Novice Nationals

The national championship for 1st year competitors in
Individual Events, Lincoln-Douglas and Parliamentary Debate

What is Novice Nationals?

Novice Nationals is designed to be a low-key, educational, yet competitive atmosphere. Students who have competed at Novice Nationals have done very well at the national level, placing in elimination rounds at NFA, AFA, and NPDA.

Novice Nationals is open to students in their first year of intercollegiate forensics competition. We use the AFA guidelines for individual events (3 tournaments = 1 semester of eligibility). If you have any questions about eligibility, please contact Dr. Michael Dreher, the tournament director.

2009 Novice Nationals winners

March 2009, University of Houston

Congratulations to the 2009 national champions from the 26th Novice Nationals:

  • Hutchinson Community College, sweepstakes champions
  • Terra Strong, Tennessee State University, pentathalon champion
  • Mikey Brown and Woody Go, US Air Force Academy, parliamentary debate champions
  • Tennessee State University, RT champion
  • The whole results can be found on the 2009 results page.

Upcoming Novice Nationals

We hope you'll join us for the upcoming tournaments:

  • 2010: March 26-28, Hutchinson Community College (Prof. Travis Roberts, host)
  • 2011: University of Indianapolis (Dr. Audrey Cunningham, host)
  • 2012: Lafayette College (tentative host)

Novice Nationals is now in its 28th year. Originally, it was an IE tournament; we've now expanded to include parliamentary debate, NFA Lincoln-Douglas debate and Readers' Theater.