Welcome to the Foster - Summer Creek

Back-to-School TFA Swing!

Online August 20th & 21st, 2025

In-Person August 22nd & 23rd, 2025

Friday Night IEs are NIETOC Qualifiers!

Hello and welcome to another exciting season of TFA Speech & Debate! We hope that you will choose to kick off your season with us!

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To ensure that we continue to offer the best tournament possible for you and your students, we have some exciting changes this year, while still providing our excellent hospitality, fantastic tournament staff, and plenty of learning opportunities for your squad.

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Now, down to the important stuff!

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All in-person events will be held on the beautiful Foster HS campus (just Southwest of Houston).

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New this year! We will be swinging debate with one half online (Bulldog) and the other half in-person (Falcon).

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Events: We will offer all TFA events, as well as prose, poetry, and impromptu speaking. We do not offer novice divisions, except novice extemporaneous speaking. Please make sure you visit our Tournament & Contest Rules to make sure that you are familiar with all rules and procedures for these events.

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.Cross-Entries: Students may cross-enter in IEs at their own risk, with the following restrictions:

- We are not able to adjust or hold the schedule due to cross entries

- Debaters can only enter one debate event per tournament

- Debaters (including Congress) cannot enter IEs on the Falcon side (Friday). Debaters may cross enter in IEs on Saturday, at their own risk.

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Judges: To ensure that speech and debate remain accessible to all and that we maintain a quality judge pool, we have updated our judge policy.

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Updated Judge Policy:

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In-Person Events

Schools will owe one adult judge for the entire side of the tournament (Falcon or Bulldog) for every four entries they have, with a maximum of three adult judges owed per side. The same adults may serve as your judges for both sides of the tournament.

Online Debate Events

Schools will owe one adult judge for every four online entries they have, with no maximum number of judges. The same adults may serve as your judges for both online and in-person.

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To keep judge obligations low while maintaining an effective tournament, we will charge a $25 fee per round missed, as assigned to you via Tabroom. The judge must check Tabroom and ensure that no rounds are missing.

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For more information on judges, please visit our Tabroom page labeled ‘Judging Information.’

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Entry Fees: The rest of the world is still raising their prices, but we are not! We are not increasing our fees from last year.

IEs- $20/entry

Congress- $25/entry

LD, PF, & Policy- $30/entry

World Schools- $40/entry

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Discounts: We will be following in the footsteps of Langham Creek and Jordan HS and offering a 10% discount on your total entry for any school that enters at least one Policy Debate team. We would also be happy to help with fees for any schools that are part of HUDL or are traveling from outside TFA Region 4 to compete in person.

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Brackets: We will not break any brackets in debate.

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Power Matching: We will power match all round 3s using “high-low” power matching

PF & LD Breaks: All PF & LD entries that have received a 2-1 record or better will break into a partial octos. Please note, students may not receive points for partial octos.

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A wealth of important information can be found on the "Important Tournament Information" page, located on the right. Please take the time to read through it carefully.

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.Just a heads up: Foster HS and Summer Creek HS students will be competing on both sides of our tournament, including elimination rounds.

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If you are interested in being hired as a judge for our tournament, please fill out this form:https://forms.gle/hFi2rRBioL3GBmuf6

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For more information on judging and judging requirements for entries, please visit the "Judging Information" page on the right-hand side of Tabroom.

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Please don't hesitate to contact us with any questions. We look forward to seeing you for another great year!

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See you soon!

Branson L. Cobb

FHS Director of Speech & Debate

Paige Thomas

FHS Asst. Director of Speech & Debate