Nationals Supplemental Entries

Every School with an NSDA Speech and Debate Program is allowed to send 2 students as "Supplemental Entries". They do not have to qualify, they are selected by the school. They choose their events from the list of NSDA Supplemental Entries and prepare the same way those who qualify through the District National Qualifier process. For more information on the events, please refer to our Supplemental Events page. 

As a guiding principle, the purpose of Supplemental Spots on the La Cueva team is to give National’s Experience to team members to help strengthen the team the following year. As such, if a Junior or younger team member whose main event is Debate (any type of main debate, and ideally will be in leadership) AND Junior or younger team member whose main event is Speech (any type of main speech and ideally leadership) have not qualified for Nationals at the District Tournament, preference will be given to those members in the area(s) missing. 

LCHS Rubric for choosing supplemental Competitors

 (A student’s actions over the last season will be used as a guide when making the following evaluations):

1. Will they be someone who will support and encourage ALL members of the team while preparing and attending Nationals?

2. Will they be helpful as a spectator during the first two days taking notes to bring back to the team?

3. Will they work equally hard to prepare their event as those who qualified at District, both in our official practices and on their own?

   • Supplemental Competitors are not on a “vacation”.

4. What kind of success have they had during the season? 

   • This is Nationals and we need to aim for success, not just show up.

5. Will we have a variety of events represented? 

   • We do not want all supplemental competitors entered in the same event, ideally we would have four supplemental entries between the two students.

Requirements & Process 

1. Those who want to be considered for a Supplemental spot must:

   • 1. • •  Be able to provide a judge for the whole week of Nationals 

            1. • Depending on judge availability we may not end up needing them, but one MUST be available.

               • Judge must be willing to be flexible in what they judge

          • Have competed in the District National Qualifier or have communicated to a coach prior to the application process that they are planning to compete in the Last Chance Qualifier

2. A google form will be filled out by those applying requesting the following

   • Name

   • Grade

   • Whether they competed at District National Qualifier or Last Chance Qualifier, or both.

   • Events they have competed in during the year and their success in each.

   • Supplemental Events they plan to compete in (Double entry is required, depending on Nationals rules, if at all possible)

   • Judge they plan to provide

   • Why they believe they should be chosen for the supplemental spot, in 100 words or less.

3. A committee will be formed of Coaches/Sponsor & Co-Presidents. If Presidents are not also in Speech AND Main debate leadership (captains preferred), coaches will choose a representative from the event missing to balance the committee. All members of the committee will be made known to those who are applying.

   • No member of the committee may be someone who is applying to go in a supplemental spot.

   • If one or both of the presidents are applying for a supplemental spot, the most senior VP(s) will represent, followed by the Directors of Membership, if necessary.

   • No coach/sponsor who has their own child being considered will be allowed to vote, though they will be allowed to add their perspective to the conversation as they will have an overarching perspective of students during the season.

   • All deliberations will be kept private and not shared outside the committee. 

   • Due to the small number of committee members, vote tallies will not be made public, but the coaches/sponsors will confirm the results, with the Booster President reviewing.

     • This is to help prevent other members of the team/committee from guessing who may have voted for whom which could result in team disunity.

4. Committee members will meet online or in person to discuss the entries and share their opinions using the above rubric.

5. An anonymous Google Form vote will be taken with no identifiable information about who voted being a part of the form. 

   • In the event of a tie, a second vote will be taken using only the top 3-4 (depending on where the tie falls).

   • In the event of a second tie, the head coach will vote a second time and break the tie. 

   • The results of the vote, whether it was decided in a first vote, went to a second vote, or the head coach made the final decision, will be kept private. 

6. Head coach will notify those students who applied who has the first two spots and the order of alternates, if there are any.

7. Should one of those selected to be a Supplemental Entry qualify through the Last Chance Qualifier, an alternate will be chosen.