On behalf of Woodbury High School, we would like to invite you to The Royal Kickoff held at Woodbury High School. The tournament will be held on January 12-13, 2018. A few highlights:

• Saturday, January 13, will be a NIETOC bid tournament. Three rounds, next-in finals, finals, and merit finals where numbers require. 
• Optional: On Friday, January 12, we will host NOVICE ONLY rounds after school. One of the things we've heard from coaches over the past few years is that novices do not have an opportunity early on in the year to both experience competition AND see what more experienced competitors around the state are running. Running novice rounds on Friday allows these students to start the year with a friendly and like-minded atmosphere on Friday, and then watch varsity rounds on Saturday. While novices can obviously compete Saturday, our goal is to make the day a ton of fun and to do everything possible to have your novices fall in love with the activity. There will be three novice prelimary rounds, followed by a short novice awards. During awards, we will recognize the top three novices on Friday night. You are welcome to enter your novices on Saturday if you would like them to compete both days or have a chance at a NIETOC bid. Howver, you will need to enter them TWICE, once selected for novice and once selected for varsity. Friday will serve as its own, novice-friendly tournament. 
• If you have ANY students competing on Saturday, your novice entries will be FREE on Friday.
• Rounds will start on Friday at 5PM, please plan to arrive after 3:30PM. This will help you avoid any after school traffic. Enter through the south entrance. 
• Information from several collegiate forensics teams around the country will be present at the tournament. We know that many Minnesota students want to continue doing speech in college, but we understand the practical constraints of your students traveling to a slew of universities to collect information on scholarships, programs, travel questions, etc. Our goal is to bring that information to them in one central location. 

Friday (NOVICE INFORMATION) 

Food:
Because it will be a smaller group Friday night for the novice portion, our boosters have asked that students "pre-order" their dinner. To do so, your students will need to complete this short google form: http://bit.ly/2C8n1Zk by Monday, January 8th. Pre-ordered meals will come from Davannis and will be $7.00. I will collect your meal money at registration on Friday. Candy, beverages, and small snacks will still be available on Friday night, but if they want to purchase a "meal," they will need to pre-order. Saturday's concessions will be like any other tournament. We will have a judge's lounge on Friday night for judges and coaches.

Arrival:
Please plan to arrive at Woodbury after 3:30PM on Friday. School gets out at 3:05 and so if you arrive after 3:30, your life will be significantly easier. Registration will be from 3:45-4:20 near the lecture hall at the South Entrance. At this point, students will leave all of their belongings in the lecture hall right by registration.

Novices and Saturday:
We have had coaches ask if novices can compete on Saturday as well. We are OK with this. You will need to enter your student(s) twice, once as a novice and once as a varsity. Saturday will only have varsity rounds. We understand that some students want an opportunity for a NIETOC bid, which is why we're opening this up to do both. This is up to you.
 

Novice and Varsity: Extemp. Reading Prose: 1-10 (students can repeat a story from their preliminary rounds in finals)

Novice and VarsityExtemp. Reading Poetry: 1-25 (students cannot repeat a cutting from their preliminary rounds in finals)

- Please let me know if your student wants to do poetry. If I don't hear from anyone, we WILL NOT provide extemp reading: poetry. 

Novice and VarsityStorytelling Stories: 1-8 (students can repeat a story from their preliminary rounds in finals)

Novice and VarsityDiscussion Topic: 1

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