Back to the Beach Invite

The 2012 Back to the Beach Invitation is available. Back2Beach12-FINAL

December 1, 2011

Dear Friends and Colleagues:

Mt. San Antonio College and California State University, Long Beach are pleased to invite you to Southern California for our 10th annual “Back to the Beach” swing on January 28-29, 2012.  This year’s tournament will be held in Walnut, CA on the campus of Mt. San Antonio College.

The two tournaments will offer similar schedules and fees and both will have sweeps awards for the top three teams and top community college team. Saturday competition also includes a novice division and/or top novice awards while Sunday is an open division free-for-all. The top two overall speakers at the swing will compete live at awards for a showcase of fabulous prizes.

We are excited to announce the addition of a one-day parliamentary debate tournament on Saturday and a one-day NFA-LD debate tournament on Sunday. The Open division will be a standard 4/2 format but in novice we will have a six prelim tournament with Gold/Silver/Bronze awards given to the top teams. NOTE: Students may not enter both debate and IE events on the
same day. Students are more than welcome to mix and match on different days.

So c’mon back to the beach for some great competition and even better memories. Let us know how we can help with your travel plans or anything else that will make this a special weekend for your team.

Hope to see you there!

The Coaching Staff at Mt. San Antonio College & California State University, Long Beach

2011 PSCFA Fall Champs

Fall Champs Invite (PDF) | Registration

November 7, 2011

Dear Colleagues:
On behalf of PSCFA, I would like to invite you to the PSCFA Fall Championship Tournament to be held at Cerritos College on December 2-4, 2011. We promise outstanding hospitality and a well-run tournament.
Please note that there were substantial changes made to the Fall Championship tournament at the 2011 Fall Coaches Conference. I have tried to highlight those changes throughout the invitation but of particular note the schedule for NPDA and NFA-LD debate has been substantially changed.
Students may compete in rookie, novice, junior, and senior divisions of Parliamentary Debate, novice, junior, and senior divisions of NFA L/D; as well as one division of Readers Theater. Additionally, we offer novice, junior, and senior divisions of 12 individual events. There will be four preliminary and the appropriate elimination rounds in debate; and two preliminary and final rounds (with sufficient entry) in individual events. This year we are also adding Parli-LD on Friday run concurrent with NFA-LD.
All entries are due by 6:00 p.m. on Monday, November 28. YOU MUST USE THE WEB ENTRY SYSTEM – NO EXCEPTIONS. Visit http://www.forensicstournament.net to enter. Tournament Entry will be available beginning on November 16 at noon.

Other Important Announcements:
1) Fees have been raised for individual events, debate events, uncovered entries, and drop fees. Please review the fee sheet at the end of this invitation for changes. The web registration will also estimate your fees for Fall Champs.

2) PSCFA does not allow uncovered Debate and Theater entries unless allowed by the Tournament Director. At the present time I cannot guarantee any teams will be allowed to buy out of this commitment. I am in the process of finding hired judges. Our first priority is to provide hired judges to cover PSCFA commitments. If anyone knows of judges for hire, please have them contact me by email (dcantrell3@mtsac.edu). PSCFA now pays $15 a round.

3) The winner of Cultural Artifact will no longer receive a scholarship.

4) We will be enforcing the nuisance fee for drops and no-shows (including judges).

5) PSCFA has a different format for the first two rounds of parliamentary debate. Please consult the schedule and inform your students and judges of the procedures. Remember, that teams not reporting 15 minutes after the topic has been announced for round 1 will be dropped from the tournament.

6) ALL JUDGES MUST BE CERTIFIED BEFORE THEY CAN BE USED TO COVER YOUR COMMITMENT. IF YOU HAVE NOT CERTIFIED WITHIN THE LAST YEAR, YOU MUST RE-CERTIFY. Please have your judges go to www.pscfa.org and click on the “FRED” link. If your judges show up to the tournament uncertified, they will not be able to judge round one (so they can read “Fred” and get certified) and your school will incur a judging penalty. Judges must register with the judges table upon arrival.

7) We will once again conduct a “Toys for Tots” drive in coordination with the United States Marine Corps Reserves. Please encourage your students to bring a new, unwrapped toy valued at less than $20.

8 ) The tournament headquarters will be in PST building. For those who come to the Cerritos tournament in February we will not be in our regular place in the Social Science building.

Attached please find more detailed tournament information, a description of tournament rules and procedures and entry forms. Please refer to the PSCFA HANDBOOK for the newest information on Rules. If you do not have a copy of the PSCFA HANDBOOK, please check PSCFA’s website at http://www.pscfa.org

If you have any questions please contact me at dcantrell3@mtsac.edu or (909) 274-6310

Danny Cantrell,
Tournament Director