STEPHEN STEWART

IMPORTANT HIGHLIGHTS

Tournament will be in person. Two Varsity/JV rounds will be Friday night. Novice debate will be Saturday, and speech will be Sunday
Please introduce your judges to the following training links:
- https://nfhslearn.com/courses/adjudicating-speech-and-debate
- https://nfhslearn.com/courses/protecting-students-from-abuse
Campus Map

Dearest High School Forensics Enthusiasts!

You are cordially invited to take part in the 9th Stephen Stewart Memorial Middle and High School Invitational at Milpitas High School. This event will take place Friday, September 26th, through Sunday, September 28th, 2025. We welcome all competitors in grades six and up. This speech and debate competition will be held in person at Milpitas High School in Milpitas, California. We are committed to providing you with a professional atmosphere and a spirited competitive experience.

We are pleased to announce that the Quarter-Finalists in Varsity Public Forum will earn a Gold Bid to the Tournament of Champions in Kentucky. Octo-Finalists in Varsity Public Forum will earn a silver bid. UKTOC speech bids will be awarded in DI, Duo, Extemp (both DX and IX), HI, Info, POI, and OO. We expect NPDL bids to Parli TOC are allocated based on size of entry. In addition,we expect bids to NIETOC will be available in DI, HI, Extemp (both DX and IX), DUO, POI, Informative, and OO.

Due to limited space, we urge teams to register ASAP. All entries will be initially waitlisted to ensure equal access to the tournament. Every judge must have a Tabroom.com account linked to their email and a valid phone number for a phone they will have access to during the tournament. We encourage early registration, so that you may take advantage of this opportunity and ensure your attendance to the tournament. Unfortunately, Varsity entries are limited; therefore, we will have to turn away entries once our room capacity is met. Varsity debates including JVPF are initially capped at 60 (120 in Open PF) to ensure deserving teams break to Double-Octofinals.

OPEN PF is for HS Only. Experienced middle schoolers will enter JV.

Food will be available on campus during the weekend so that your students, coaches, staff, family, and friends will not have to leave the tournament. Debate and speech competitors and judges will be provided a box lunch on Saturday and Sunday.

On behalf of the coaches, students, and parents of Milpitas High School Speech and Debate Team, you are encouraged to join us and we look forward to experiencing the Stephen Stewart together!

Decorum
Please remember to conduct proper communication between competitors and judges. Students will not ask questions about decisions until the judge has submitted their ballot. Judges will not ask questions about arguments or speeches, with the exception of asking to see evidence, until decisions are submitted and confirmed. THERE IS NO RECORDING OF MINORS WITHOUT *PARENT* PERMISSION IN CALIFORNIA. We reserve the right to remove people we deem unsafe from the campus for the safety of the students and the liability of the host.

Events / Divisions
DEBATE

In debate, we offer Novice and Open LD, and Novice, JV and Varsity Public Forum.
OPEN PF is for HS Only. Experienced middle schoolers will enter JV.
We will use the Sept./Oct. LD topic and the Sept./Oct PF topic.
Open debate events will make every attempt to break all winning records up to a full double-octofinal round.

SPEECH

In speech we offer Open divisions in all CHSSA events including: Dramatic Interpretation, Humorous Interpretation, Oratorical Interpretation (10 minute Declamation), Programmed Oral Interpretation (POI), Duo Interpretation, Original Oratory, Original Advocacy, Informative, Original Prose & Poetry (not to be confused with prose/poetry), Impromptu, Domestic Extemporaneous, and International Extemporaneous.
Speech will break to two Festival finals chambers if there are twenty-eight or more entries; in some events we may have more Festival final sections. Fewer than twenty-eight entries will break directly to Finals. Events with 51+ will break to 3 finals sections. Events with 85+ will break to 4 sections. Trophies will go to the top 7 cumulative ranked entries after the Festival Finals round. In the event that a division cannot support a full division, (less than one section) we reserve the right to collapse similar events.

Eligibility / Novices

PUBLIC FORUM:

Open/TOC event: Open to all HIGH SCHOOL competitors (Restricted to HS competitors only).
Junior Varsity: Open to ALL competitors HS and MS.
Novice: Open to all competitors who are debating their first year in the type of event (Speech/ Debate) they are entered in. In Teamed events, BOTH team members must meet this qualification. Any competitor in 6th and 7th grade can compete as a novice. 8th graders in their second year or less can debate novice. Any student 8th grade or higher in their third academic year of forensics or higher must go Junior Varsity or higher. Entries younger than 6th grade will not be allowed.

LINCOLN DOUGLAS:

Open: Open to all competitors.
Novice: Open to all competitors who are debating their first year in the type of event (Speech/ Debate) they are entered in. Any competitor in 7th and 6th grade can compete as a novice. 8th graders in their second year or less can debate novice. Any student in their third academic year of forensics or higher must go varsity. Entries younger than 6th grade will not be allowed.

Maverick Policy
In the TOC Division and CX, Mavericks will not be allowed to enter. If circumstances prevent one partner from debating, they will receive a forfeit. This team may forfeit up to two rounds, but may still clear IF both competitors can debate in elimination rounds. In Novice, One Maverick per program is allowed to compete. In JVPF, a Maverick can debate up to two rounds as normal without a partner, but must have a partner for the other 3 rounds, and may not clear unless their partner is available.

Judges / Judging Obligations

School Judges: Please register judges accurately. Because we will be using entirely electronic ballots in debate it is important that judge registration be accurate. Any attempts to circumvent judge registration processes will result in your team being waitlisted and those spots being given to other teams.
Judges must be available for the entire tournament schedule. This means all days and all rounds. NO EXCEPTIONS! Do not sign up to judge if you can’t commit to the schedule. You cannot do just morning or just afternoon.
Remember, an Open/JV debate judge must cover all Fri-Sat-Sun.
All VARSITY/JV and SPEECH judges must be ADULTS qualified to judge the division which they are covering.
Novice LD, Open and Novice Public Forum and Open and Novice Parli, and congress may be used in other events.
Open PF judges MUST have a paradigm, and experience. Completing the NSDA Judge Accreditation is encouraged.
https://www.speechanddebate.org/learn/judge-accreditation/
Speech judges will be used in all speech events.
Elim Commitment: All speech judges are committed for all speech rounds.
In regards to Varsity Debate elimination rounds, all judges are obligated to judge the first FULL elimination round AND one round beyond their last school's best competitive finish. Whichever requirement is later will apply. For example, if your school has a competitor in the octafinals, then your school's judges are all obligated through the quarterfinals. This rule is necessary to ensure the best panels for elimination debates. Please make appropriate logistical arrangements that honor these requirements.

Judge Prefs and Strikes

Judge Philosophy Guidelines: All Varsity judges should have a judge philosophy posted on their Tabroom.com account.
All varsity judges must be entered and have judge philosophies posted at this point for a school to have the privilege of judge preferences/strikes for ALL of their varsity competitors. Failure to have a tabroom paradigms for all your judges results in preferences / strikes being ignored.
Varsity PF Teams will be allowed up to a maximum of 5 strikes.
Preferences/ strikes will be available at Milpitas.tabroom.com on Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025 at 5 PM. Prefs and strikes will close on Thursday, September 25th at 5:00 PM.
Paradigms that offer more speaker points for food or arcane knowledge/references of old tv and movies will not be tolerated.

ATTENTION JUDGES: Penalty for Missing Rounds

Please note there is a $50 per round penalty for any judges that miss their rounds. Judges will be charged if they do not attend their rounds. We prefer not to charge any teams for missing debate rounds and this nuisance fee is only assessed to discourage judges from missing debates to ensure a high quality experience for all competitors.
Please ensure your judges who do not currently have a ballot report to the Judges Lounge/Library 15 minutes before the posted round start. They will be dismissed when we start all rounds. If your judge is called for in the Judges’ Lounge/Library while pushing ballots, you may be fined if they do not answer.

Student Conduct
All students are expected to abide by Milpitas High School’s code of conduct, to respect MHS officials and tournament staff, and generally to behave responsibly.

Double Entry

Novice Students may enter up to three events; consisting of one debate event and two speech events. Please note that double entry IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Exceptions:
>>> A Novice student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.
Varsity Students may enter one debate event and up to 2 speech events. Please note that double entry IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. Exceptions:
>>> A student entering Extemp, may only single enter in the speech events; but may still enter one debate event.
>>> Please keep in mind that Round 1 of Speech is concurrent with Elimination rounds of Varsity competition. Double-entered varsity competitors will be placed in Flight B of their Sunday Elim, and placed early in their speech round for round 1 IF rounds are double flighted. Double entered students should compete in their speech event, and then proceed to their debate round.
>>> The coach of a competitor who qualifies to advance in a varsity Debate may be required to choose the event in which the competitor will continue if they are double-entered in speech as well. We will do our best to accommodate these students so long as we can remain on schedule.
>>> Entering in both extemps will not be feasible given our time constraints.
>>> Students who double enter are responsible for getting to their rounds on time.

Students who double enter are responsible for getting to their rounds on time. Please note that double entry IS AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Speech Rules
NSDA rules will be followed as closely as possible for all NSDA events; CHSSA guidelines will be used for the remaining speech events, subject to review by the tournament committee. One notable exception – final placement in speech will be determined by total cumulative score for the whole tournament.

Speech: In the TOC Speech events we will break the top 6 to finals in events that have up to 30 entries. Divisions with more than 30 entries will have the top 12 advance to Semi-Finals, divisions with more than 51 entries will have three sections of Semi-finals with 6 competitors advancing to finals, and divisions with more than 85 entries will have four sections of festival finals with 28 competitors advancing. We will award trophies up to the top 6 in all speech events, and medals to Semifinalists. Placement will be determined by cumulative ranking.
Events with 30+ will have a semis and a finals. Non-TOC NIETOC events above 51 contestants will have a Semifinal with 6 entries per section.

Debate Rules
Starting with Round 3, all prelim rounds will be power-matched. The 16 individuals/teams with the best win-loss record in the Open Division will advance to the Octofinal elimination round. Brackets will not be broken in eliminations. If entries warrant, a double-octofinal will be held to break the maximum number of winning records. In divisions approaching 100, a partial triple will be held if 10 or more entries would be left behind in a double.

Tournament Committee: The tournament committee will consist of the tournament director and two directors from other events. The committee will adjudicate any disputes and interpret all rules. Decisions made by the tournament committee are final.

Technology: All teams may use technology, but MUST NOT communicate with coaches or team members outside the round. Parli may not use anything other than timers/airplane mode cellphone timers in round, and cases must be written on paper, not be read off of laptops or other digital devices. Parli teams may use the internet or consult with teammates during prep time, but no judges, parents, or other non-student adults should help students. Appointed staff may clarify basic rules. Recording your opponents using AI is a violation of the previously mentioned rule against recording minors without their parents consent.

LINCOLN DOUGLAS

The Lincoln Douglas debate topic will be the Sep/Oct NSDA topic for BOTH Varsity and Novice divisions. We DO NOT use the NSDA novice topic.
Lincoln-Douglas will include varsity and novice divisions, with NSDA rules and time limits. While LD does not explicitly follow CHSSA rules, history and the judging pool does lean toward the lay.
There will be five preliminary rounds in varsity LD with an appropriate number of break rounds determined by the entry size. Novice LD will have five rounds, and will award winning records.
Varsity Judging: We encourage you to bring experienced LD judges to judge in the varsity division. "Experienced" is defined as at least a high school graduate who has competitive or coaching experience with LD debate or has significant LD judging experience. Inability to provide experienced judges may limit a team's entry and/or require a team to hire judges to fulfill their obligation. All varsity judges are required to post their judge philosophies on tabroom.com by the preferences deadline. We would like every school that wants to participate to do so; however, we require the best possible judging to ensure students have a positive competitive experience.
Novice Judging: Adults as well as HS Seniors who are 3rd or 4th year varsity debaters are eligible to judge in the novice divisions. Coaches/Directors are responsible for ensuring that any varsity debaters are knowledgeable and responsible enough to fairly assess a novice debate round. These judges should be noted on tabroom judge notes. Under no circumstances should a student judge be judging Varsity.

PUBLIC FORUM

Will use the Sep/Oct topic. We do NOT use the NSDA novice topic.
All PF will flip for side and speaker order in both Prelims and Elims.
NSDA time limits will be utilized. 3 minute summaries, 4 minutes of prep.
Evidence challenges should be adjudicated by the judge in round, before the ballot is decided. Tab will only hear reports that involve the blatant refusal to provide evidence when asked, evidence fabrication or distortion, and/or the use of evidence created by AI.
- Coaches should fill out the protest form after the round is concluded outlining what occurred.
- Protests will only result in double losses, or in the most extreme cases, tournament disqualifications. But the decisions of the judge/judges will not be reversed.
- The protests will be decided by three members of the tab staff, and all decisions will be final.
Only HS debaters in their first year of competition, eighth graders in their 1st or 2nd year, and any 6th or 7th grader, may enter the novice division.

EXTEMP

Extemp Topic Areas will be posted prior to the Tournament.

Awards

Individual Awards: Individual awards will be presented to all debaters advancing to the Double-Octofinals in debate events. All finalists in speech events and Congress will be presented awards. Novice will receive Trophies for 5-0, and medals for 4-1 records, and certificates for 3-2.
Speaker Awards: We will also award speaker awards for debaters. Top 5 speakers in each debate event will receive awards from the tab room. (Top 10 in Open PF)
Results: Results for each varsity debate round will be posted each round starting after Round 3. Please do not request to see results at the tab room unless you question the posted results. Novice debate and speech results will be published after awards.

STEPHEN STEWART MEMORIAL MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL INVITATIONAL

26-28 September 2025 for JV and Varsity Debate
27 September 2025 for Novice Debate
28 September 2025 for Speech

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