UIL District Qualifier

for the 2025 National Tournament

UIL NSDA District
2025 District Tournament
Feb. 13-15, 2025

IN PERSON

Thursday - ESC 8 outside of Pittsburg

Friday and Saturday - Pine Tree High School

Dear coaches:

The UIL District's National Qualifying Tournament will be held beginning at 8:00 AM on Thursday, February 13, 2025, and continuing until we are done on Saturday, February 15. The entire tournament will be held in person.

Entry fees:

CX, PF = $20 Per Team

IEs, LD, and DUO = $10 Per Entry

BQ = FREE for 2025!

This year, we are instituting a hospitality fee of $50 per school.

You must register online by 3:30 PM on Friday, February 7, 2025.

Here is the link: http://uil.tabroom.com/. This link should be used if anyone needs the PUBLIC side of the tournament (pairings, website information, schedules, etc…)

Please remember that the NSDA rules are very specific (and sometimes ponderous) on entries. If we do not enter properly, we may lose our qualifiers in the events in which there are mistakes. Please read and follow directions carefully, and call me if you have questions.

Entry Check-List

_____ 1. Check that your school is currently a member by logging into www.speechanddebate.org/account. Click "School Profile" and look for the blue check mark next to "Active." You may pay for membership on the "School Finances" tab. (Note: you will not be allowed to compete at district until all money owed to the national office is paid. You may pay any outstanding money at district, but it will need to be with a separate check than the entry fee check.)

____ 2. All students that compete at the district tournament must be paid student members with a minimum of 25 points. Go to www.speechanddebate.org/account and click “School Roster”. Students must have blue checkmarks in the “Member” column, more than 25 points in the “Points” column, and a username/password linked in the “Account” column. Add new students using the button at the top of the page, and pay their memberships on the “School Finances” tab. A blue checkmark under “districts eligible” will appear when a student is eligible.

____ 3. Login to Tabroom.com. From there, if your account is set-up correctly and you’re a paid member, you’ll see an “Existing tournament registrations” section. Below that you’ll see “National Speech & Debate Tournament” and under that you’ll see “UIL District”. Click the green button on the right hand side of those rows that have an arrow to register.

____ 4. Complete the notes/disclaimer. “I understand and agree.”

____ 5. You’ll see a list of “Districts Competitor Eligibility”. Refer to the requirements in #2. When you get a new student, you may need to click the “Check Your NSDA Account” or “Import Students from NSDA” button. If you have errors, there’s a link to help you with eligibility issues. When all is set, hit the red: “Continue to registration” button.

____ 6. Add your coaches and contacts. Choose from the dropdown menu and/or enter their tabroom emails. Once added, click to enable emails and other communication information.

____ 7. Review the tournament registration deadlines. You will see a group of tabs across the top. The “Signups” and “Emails” page are not necessary. They give you some tools that can be used, but they don’t have to be. It may be easier to just ignore them.

____ 8. Add judges to your roster. Click the “Judges” tab and then a pool.. Click “Add new judge” on the right side. If your judge has a Tabroom account, search for their email. If not, enter their information. “Save judge” at the bottom of the page. (You do not have to do this if they’ve already been added to your school’s Tabroom account.)

NOTE: WE ARE REQUIRING THAT ALL JUDGES BE LINKED TO YOUR ACCOUNT AND THAT ALL JUDGES HAVE A PARADIGM ENTERED ON TABROOM. Please contact one of the committee members if you need help doing this. We also encourage all judges to procure the certifications offered through NSDA (https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/judge-accreditation/).

____ 9. Click on the “entries” tab on the top of the screen.

____ 10. To the right of the screen, you’ll see “add an entry to…” Choose an event from the dropdown menu. Scroll down to where you see “add entry in…” From the dropdown menu, choose the student you wish to add to that event and click “add entry.”

Notes about entries:

* You may enter up to your allotment of entries based on your chapter strength.
* You may enter up to 4 students in any one event.
* Students may only enter one debate event and one extemp event.
* Students may enter up to two main events plus Congress.
* Any student who is eligible may enter Big Questions, even if they entered two main events and Congress.
* Students must be members of the NSDA prior to February 7 (but if you add degrees that weekend, we can accommodate more entries) in order to compete at the district tournament.
* Students who are entered in 2 team events (i.e. CX and DUO) must have the same partner for both events.
* Any student who competed at District may apply to be part of the World Schools teams.

_____ 11. You may see a screen that brings up the information for that student and that event. Fill in the pertinent information. For example, if you are entering someone in an interp event, this screen will allow you to enter information about their piece. If you are not ready to do that yet, click the blue return arrow on the top right corner. When you are ready to enter this information, go back to the entries tab and click the blue edit icon on the right. (Note: this information must be entered prior to district).

For the debate events, you won’t see a second screen after you enter the names.

Repeat this process for each student and each event.

_____ 12. Click the “NSDA Forms” page. From that page, download and sign the School Consent Form by clicking "Print Form." Have these on file at registration. (You can send this via email if you’d like, but we are now allowing it to be deferred to registration.)

_____ 13. Click "Enter SELI preferences" next to Single Entry Letters of Intent. List your students' event preferences in order. Remember that students may only advance to Nationals in one event and they must declare that event prior to the beginning of districts. This step declares that preference. (Also remember that a team must advance in the team event UNLESS both members of the team pref an individual event AND both advance in their individual event. Please be sure to FREQUENTLY check this as you make changes. (For example, changing from one extemp to the other will require you to edit the preference form.)

If your student wishes to prefer World Schools over one of their main events, they may do so on the Letter of Intent.Not ranking it on the letter of intent does not preclude them from auditioning for the team.

_____ 14. Click the “Judge Tab” at the top of the screen. The number of judges you owe will be visible on the right side of the screen. Pick a category. Select a judge from the dropdown menu and click "add judge." (Your judges must be added to your roster on tabroom in order for you to do that. Your judges may have a tabroom account already, or you may create one for them. All judges must be linked to tabroom in order to register them for the tournament.)

Repeat this process to enter all your judges.

Each person may judge EACH of the categories. If there are preferred limitations in debate and/or speech, please note them. We will do our best to accommodate them.

_____ 15. On the fees tab, you will find your invoice for the tournament.

Note: the final deadline for making changes (including adding entries) is 7 days prior to the tournament. You may continue adding points for your students; if additional points entries result in a change in your entry allotment, you may add entries through February 10. Call me if this happens for you.

In order for us to provide a list of judges for schools to view for strikes, everyone must have their judges entered online no later than Friday, February 7. If your judges have not been entered by that time, the district will assume that you plan to buy your judges from the district and you will be charged accordingly. We do ask, however, that if you do plan to buy your judges, you notify us at the time you register your students so that we may make those arrangements.

_____ 16. Make sure all your judges have paradigms posted on Tabroom. All paradigm forms must be completed by 4:00 PM on Monday, February 10.

_____ 17. Prepare copies of oratories and informatives.

a. Underline any direct quotations.

b. Prepare a cover sheet with the student’s name, the number of underlined words, and a statement that the oratory is the original work of the student.

c. The student and the coach both should sign the cover sheet.

d. These should be ready and producible at the tournament in the event of a protest.

_____ 18. Pay any outstanding membership fees to the NSDA. You will not be allowed to compete if dues are not paid. You may NOT include these fees on the entry fees check at the tournament – you may pay these at the tournament, but it will need to be on a separate check because we must mail these fees to the NSDA with our tournament paperwork.

_____ 19. Submit judge strike forms by Wednesday, February 12, at noon.

_____ 20. Bring with you to the tournament:

a. Entry fee - make check payable to UIL-NFL District. Checks should be mailed. Proof of payment should be available if needed.

b. Separate check for any outstanding membership fees you owe to the NSDA - made payable to National Speech and Debate Association.

c. Separate check for judge bond (will be returned at checkout if all obligations are met)

d. Interp: Hard copies of all interp selections (POI, HI, DI, DUO). Scripts of all interp selections, underlined or highlighted. Documentation will ONLY be checked in the event of a protest.

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Rory McKenzie, District Chair and Tournament Director

Cell (903) 245-9150. Email mckenziera@lisdeagles.net.