SpeechWire Tournament Services - Forensics Tournament Software

Welcome to the registration site for the CHSAA Colorado Speech and Debate State Championship Tournament!

Many thanks to Rhonda Blanford-Green, Bethany Brookens, Sandra Williamson, and the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA) for their continued support of speech and debate activities in the state of Colorado!

We are excited to invite you and your team to the 2021 CHSAA State Speech and Debate Tournament on March 19-20. Since we know how difficult it is to ask teachers and coaches to take a full day off from school this year, the schedule for our virtual State tournament has been adjusted and the competition will begin in the afternoon of March 19. Note that tournament day registration begins at 2:30 p.m. and ends by 3:15 p.m. on March 19–This will be brief and you can jump on to confirm your team and judges are ready to go during that timeframe.

Our Coaches’ meeting will begin at 3:20 and our general assembly for students will be at 3:40. Judges may check-in starting 3:15 and will meet at 3:40. Our first rounds begin at 4:00 p.m.

The deadline for all registration materials to be submitted is now Thursday, March 11^th with exception of your video links which may be added as late as Tuesday, March 16 at 11:59 p.m. It is much better to get these in earlier in case there is an issue so there is time to address it. Please do not wait until the last minute. Verify the information for qualifiers in Speechwire including name spelling and piece information. If a student who qualified through the Regional Qualifying will not compete at the State Tournament, please notify your Regional Director (if you have not already done so). Be sure to enter good contact information and confirm your entries by selecting the small box at the very bottom of the “CHSAA Complete required info and confirm entries” tile.

As your students make their asynchronous recordings, please be sure they include the phrase, “This is my submission for the Colorado State Speech Tournament. I hope you enjoy,” or something quite similar before the start of their performance. It cannot be spliced in. Remember this recording must not have been used in any other tournament including regional qualifying. This additional phrase does not count against their performance time. Students competing in Duo Interpretation will be required to submit a split-screen recording of the performance for adjudication. Students must be in separate locations as opposed to being in the same room as one another when recording their Duo Interpretation. It is a great educational activity to encourage your asynchronous entries to log into live.speechwire.com to view their competition during the tournament.

As a participant school at the regional qualifying tournament, you are welcome to register up to two students to compete in the Colorado Student Congress. It is not required that these students competed at the regional meet. If a student qualifies for the State Tournament via the Regional Qualifying Tournament and chooses to go in Congressional Debate, please inform the regional director ASAP. Registering for state in Congressional Debate does not prevent a student from accepting a spot in another event if it becomes available due to movement. Any student interested in serving as presiding officer must indicate this on the state registration form. Students may indicate interest in serving as presiding officer for preliminary sessions only or for preliminary sessions and advancement rounds. Students must run for presiding officer during preliminary sessions in order to be eligible to serve as presiding officer in advancement rounds. The docket is found under "Files to download" in Speechwire and on CHSAA.org: http://www2.chsaa.org/activities/speech/

Also remember that even if you only have asynchronous entries, you are responsible for being available during the whole tournament. If needed, we will use coaches to judge so that we can run on-time.

You should find that copies of Original Orations and Informative Speeches that you uploaded for the regional meet have been transferred to the State Tournament. The student qualified, of course, not the speech so you are welcome to upload a revised version if you choose to do so. Be sure to include an updated cover sheet as well. If you run into issues, you may submit here: https://forms.gle/AzWZAvGTTxhE1d259

Extemp Topic Areas: The order of topic areas for the tournament will be drawn at registration on Friday morning and announced for all competitors.

Resolved: The United States federal government should enact substantial criminal justice reform in the United States in one or more of the following: forensic science, policing, sentencing.

Resolved: On balance, the benefits of creating the United States Space Force outweigh the harms.

Be sure everyone on your team plans to join us for the awards show at 5:30 Saturday, March 20^th. We plan on inviting finalists onto a “Virtual Stage” during awards. Make sure your entries have permission to appear and let me know of any that should not appear on this open virtual platform.

Your payment, including any drop fees, MUST be received by the CHSAA office two weeks after state. All payments received after 4/2/21 will be billed a late fee of $25.00.

Look for future communications as to specific links you, your students, and your judges will need as we get closer to the completion. In the meantime, if you have any questions please feel free to reach out.

Jeff Borst
Email address: forensicsmshs@mssd14.org
Phone number: 719-229-5643

Colorado High School Activities Association
14855 E. 2nd Avenue
Aurora , CO 80011

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