2024 Cactus Clash
Mars Hill Speech & Debate (AZ) · Nov 14-16, 2024
Apologetics
For this tournament we will be using Apologetics questions from the following Stoa categories.
- Category 1: The Character and Nature of God
- Category 3: Scripture
- Category 5: Christian Worldview Application
Please see the updated Apologetics questions here.
Description: In Apologetics, the competitor is given four (4) minutes to prepare a persuasive and reasoned speech that defends a tenet of the Christian faith.
Goal: Stoa Apologetics is designed to help students understand the core issues of their faith. Students will craft a response considering their audience may or may not accept the Bible as truth. The speech is not intended to be a sermon, and it is not necessarily a presentation of the Gospel or an overtly evangelistic opportunity. Therefore, the presentation should be a thoughtful response to the question/topic and the reason(s) why it is important for theological truth and Christian living.
Content is key: greater weight should be given to the speech content, rather than the presentation style.
Tournament Events
Lincoln Douglas and Team Policy Debate
- Lincoln Douglas Qual
- Team Policy Qual
Parliamentary Debate
- Parliamentary Debate Qual
Speech Events
- Apologetics Qual
- Extemporaneous Qual
- Impromptu Qual
- Mars Hill Qual
- Slam Poetry Qual
Novice Apologetics Speech
- Novice Apologetics Speech Non-qual
Juniors Speech Tournament
- Juniors Apologetics Juniors
- Juniors Platform Juniors
- Juniors Story Reading Juniors
Tournament Timetable
- Community Judge registration will open at 12:00 pm Wed 09/25/2024 (Mountain)
- Tournament Status will update to Open at 10:00 am Fri 10/18/2024 (Mountain)
- Tournament Status will update to Drops only at 12:01 am Thu 10/24/2024 (Mountain)
- Meal registration will close at 12:00 pm Fri 11/08/2024 (Mountain)
- Tournament Status will update to Closed at 10:00 pm Wed 11/13/2024 (Mountain)
- Community Judge registration will close at 12:00 pm Thu 11/14/2024 (Mountain)
What the statuses mean
- Setup
- The tournament is still being set up.
- Open
- Registration is open — families can register for the tournament.
- Drops Only
- No new entries are allowed, but families can drop existing ones.
- Closed
- Registration is closed — no adds or drops. Contact the tournament director with questions.
- Completed
- The tournament is finished.