SpeechWire Tournament Services - Forensics Tournament Software

You are invited to the First Annual Indiana Middle School State Tournament on December 13, 2025. We will be competing in person at Westfield Middle School, 345 W. Hoover St, Westfield, IN 46074, from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm.

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS - Participation ribbons will be awarded to all competitors who did not advance to the Final Round. Championship ribbons will be awarded to the top six places in each event.

TEAM AWARDS - Team sweepstakes will be based on Final Rounds scores. Team trophies will be awarded to the top three schools in both speech and debate, large school and small school divisions.

CATEGORIES - We will be offering all 13 Indiana Middle School Speech events and both Indiana Middle School Debate events, including Lincoln-Douglas Debate and World Schools Debate.

SPEECHWIRE REGISTRATION - Be sure all competitors and judges have a Speechwire account. Competitors and judges cannot share the same email address for Speechwire.

Speech and Debate will run separately in SpeechWire. Judges must be entered as either a Speech judge or a Debate judge, not both.

One of the given topics will be selected randomly by the tournament host prior to each round of competition. When a topic is selected, it will be removed from the pool of topics for the remainder of the tournament. The order of topics is not set, meaning that students will need to prepare to discuss all of them.

Topic #1: What is the difference between the terms “snitching” and “reporting?” What circumstances determine an act of relaying information to authority as being one or the other?

Topic #3: Are standardized tests an effective and equitable measure of school success? If not, what possible alternatives could be implemented to better measure student and school achievement?

Topic #4: Is there enough current education on the science of nutrition for students? What can be done to improve student diets and eating habits?

Students who advance to the Final Round will combine their Commercial from Round 1 with their News Program from Round 3 to present one Radio Program. Competitors may insert their commercial into their program wherever they choose to create a 3-minute Radio Program. Competitors will have a 10-minute prep to organize and rehearse before the Final Round begins.

DOUBLING - Doubling is encouraged in all categories with these exceptions. These specific combinations will not be available due to scheduling conflicts:

Competitors may enter in two Speech events or one Speech event and one Debate event.

ENTRY DEADLINE - Entries are due on Thursday, December 11, at 12:00 pm. You are encouraged to input all entries you might bring, as it is much easier to drop a competitor after the deadline than to add one. While the deadline is December 11, we request that you input your entries well before the deadline so we can plan rooms and concessions accordingly.

DROP DEADLINE - The drop deadline is Saturday, December 12, at 6:00 am, after which you will need to text Stephanie directly at 317-374-5858 to make drops.

JUDGES - Each school is responsible for bringing one judge for every five speech entries or fraction thereof (6 entries = 2 judges) and 1 judge for every 2 debate entries. Judges need to bring a laptop for scoring. We will score online through SpeechWire.

Teams that do not provide enough judges will have their entries pared down accordingly. Coaches will have discretion to choose which entries to cut if they are dropped by the drop deadline. Otherwise, the host school director will drop entries first by dropping one entry for competitors who are doubled and then by dropping single entries.

Judges will need to watch a short training video and sign off before judging. This video will be provided before the tournament for judges who want to complete this early.

As this is a post-season tournament, judges will not be required to submit comments in Speechwire but are allowed to if they choose.

COACHES’ & JUDGES’ MEETING - There will be a meeting for coaches and judges at 8:30 am in the media center.

FINAL ROUNDS - The top 6 competitors in each category after preliminary rounds will advance to the Final Round. The Final Round will include 3 judges. If a doubling competitor advances in both events, they will be allowed to compete Final Rounds in both events.

OBSERVING FINAL ROUNDS - Students not competing in Final Rounds and Judges not judging a Final Round are allowed to observe a final event of their choice, assuming there are enough seats in the room for each audience member. Audience members must remain unbiased and silent during the entire round and may not leave the room until the round is complete.

HOSPITALITY - Our Westfield S&D families are collaborating to provide drinks, snacks, and soups for the judges and coaches who attend our tournament. Coffee and creamer/sugar will be available.

CONCESSIONS - Cash-only concessions will be available all day, including breakfast and lunch options. Please encourage your participants to buy concessions. State is expensive. 🙂

MERCHANDISE - State Tournament shirts will be available for pre-sale. Ordering information coming soon!

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE - The schedule is tentative, but we will start with check-in at 8:00 am. There will be three speech rounds and four debate rounds, followed by a Final Round in each event.

8:00 - 8:20	Team Check-in Concessions available all day in the Cafeteria Hospitality Room for judges and coaches available all day in the Media Center
8:30 - 8:45	Competitors’ Meeting in the Cafeteria Judges’ / Coaches’ Meeting in the Media Center
SPEECH		RADIO BROADCASTING		DEBATE
9:05 - 9:35	Extemp Prep	9:05	Radio Prep	9:00 - 9:40	Debate Round 1
9:45 - 10:40	Speech Round 1	9:40 10:00 10:20	Radio 1A Radio 1B Radio 1C	10:00 - 10:40	Debate Round 2 *doublers go to Speech first
10:45 - 11:40	Speech Round 2	10:40 11:00 11:20	Radio 2A Radio 2B Radio 2C	11:00 - 11:40	Debate Round 3 *doublers go to Speech first WSD Impromptu Prep
11:45 - 12:40	Speech Round 3	11:40 12:00 12:20	Radio 3A Radio 3B Radio 3C	12:00 - 12:40	Debate Round 4 *doublers go to Speech first
1:00 - 2:00	Final Round	1:00	Radio Prep & Final	1:15 - 1:45	Debate Finals
2:00 - 2:30	Lunch, snacks, games, score tabulations
2:30 - 3:30	Individual Ribbons + Team Sweepstakes in the North Gym

Stephanie Hodge
Email address: hodges@wws.k12.in.us
Phone number: 3173745858