2025 Cherry Blossom Challenge

Apex Speech and Debate Club (VA) - Apr 3-5, 2025 | Status: Preview | 4:20 PM Eastern

Tournament Time
4:20 PM Eastern

PARENTS' PAGE
Parent Judges are critical for a well-run, on-time tournament.

To keep it fun - and to show our appreciation - we will be awarding prizes to those who judge the most rounds over the course of our tournament! So...come to Ballot Push early and often!

To parents fulfilling their judge requirements (judging at least 6 rounds during the tournament), we will award a $5 coupon to your family for use at our Gobbler Fest Tournament in the fall (2025).

Requirements

1. Competitors must be accompanied by a parent or adult chaperone who is available to judge for the entire tournament. Each parent will be responsible for judging at least 6 rounds.

If a parent cannot attend, prior approval and an alternative contribution must be arranged with the tournament director for the student to participate.
To meet the tournament's judging needs, each out-of-town chaperone may only cover 2 students. Exception is granted to families with more than two children.

Please report to Ballot Push 30 minutes before the start of each round for ballot distribution. Timeliness will help us keep the tournament on schedule.

We ask that all parents be prepared to judge a round that may not be listed on their schedule. If you want more control over your judging rounds, come to ballot push early and often. Otherwise, be near Judge Hospitality or Ballot Push to help fill the gaps.
If you have judging preferences, please indicate them via the dropdown box under judge registration. We try to accommodate requests, but when this isn't possible, we ask that parents be prepared to judge both types of debate and speeches of all categories, regardless of personal preferences.

2. Prior to judging, parents or their designee should attend Stoa Speech and Debate training at least once during the 2024-2025 competition season.

Judge training will be offered 40 minutes before each round. You will be given a good overview of the events and the judging process. No prior experience is necessary.
If you would like more detailed information about the debate events, please look at the Lincoln Douglas Debate Page and the Team Policy Debate Page.

3. Be mindful of judging conflicts.

Be advised that coaches and parents cannot judge their own students, and they may not judge a debate team (in the same event) twice during the tournament.
If you have a close personal relationship/friendship with, are related to, or have coached a competitor, we ask that you do not judge that individual.

Thank you for your interest in judging at our tournament. We appreciate your support! Please click the button below to sign up.