Honor Academy is the premier speech and debate academy because of our expert faculty, curriculum design, and track record of success.
Students at Honor Academy participate in major speech and debate tournaments throughout the year. Tournament participation makes students more confident in their speech abilities and solidifies their argumentative skills. They compete with the name Honor Academy or their full time school name as their affiliated school, depending on tournament requirements. Please review the following information and complete the form below if you are interested in participation at an upcoming tournament.
Frequently Asked Questions
Eligibility
Most tournaments offer Middle School, Novice, and Varsity divisions. During speech and debate classes, we assess each student to determine which division they will be eligible to take part in prior to the tournament date. You may sign up for a tournament before the assessment is complete to ensure an opportunity to participate, and Honor Academy will issue a refund if we decide the student should switch to a different division or skip that particular tournament. Please contact us for more information about eligibility.
Schedules
All schedules are tentative because tournaments often run behind schedule.
For one-day tournaments, all rounds are mandatory. Missing one round is considered a forfeit. After 4-5 preliminary rounds, rankings are announced based on the number of wins and speaker points.
Two or three day tournaments usually take place Sat–Sun, Sat–Mon, or Fri–Sun. These tournaments have preliminary rounds the first day and possibly the second day morning, making it 1.5 day commitment, and elimination rounds on the second or third days, making participation performance based.
Students may also have debate events on one day and speech events on a different day.
Registration Process
Every tournament has its own policies for managing registration. Some are simple, and others may require multiple documents. Tournaments may issue penalty fees for late requests. Honor Academy does not have control over tournament policies, and are required to follow them. Please review forms closely, which will be updated when the information of each tournament is announced.
ONLINE Tournaments
Students can also compete in tournaments from home using a personal device. Most online competitions use a platform called NSDA Campus, developed by the National Speech and Debate Association. Students and judges have access to the video platform by logging in to tabroom.com (unless otherwise specified).
In-Person Tournaments
For in-person tournaments, please drop off your child 1 hour prior to the first round on each tournament day. If available, refer to the schedule. Parents do not need to stay with their student unless otherwise requested. We distribute additional tournament information via email prior to the event, with information about parking, meeting sites, and local restaurants.
Judging
Tournaments will have different types of judges - skilled judges, experienced judges, and inexperienced judges. Parents can volunteer as judges. This section will be updated soon.