Judging
Overview
We want parents to join our speech and debate community by becoming a judge for our team! Judging is fun and you get to travel with your student to tournaments, meet other parents, and judge students from around North Carolina at speech and debate tournaments. You won’t judge your own child, but you do get to spend the day with them and see what an amazing activity in which your student has chosen to be involved.
The idea of judging students can seem intimidating, but once you get trained and attend your first tournament, it is very rewarding. We encourage you to participate and see these amazing teens in action.
When you sign up to judge, you’ll be able to rank which category you’d prefer to judge. We will do our best to assign you to your first choice, but sometimes you may have to judge a different event.
Judge Training and Background Checks
Before you can attend a tournament and judge, you must pass a background check, sign up for a Tabroom account, and do the judge training. Follow these easy steps to get started.
Complete an Asheville City School Background Check
Each parent that travels to the tournaments must complete a background check. Please visit Secure Volunteer and select Chaperone when you are filling out the form. If you have questions, please see our Chaperone Background Check page for details.
You will receive a confirmation email once you have successfully passed the background check. Please email that confirmation to Coach Williams at katie.williams@acsgmail.net. You will receive a Secure Volunteer VERIFIED card from Asheville City Schools in the regular mail after you pass the background check.
Create a Judging Account on Tabroom
Tabroom is a free service that helps manage all schedules and judging tabulation for our events. Sign up here: https://www.tabroom.com and then email Coach Keith Pittman keith.pittman@acsgmail.net to let him know that you have registered.
Get trained
You can complete the full judge training for any event with the resources on our site under Judge Training. Depending on interest, we can offer optional in-person judge training sessions between September and November. These will not remove the requirement for completing the online course. Please email the booster club through the contact link at the top of the page, if interested in attending an in-person judge training session.
Information Sessions
The 2025 preseason team and parent retreat took place at AHS on Sunday, September 6th, 2025. If you missed the fun but still want to get involved, please sign up to be a judge and or join the boosters club!
Use the contact link at the top of the page to reach the Booster Club with any questions.
The Booster Club meets on the evening of the first Wednesday of the month. Specific details (including time and location) can be found on the event calendar.
Academic Calendar
You can find dates and locations for upcoming tournaments here.
We will provide more information regarding specifics in upcoming announcements.