Stephen Stewart Invitational
Stephen Stewart Invitational
Our first tournament of the season will be the Stephen Stewart Invitational on Saturday, September 21st. This is an in-person tournament hosted by Milpitas High School, located at 1285 Escuela Pkwy, Milpitas, CA 95035.
Due to the extremely short amount of time between our first set of practices and this tournament, we only recommend this tournament if your student is in their second year of debate and wrote a case for the topic prior to the beginning of this season.
If your student is in 8th grade and in at least their third year of competition debate, please do not register here and instead reach out to Mr. Fagan at Ben@STRTGM.org directly.
All students attending this tournament must have both the Stratagem Learning and the Milpitas Independent Entry Waiver filled out on their behalf.
The Stratagem Waiver can be found here.
The Milpitas waiver can be found here
Completed Milpitas waivers must be:
Emailed to Ben@STRTGM.org by midnight on September 18th, 2024.
Formatted as a pdf. E-signatures are okay, typed signatures are not.
Saved as “Student First Name Student Last Name.pdf” (eg: “John Smith.pdf”)
Failure to meet any of these waiver requirements by 9/18/2024 will prevent your student from competing and leave you ineligible for a refund. There are absolutely no exceptions to this policy.
Answering “Yes” to the Will You Be A Judge option obligates you to provide one judge who satisfies the judging requirements in the Stratagem Learning Terms and Conditions for the entire duration of the tournament. This tournament requires that all judges complete the NFHS Protecting Students from Abuse course by September 19th, 2024. The course is free and can be found by clicking here. They also require a Tabroom.com account.
Full details, including schedule, can be found below.
The Basics
Stephen Stewart is a relatively gentle tournament for middle and high school competitors, and one that our team has historically done well at. Our expectation is that our students who go to this tournament will face fair competition from other programs, but that they have a good chance of distinguishing themselves.
Large tournaments do not have a dedicated middle school division. Instead our students will be completing against students with a two or fewer years of debate experience. This may include high school students, but in our experience high school teams at this level are not usually any better or worse than middle school teams.
Speech and debate tournaments are an all day activity. Expect your student to be committed all day for each day they compete.
A full schedule can be found below. All students and judges must be logged into their rounds at least 15 minutes before the scheduled start time.
We will also provide at least one more update the week before the tournament via email.
Registration
Preferential registration is given to entries that provide a judge and their partners, if applicable. All other registration is first come, first serve. For partnered events, student registration is considered complete when both partners have registered and paid. REGISTRATION FOR ALL EVENTS WILL CLOSE AT NOON ON 9/18.
Debate
All debaters will be registered in the novice division of this tournament by default. If your student wishes to compete in the more difficult JV division, please have them reach out to their coach directly to make arrangements.
Novice Public Forum, Novice Lincoln Douglas, & Student Congress will be on Saturday, 9/21. We anticipate 5 guaranteed rounds in Public Forum, and 2 guaranteed rounds and potentially 1 final round in Student Congress
Public Forum and Lincoln Douglas will debate on their respective NSDA September/October topics for this tournament. Debaters will need to have both an affirmative and a negative case prepared in advance.
Student Congress competitors will receive their slate of topics in class with Mr. MacMillan.
Judging
We offer an automatic discount of $100 for volunteering with the tournament to judge, up to the number of needed judges.
This tournament requires that all judges complete the NFHS Protecting Students from Abuse course by 9/19/2024. The course is free and can be found by clicking here. Judges who do not complete this course by the deadline will be responsible for returning any discounts applied and may be liable for additional fines.
Tournaments require that each team brings a number of parents to serve as judges. This tournament will require roughly one judge for every four entries. IF WE DO NOT MEET THIS REQUIREMENT THE TOURNAMENT WILL NOT LET US COMPETE.
Judges are obligated for all rounds scheduled on for the days they volunteer, as detailed below. THIS MEANS THAT JUDGES MAY BE OBLIGATED TO JUDGE AFTER THEIR STUDENT HAS BEEN ELIMINATED FROM COMPETITION. Judges may be used for events that differ from your student’s schedule or events. In this case, obligations are as follows:
JV Public Forum judges are required for all rounds on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Novice Public Forum & Student Congress judges are required for all rounds on Saturday only.
Tournaments take this volunteer commitment extremely seriously and will assess fines if you have volunteered to judge a round but do not show up. By agreeing to judge, you acknowledge that you are solely responsible for paying the tournament for any fines that you may incur for any reason.
Dress Code & Tournament Necessities
All tournaments have a business formal dress code, even online tournaments. Girls are expected to wear a blouse, skirt or slacks, a jacket and appropriate shoes. Boys are expected to wear a formal shirt, slacks, a jacket and tie, and appropriate shoes.
As this is an entirely online tournament, students must have access to a computer with internet access, a camera, and a microphone as well as accounts on appropriate tournament platforms. All debate files may be digital. Students are strictly forbidden from any type of outside communication (including with parents and siblings) while competing and may be disqualified if they break this rule in any way.
Saturday Schedule
8AM Round 1
10AM Round 2
1:00PM Round 3
3:30PM Round 4
6:00PM Round 5 Novice
8:00PM Awards
Congress
9AM Congress R1
12:00PM Congress R2
4:00PM Congress FInals
8:00PM Awards