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BOERNE CHAMPION

Hill Country Classic
NIETOC and TFA

SPEECH AND DEBATE TOURNAMENT

Presented by Boerne Samuel V. Champion High School

Hosted by Advisor Ken Reischling and James Garza-Long

Officers: Penelope Acosta, Jemma Cardwell, Mihika Puvvena, Mackenzie Johnson, Caleb Wells

Welcome to Boerne, in the beautiful hill country, 30 miles northwest of San Antonio. We are excited to host our seventh annual TFA Speech and Debate tournament on October 17, 2026.

Please check out the links to the right of the webpage for the schedule, important judging information, topics, and a w9 form.

Boerne Champion novices, World Schools teams, and Big Question members may compete for awards.

We are proud to offer the following novices events this year: Congress, CX, PF, LD, EXTEMP, PROSE, AND POETRY.

MY OFFICERS HAVE DECIDED TO ALLOW TEAMS TO WEAR HOLLOWEEN COSTUMES TO OUR TOURNAMENT AGAIN THIS YEAR. IF YOU OR YOUR KIDS ARE INTERESTED PLEASE DRESS UP.

Contact James Garza-Long at james.garzalong@boerneisd.net or Ken Reischling at kendall.reischling@boerneisd.net

Tournament Policies

• The Boerne-Champion Hill Country Classic is a TFA State Qualifying Tournament. All TFA qualifying events will follow current TFA rules and regulations.
  
  

• An adult affiliated with each participating school must be present and available for the duration of the tournament.
  
  

• Judges in TFA qualifying events must have graduated from high school. Current high school students may not fulfill a school's judging obligation in TFA events. High school students may judge Novice events only with explicit prior approval from the Tournament Director.
  
  

• We will use electronic balloting through Tabroom.com. All judges must have an active Tabroom account and should have access to an internet-capable device throughout the tournament.
  
  

• For purposes of our Novice divisions, a novice is a student in their first year of speech and debate competition. Novice status applies to the competitor, not the event. For example, a student who competed in Public Forum as a freshman may not compete in Novice LD or Novice Policy as a sophomore.
  
  

• Audio and/or video recording of TFA competition rounds is prohibited.

Debate Scheduling & Cross-Entry

We will offer three preliminary rounds in debate events.

Students entered in Varsity LD, Novice LD, Varsity PF, Novice PF, and World Schools Debate may cross-enter in Extemporaneous Speaking.

Debaters who choose to cross-enter in any other Individual Event do so at their own risk. The tournament will not delay rounds to accommodate cross-entries.

CX/Policy Debate competitors may not cross-enter in any other event.

Debate Elimination Procedures

We will NOT break brackets in debate elimination rounds.

For TFA qualifying debate events:

• Judge panels will be used beginning in Semifinals.

• We will attempt to panel Quarterfinals when judge availability permits, but Quarterfinal panels are not guaranteed.

• Except in Novice divisions, we will not conduct additional debate elimination rounds solely to create rounds that do not award TFA qualification points.

• When entry numbers do not justify Quarterfinals, CX, LD, and PF may advance directly to Semifinals. For example, with 10–15 entries, Semifinals will take the place of Quarterfinals on the tournament schedule.

• Novice debate divisions will advance directly to Semifinals.

• We will collapse Novice and Varsity divisions only when doing so is necessary for the event to award TFA qualification points. We will not collapse divisions merely to increase the number of qualification points available.

For World Schools Debate, if entry numbers are insufficient to justify Semifinals, the event may advance directly to Finals.

Individual Event Advancement

Individual Events with 16 or fewer entries will advance directly to Finals following Round 2.

When this occurs, Round 2 will be conducted during the scheduled Semifinal time slot, and the event will then proceed to Finals.

Additional advancement procedures will be determined based on final entry numbers and applicable TFA rules.

Judge Panels

In accordance with TFA disclosure requirements:

• Debate events will use panels beginning in Semifinals.

• We will attempt to panel Debate Quarterfinals if the available judging pool permits.

• Final rounds of TFA Individual Events, Duo Interpretation, and Duet Acting will use judge panels.

All judges serving on panels are expected to make their decisions independently and may not confer before submitting their ballots.

TFA Qualification

TFA qualification points will be awarded according to the current TFA qualification schedule and only when the tournament and individual event meet TFA requirements for awarding qualification points.

Schools and coaches are responsible for ensuring that their students meet all applicable TFA eligibility requirements.

Additional Information

Registration deadlines, entry fees, judging requirements, tournament schedule, Congress procedures, sweepstakes calculations, and other tournament-specific information will be posted on the appropriate pages of this Tabroom site.

Tournament management reserves the right to make reasonable scheduling adjustments based on final entry numbers while remaining consistent with applicable TFA rules.

We look forward to hosting you at Boerne Champion HS on October 17th, 2026

Interested Judges should reach out to james.garzalong@boerneisd.net

Welcome to the Hill Country Classic

TFA/TSCA Membership Reminder

Coaches, please make sure your TFA/TSCA membership is paid prior to participating in TFA activities. A current membership is required to:

• Host a TFA tournament

• Serve as a voting member at the annual TFA/TSCA Convention

Furthermore, failure to pay your TFA/TSCA membership in a timely manner will result in a fine being assessed to your school.

For IQT hosts:

Deadline to become a TFA/TSCA member without a fine - October 31

Membership paid between November 1 and November 30 - $100 fine

Membership paid between December 1 and December 31 - $200 fine

IQT hosts that pay their TFA/TSCA membership after December 31 will be sanctioned from hosting an IQT the following year.

For non-IQT hosts:

Deadline to become a TFA/TSCA member without a fine - January 31

Membership paid between February 1 and February 15 - $100 fine

Membership paid between February 16 and TFA State Registration - $200 fine

Failure to become a TFA/TSCA member by TFA State Registration will result in the school’s entry for TFA State being dropped.

Ideally, your membership will be completed when you register for the Convention. However, if you are not attending the Convention, please visit the “Join TSCA or Renew membership” button when navigating to theetsca.com website.

IMPORTANT: When completing your membership, you must select “TFA” under Interest Group in order for the membership to be generated on your invoice.

Please take a moment to verify that your membership is completed before hosting, earning points, or participating as a voting member.

Membership Link:https://etsca.com/join/login.asp