35th Annual Grapevine Classic Speech and Debate Tournament

July 18, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

Please accept this as your personal invitation to attend the 35th Annual Grapevine Classic TFA, TOC, and NIETOC qualifier to be held September 8-10, 2023 as an in-person tournament. We will be hosting all events at Grapevine High School and Cross Timbers Middle School, which share a parking lot.

This year, we will continue to have one of the best Tabrooms in the country. We are excited about the schedule of events, level of competition, quality of judging and unique opportunities provided this year. We hope you can participate!

We are happy to offer all the TFA events, as well as Prose and Poetry. This year we will offer Junior Varsity divisions for Policy, Lincoln Douglas, Public Forum Debate; and Novice Divisions for Extemp, and Interp (Prose/Poetry). We believe in providing quality educational experiences and are committed to providing all students with a positive tournament experience with feedback to help them learn and grow. Entries in the Junior Varsity/Novice divisions will not be eligible for TFA state points or bids to NIETOC or TOC.

The tournament schedule for all events will be posted no later than July 25. We are working to better accommodate the health and needs of our students so that they have a reasonable tournament schedule by moving late elimination rounds for debate to Sunday morning.

Debate Events

Please note that The Grapevine Classic is a Quarter-Finals qualifier for the National Tournament of Champions (TOC) in Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas Debate, and a Top 6 qualifier in Congress.

World Schools Debate Motions will be posted by August 8. Congressional Debate legislation will be posted by August 8.

Covid taught us a lot about the health of our students. We do not feel it is in the best interest of students to try to force through an unhealthy amount of rounds in a single day. The final out rounds (if needed) will take place Sunday morning at Grapevine High School. Teams may also choose to schedule and compete in these rounds virtually if that is amenable to all teams involved. Last year, this impacted Policy Debate and Public Forum Debate. We will offer our building to finish any impacted events on Sunday and hire out a small pool of judges to make this a possibility to serve the health and well-being of our students while also ensuring traveling teams are able to make it back home on Sunday.

Individual Events

Please note that The Grapevine Classic is a NIETOC and TOC bid tournament for individual events, based on total event entry. All IE competition will take place on Saturday, September 9 at Cross Timbers Middle School.

Independent Entries

We do not accept independent entries. A school coach or adult authorized by a school administrator to serve as the school sponsor must enter students to the Grapevine Classic on Tabroom and be in attendance at all times at the Grapevine Classic. Students may not register themselves and cannot be registered by parents - they must be registered by an appointed school employee.

Jonathan Brody Service to Debate Award

Please remember to nominate a Senior Debater for the Jonathan Brody Service to Debate Award given since 1997. Information is included on this site. Nominations are due on Friday, September 1 by 5:00 pm. We are proud that Jon's parents continue awarding a scholarship to the Brody Award Winner each year.

Grapevine Classic Scholarship Awards

For the second time, we will award five small scholarship awards at this year's tournament. One award will go to the top-scoring competitor in Individual Events. Four will be randomly drawn from students who competed in out rounds in debate or IEs at the Grapevine Classic. Two will be awarded to those competing in IEs, and two to those competing in Debate, as our awards ceremonies take place at different times. Student winners must be present at awards to receive their scholarship prize.

Questions? Reach out!

We know that you have many tournaments to choose from on any given weekend - we are so grateful if you choose to join us. While we work hard to provide all necessary information, there will always be questions that pop up. The best way to have your questions answered is to email us!

Sincerely,

Stef Cambra, Grapevine Classic Tournament Director

stephanie.cambra@rcisd.org