TOURNAMENT ASSISTANCE

If you run into any issues during the Tournament (regardless of if you’re a coach, student, judge, or otherwise innocent bystander), please TEXT, DO NOT CALL, one of the help lines below. Include the following information when contacting the Help Lines:

• • Event

  • Room Number

  • Issue (if someone is missing, tell us who)

TOURNAMENT MAP

Click this link or view the image below.

KEY ANNOUNCEMENTS & UPDATES 

The 2024 PHSSL State Championships will be held on March 15th & 16th (Friday & Saturday).

Sweeps tiers:

• Large school: 30 and above
• Medium school: 10 to 29
• Small school: 9 and under

Board Nominations are now available. You can nominate yourself or another person through this link.

The schedule has been posted here.

Costs for the State Tournament have been updated and listed below.

Congress legislation has been posted to pa.tabroom.com (click the green link on the top right of the page).

An online version of the printed program is available at this link.

The PHSSL Store and Snack Bar will be open from 9a to 3p on Friday and Saturday in Centennial Hall. The store will offer PHSSL Swag and food items for sale. The store only accepts cash.

Info about a supplemental Debate and Congress Camp is available here.

Please check back for additional information and updates.

REGISTRATION

Registration is due by Thursday, March 9th at 4:00PM EST. Changes are due by Tuesday, March 14th at 4:00pm.

SCHOOL REGISTRATION

As in the past few years, registration and tabulation will be taking place exclusively through Tabroom.com. All schools who plan to attend the tournament must go to the PHSSL State Championships tournament (pa.tabroom.com) and follow these steps:

1. Click the “Register” tab at the top of the page (should be the 4th Tab).
2. Read the Notes/Disclaimer (which only pop up the first time), the click “I understand and agree” to proceed.
3. After reading information on qualifying, scroll down to the section titled “Region” and select your school’s respective District (aka “Region” in Tabroom). Make sure to click “Save”.
4. Ensure the correct contact is listed under the “Contact Information” section. If you need to correct any information, do so and click the “Save Contacts” button.

STUDENT REGISTRATION

All competitors that have qualified via bids or via their respective District tournament will automatically be registered to the Tournament after their school has completed the steps above. We need all schools in a District to complete the necessary steps before any competitors can be added from the respective District Qualifier.

If you have followed the above steps and registered your school, but do not see your entries that have qualified from the District qualifying tournament, please reach out to your District chair. 

To register competitors in non-qualifying events, please follow these steps after you have completed the School Registration above:

1. Click on the PHSSL State Championships tournament on Tabroom.com, then select the “Entries” Tab (should be the 4th tab on the page).
2. Select a non-qualifying event from the dropdown menu on the top right of the page.
3. If the entry is already on your roster, select them from your list of competitors using the dropdown menu, then click the blue “Add Entry” button. If you do not have the competitor on your roster yet, click the yellow “Add New Competitors to Roster” button underneath the dropdown.
4. You may also add a TBA slot in any non-qualifying event if you know that you will be filling the slot, but you do not know with which student yet.

If you are not entering two students in News Broadcasting, you have the option to enter ONE additional student into a single-competitor non-qualifying event (Congress House, Extemp Debate, or Impromptu). To elect for this option, please make sure that you have done the following:

• Ensure that you have no one entered in News Broadcasting
• Enter only one student onto the waitlist for Congress House, Extemp Debate, or Impromptu

On March 10th (the day after Registration closes), the tournament administrators will go through and ensure that the aforementioned conditions are met, then admit the waitlisted competitors into the tournament.

STUDENT DROPS

If you are dropping a student from a non-qualifying event or one that has qualified through bids, you may enter your drops without notifying anyone. If you are dropping a student that has qualified via a District Qualifier please send that information to District chairs. This will allow us to more efficiently add runners up from District tournaments.

JUDGE REQUIREMENTS

All judges are expected to be available FOR THE ENTIRE TOURNAMENT.  If you have judges splitting an assignment either for Friday and Saturday or even partial times during the day, Tabroom should automatically take this into account and accurately reflect your coverage. If you believe the calculated burden is incorrect, please email adhere@phssl.org to verify. Fees will be levied against schools that fail to cover their burden on all days.

Per Pennsylvania law, all judges must have a their Clearances. You can find instructions and requirements on the DHS website.

DEBATE EVENTS

Instructions for entering judges into Debate events:

1. For each debate event, there will be one judge required per two entries (in a team event, two competitors constitute one entry).
2. For an odd number of entries, an additional judge is still required to cover the extra entry (e.g. 3 entries in an event require 2 judges).
3. Requirements DO NOT crossover between events, including Extemp Debate (a change from past years). For example, if you have 3 entries in Lincoln Douglas and 1 entry in Extemp Debate, you will need 2 judges to cover the 3 entries in Lincoln Douglas and 1 separate judge to cover the entry in Extemp Debate.
4. Please rate all judges using the system on Tabroom. This will help us use judges with adequate experience in break rounds.
5. In order to have adequate coverage, judges are typically used in multiple events (e.g. a Lincoln Douglas judge may be used in a Public Forum round). If there is a debate event that a particular judge does not feel comfortable judging, please indicate that in the judge notes section.

SPEECH & CONGRESS EVENTS

Instructions for entering judges into Speech and/or Congress events:

1. There will be one judge required per three entries (in a team event, two competitors constitute one entry).
2. To calculate the required number of judges, divide the total number of Speech and Congress entries by 3 and round up (e.g. 11 competitors in Speech would require 4 judges).
3. Judge requirements crossover between all Speech and Congress events.
4. Please rate all judges using the system on Tabroom. This will help us use judges with adequate experience in break rounds.
5. In order to have adequate coverage, judges are typically used in multiple events (e.g. a Congress judge may be used in Speech rounds during their downtime). If there is an event-type (Speech or Congress, nothing more granular) that a judge does not feel comfortable judging, please indicate that in the judge notes section. A judge is unable to opt out of specific Speech events.

HIRED JUDGES