                                     $10

CX                                                           $25

PF, DUO                                                 $15

IX AND DX                                          $0.00

CONGRESS                                        $12.00

 

Congress will be held at the Best Western Hotel in Culpeper, VA. A buffet lunch will be provided to the participants. The lunch is included in the registration fee.

 

Because international extemp and domestic extemp have traditionally been areas of low entry, this year entries in those two areas will have no entry fee. PLEASE enter at least one student in extemp.

 

Late Entries:

 

Late entries will NOT be accepted UNLESS acceptance of said entries would allow the tournament to meet the minimum quotas for competition. Any late entry that is accepted will be charged $5 per entry in addition to the regular entry fees stated above.

 

Registration

 

Registration will only be accepted through the Joy of Tournaments website. Go to www.joyoftournaments.com  and register your school if you do not already have an account there –there is no charge to set up an account. Once you have registered your school with the website, the link for tournament registration will be www.joyoftournaments.com/nfl/va .If you encounter problems, email me, and I will try to guide you through the process. Registration must be complete by midnight on January 27 After January 27, all fees are final. If a student cannot attend and must drop, please email me immediately—on-site drops will throw the entire tournament off schedule.

 

 

Judge Quotas:

 

HI, DI, DUO, DX, IX, OO                                   1 judge for every 4 entries.

LD, PF                                                                   1 judge for every 3 entries

CX                                                                         1 judge for every 2 entries

Congress                                                                1 judge per school

 

We will need a lot of judges to make this tournament run. NFL requires that we use three judge panels in each speech event starting with round one. In the debate events, we will use single judge panels until eight teams/LDers remain; at that point we must use three judge panels.

 

If a team is hiring a judge to cover their entries and that judge does not have a close affiliation with that team’s competitors, please email me the  name of that judge and the areas he or she is qualified to judge.

 

It is vital that we be able to use all of the judges who are at the tournament site. For this reason, we ask that each coach specify EVERY event that a judge is qualified to judge. If a team brings John Doe to cover their obligation in LD, and John Doe is also qualified to judge PF and the speech events, then the coach should write “can also judge PF and speech” in the comments section for that judge when completing the registration on the website.

 

If a school is hiring a judge who would also be clean to judge students from that school, please email me with that judge’s name! We need to identify as many clean judges a possible to make the tournament run more smoothly.

 

 

The school entry fee will be used to cover custodial expenses and provide hospitality to the judge’s lounge.

 

 

Awards

Awards will be presented to the finalists in individual speech events and the top six competitors in the debate events.

The top 2 Senators and the top congress person in each chamber of the house will qualify for the national tournament IF the minimum requirement of 12 participating schools is met.

 

The top three entries in each of the speech and debate events will advance to the national tournament IF the minimum number of entries is met in each event.

 

Concessions:

 

Food for students will be available for purchase at the school site.

 

Congress

 

 Congress Legislation: Each school may submit up to three pieces of legislation (one economic, one domestic, and one foreign) for consideration. The legislation should be signed as being submitted by the school, not by an individual student. Please follow the formatting guidelines in the NFL district tournament manual (available at nflonline.org). Email all legislation to archpainter@earthlink.net by January 15, 2012. Coaches, please proofread the legislation and make sure it makes sense. The chair reserves the right to reject any legislation that is improperly formatted or is incoherently phrased. Once potential legislation has been received, it will be perused and 10-15 items will be selected for the docket. The docket will be pre-set for the tournament. Students may amend the docket once the first three pieces of legislation have been debated. Handling the docket in this manner allows all competitors to prepare speeches on at least one piece of legislation and be assured the assembly will actually get to debate that legislation.

 

 

Tentative Schedule

 

Friday, February 3

 

Student Congress:

Registration                                   8:00—8:30 am at the Best Western Hotel, Culpeper

Session One                                    8:30—11:30

Lunch                                             11:30—12:15 (eat in chambers)

Session Two                                    12:15—3:15

 

Speech & Debate:

Registration                                   3:30—4:00 pm at MCHS Auditorium

 

4:30                             Extemp draw

4:30                             Round One CX

5:00                             Round One (all other events)

6:15                             Round Two CX

6:45                             Round Two  ( LD, PF) Extemp draw

7:15                             Round Two Speech events

8:30                             Round Three (LD, PF, CX)

                                   

It is our hope to have all rounds finished for the evening by 10 pm.

 

Saturday, February 4

 

7:30 am                       Registration/ Judge check-in

7:45                             Extemp draw

8:00                             Round Three Speech events (extemp will begin fifteen minutes later)

8:00                             Round Four (LD, PF, CX)

10:00                           Round five (LD, PF)

10:00                           Semi-finals in extemp

11:00                           round five CX

11:30                           Semi-finals in OO, DUO

12:00                           Round Six  (LD, PF)

12:30                           Semi-finals in DI, HI

1:30                             Round Six CX

1:30                             Extemp draw for final round

2:00                             Final round in Extemp, OO, and DUO

2:00                             Round Seven (LD, PF)

3:30                             Final round in DI, HI

4:00                             Round Seven CX

4:30                             Round Eight (LD, PF)

6:30                             Round eight CX

6:30                             Round Nine (LD,PF)

 

Award as soon as the last tabulation is completed.

 

 

NFL Rules

 

It is the responsibility of the coach to review and be familiar with all NFL rules regarding the events offered at the district tournament and the conduct of the tournament itself. Please review the District Tournament Manual prior to registration or at least prior to the tournament. The manual may be accessed at the following link: http://www.nflonline.org/uploads/AboutNFL/DistrictTournamentOperationsManualV3_0_0102710.pdf

 

 

Deadlines

 

January 15                       Congress legislation due by email to archpainter@earthlink.net

January 15                       Deadline for reserving rooms from hotel block at Best Western

January 27                        Registration Deadline/ deadline for point entry for competitors

January 27                        Deadline for drops/changes to registration/ fees become final