Register on Tabroom: http://swvaflmocktourn.tabroom.com/
Schedule:
Arrival & Registration 4:30-4:45
Round 1 will begin at 5:15 (approximately)
Round 2 will begin at 6:30 (approximately)
Judge Burden:
Since this is a mock tournament, we will provide experienced students and coaches and judges. If you are an experienced coach or if you have experienced students who could act as judges (especially in Speech categories), please contact the tournament directors to sign up. The more judges that we have, the better!
SPEECH JUDGES: contact Whitney Puckett (wpuckett@bcps.k12.va.us)
DEBATE JUDGES: contact Elizabeth Mayer (emayer@rcps.us)
Important Details:
Legislation Submission: Email bills to tgruse12@gmail.com by 5:00 p.m. on October 16.
For this tournament, speakers may be "on book" if they wish. This applies to all interp categories as well as original oratory.
Extemp Topics:
Domestic: the midterm elections
International: the Middle East
Congress Topics:
Domestic: Immigration
International: Iran
Economic: Credit Card Interest Rates
Virginia: Education
Lincoln-Douglas
NSDA September-October Resolution [Resolved: Outer space colonization is a moral imperative.]
Public Forum
NSDA September-October Resolution [Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.]
Policy
NSDA 2026-27 Policy Topic [Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.]
Email bills to tgruse12@gmail.com by 5:00 p.m. on October 16.
Parking
Please have students dropped off at the main entrance. Buses, personal vehicles, and school vans may park in the adjacent lot. Drivers are welcome to relax in the hospitality lounge.
Dinner
Dinner will be provided for judges, coaches, and drivers in the judge hospitality lounge.
Students and guests may purchase a dinner ticket upon arrival for $5 (cash only). Your dinner includes two slices of pizza, chips, and a bottle of water. Other refreshments may be available for purchase (cash only).
What to Wear & Bring
Coaches and judges may dress casually.
While individual teams may have their own dress code for competition, SWVAFL does not have a formal dress code ("They're more like guidelines than actual rules."). Student competitors should "dress as though this is important." That can mean different things to different people. Some students may wear a jacket and tie. Others may wear a polo shirt or blouse and slacks. The goal is simply to look professional and neat.
We recommend that students bring a refillable water bottle and a pen/pencil.
Students purchasing dinner should bring $5 in cash. They may elect to bring additional cash for other refreshments that may be sold individually.
Public speakers and Debaters should bring their computer, charger, as well as hard copies of oratory speeches, extemp files, and debate cases. While Extemp and Debate will be allowed access to their computers in rounds (not the internet, just their computer), things happen. It is better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
If you decide to work digitally in rounds, all cases/constructives/files should either be printed or downloaded to your computer hard drive PRIOR to coming to the tournament. Hotspot signals are notoriously unreliable in this building, so waiting to download your files until you arrive is not a good choice.
Where do I go? What do I do?
Each school will receive a registration list with their competitor codes upon arrival. Schools with Speech entries will also receive paper ballots for their speakers.
Speech competitors should fill out their paper ballots with their code and the title of their piece. PLEASE WRITE LEGIBLY.
The student lounge will be the cafeteria. The judge/coach lounge will be the classroom off of the library.
Round assignments (including room numbers) will be posted on the library windows.
Round 1 will begin at 5:15 (approximately)
Round 2 will begin at 6:30 (approximately)