Belton Speech and Debate 1st & 2nd Year Invitational

Belton Speech and Debate, in partnership with Ray-Pec High School, invites your first- and second-year competitors to our annual invitational onFriday, October 23, 2026 (Individual Events) and Saturday, October 24, 2026 (Debate).

We are hosting a Junior Novice tournament exclusively for 1st- and 2nd-year competitors. To provide quality feedback, rounds will be judged primarily by 3rd- and 4th-year varsity students provided by attending schools to cover their team's entries. While coaches can and will be utilized when necessary, we ask that all squads make every effort to fully cover their judging obligations using their experienced varsity students.

Ray-Pec High School is hosting the concurrent varsity portion of the tournament on the same weekend. Teams interested in varsity entries should contact Ray-Pec directly for information and registration on the varsity side. Additional tournament logistics, event updates, and schedule details will continue to be published as we get closer to the tournament date.

Tournament Hub & Registration

All registration, entries, and judge rosters are managed through Tabroom:

• Tournament URL: http://beltondb84n6.tabroom.com/

• Registration Deadline: Monday, October 17, 2026, at Noon.

• Entry Caps: Initial registration is capped at 2 entries per event. Additional entry requests will be placed on a waitlist.

• Preference for clearing the waitlist will be given to squads that fulfill their judging obligations early.

• Event & Round Flexibility: Rounds and events offered may be adjusted based on total entry numbers. Any and all changes will be communicated promptly as adjustments are made.

• Clarifications & Questions: If you have any questions regarding novice eligibility, the NDCA packet limits, or our event offerings, coaches are highly encouraged to reach out to Steve Ellis (sellis@bsd124.org) before Friday, October 2, 2026, so we can ensure your squad is properly prepared for registration.

• Early Team Registration Request: If your school intends to participate, we kindly ask that you submit your registration as early as possible, ensuring all entries are finalized by October 17. This advance notice helps us gauge overall school attendance to plan accordingly.

Coordination with Ray-Pec Varsity

Ray-Pec High School is hosting the varsity division on the same weekend. While we operate on our own schedule, we will make every effort to keep our timeline aligned so traveling squads can coordinate logistics smoothly.

For varsity tournament information, entry submissions, or specific questions regarding their events, please reach out to Dane Schnake or Jayme Overstreet:

• Ray-Pec Varsity Tabroom: http://rpesianclassic.tabroom.com/
  Ray-Pec Varsity Invite: RP Varsity Invite

• Dane Schnake (Head Coach): dane.schnake@raypec.org

• Jayme Overstreet (Forensics Coach): jayme.overstreet@raypec.org
  

General Rules & Tournament Structure

• Rules Governance: All events will adhere to MSHSAA regulations, with the NSDA Unified Manual serving as a secondary authority where MSHSAA rules are silent.

• No Out-Rounds: We will not run elimination or out-rounds. All preliminary rounds count directly toward final tournament outcomes.

• Adult Supervision: Each attending school must have an approved coach or adult sponsor on-site and accessible for the duration of the tournament.

• Attire & Equity: Rounds are judged by community volunteers and experienced varsity students. Judges are instructed that student attire, presentation style, or personal appearance must never factor into ranks or decisions.

• Hospitality & Concessions: A hospitality lounge will be open for coaches, adult judges, and bus drivers, and concessions will be available for student competitors and judges.

• Final food offerings and hospitality details will be shared closer to the tournament

Events & Eligibility

This invitational is open exclusively to high school students in their first or second year of competitive speech and debate.

Individual Events (Friday):

• Event Offerings: Original Oratory, Informative Speaking, OIL (See below), Combined Extemp, Humorous Interp, Dramatic Interp, Duo Interp, Storytelling, and Student Congress.

• Duo Interpretation Condition: Duo Interp requires a minimum of 6 entries to run as an independent division. If there are 5 or fewer entries at the deadline, they will be combined into Humorous or Dramatic Interpretation based on the tone of the piece. (Feel free to shot me questions/thoughts on best options)

• Oral Interpretation (OIL): A combined category consisting of Prose, Poetry, and Program Oral Interpretation. Competitors may enter OIL more than once with different genres (e.g., one Prose and one Poetry entry), but may not cross-enter pieces or duplicate literature.

• Limits & Double Entry: Individual Event rooms are capped at 6 competitors. Students may double-enter in Friday IEs, but triple-entries are not permitted.

Debate Events (Saturday):

• Policy Debate (4 Rounds):

• Resolution: Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.

• Novice Limits Reminder: All teams must adhere strictly to the NDCA Novice case limits for the first semester. Debaters are restricted to the arguments, evidence packets, and counterplans included in the official NDCA Novice Packet; no Kritiks or unapproved off-case arguments are permitted.

• Lincoln-Douglas Debate (5 Rounds):

• Resolution: Resolved: Outer space colonization is a moral imperative.
  

• Public Forum Debate (5 Rounds):

• Resolution: Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.
  

• Student Congress:

• Will use the official NSDA September legislation packet, per our norms.

• The chamber schedule (2 or 3 preliminary sessions) will be published on Tabroom closer to the tournament date.

Tentative Schedule

Friday, October 23, 2026 – Individual Events

• 3:00 PM – 3:30 PM: Registration

• 3:30 PM: Round 1 (Extemp Draw begins)

• 5:00 PM: Round 2

• 6:30 PM: Round 3

• 8:00 PM: Round 4

• Approx. 9:45 PM: Friday Events Conclude

Saturday, October 24, 2026 – Debate

• 7:30 AM – 8:00 AM: Registration

• 8:00 AM: Round 1 (CX, LD, PFD)

• 9:45 AM: Round 2 (CX, LD, PFD)

• 11:30 AM: Round 3 (CX, LD, PFD)

• 1:15 PM: Round 4 (CX concludes, LD, PFD)

• 3:00 PM: Round 5 (LD & PFD only)

• Approx. 5:00 PM: Tournament Concludes

Judging Obligations, Quotas & Participation Rules

This is a paperless tournament. All judges must have an active Tabroom account with an email and cell phone number linked to receive and submit online ballots. Attending schools are required to cover their entry quotas, ideally with 3rd- and 4th-year varsity debaters (coaches do not count toward fulfilling your school's required quota, I don’t want to have to send you round after round and not have you available to support your students).

• IE Quota: 1 judge per 6 entries.

• Policy Debate Quota: 1 judge per 2 entries.

• LD / PFD Quota: 1 judge per 4 entries.

• Participation Requirement: Teams that have their full judging quota covered before the tournament begins are guaranteed that all of their entries will get to participate in all scheduled rounds. Any squad lacking their required varsity judges risks having entries pulled from competition rounds, receiving an automatic loss (L) or last-place rank (6th/last) for unjudged rounds without competing.

• Missed Round Fine: A $5.00 fine will be assessed for any round in which an assigned school judge fails to report and must be replaced.

Fees, Invoicing & Awards

• Individual Events / Congress: $8.00 per entry

• Team Events (Duo, CX, PFD): $10.00 per team

• School Fee: None

• Invoicing: Final invoices reflecting official entries and any late-drop or judge fines will be sent out via email at the conclusion of the tournament. Please remit payment based on that final invoice.

• Awards & Results: At the conclusion of the tournament, we plan to have coaches pick up their team awards as Tab wraps up the final results. This bypasses a lengthy assembly and allows teams to head home as soon as possible. (Again, feel free to chat with me about this choice as I am open to reconsider if folks would rather have the awards and head home a bit later, up to y’all)

Payment Information:

• Payable To: Belton HS Speech and Debate

• Mailing Address:
  Belton HS Speech and Debate
  c/o Steven Ellis
  801 W North Ave
  Belton, MO 64012

Sincerely,

Steven Ellis, Head Coach

Olivia Middaugh, Team President

Belton Speech and Debate