Sept. 12, 2021 Image removed by sender.

Dear Colleague:

St. Mary’s High School wishes to welcome you and your team to our Novice Tournament on Saturday, October 2, 2021, at St. Mary’s High School. We hope that this tournament will provide your team with a positive beginning to the speech season.

REGISTRATION

St Mary’s High School – 8:00 – 8:30 a.m. 2501 E Yampa St, Colorado Springs, CO 80909

We plan to end by 3:00 p.m.

PRE REGISTER on speechwire.com. The best way to do this is to FIRST enter your student’s names into your NSDA roster. then sync your roster to speechwire. Registration will be open next week. Please register early.

EVENTS – Novice competitors may enter:

Duo OO

Drama Informative Speaking

Humor PF

Poetry LD

Program Oral Interp US Extemp and Foreign Extemp (draw from separate envelopes)

COST

Novice event and LD entries $7.00 per person

Public Forum, Duo $12.00 per team

VARSITY students should come to judge. Please bring at least two varsity students per team.

This is FREE, but we must limit our entries per available rooms. Please register early.

Deadline for drops or additions will be Thursday, Sept. 30. All drops should be made on speechwire.com. If you are having problems send me an e-mail: tward@smhscs.org

Please register as early and make changes as necessary. We are flexible this time of year and expect lots of changes.

AWARDS

Generous numbers of ribbons only will be awarded in both novice debate and events.

DEFINITION OF A NOVICE COMPETITOR

The spirit of our meet is to provide a positive learning environment for NEW forensics students. A novice, therefore, must not have competed in more than one high school forensic meet (in any event) prior to this year. That means a student who “filled in” once last spring could still compete if you believe he is “new” at this. Please use good judgment in deciding which of your students are true beginners.

JUDGING

Schools should try to provide one experienced student judge for every two debate entries. One student judge should be provided for every six students entered in events. If possible, please bring extra judges. We will use as many varsity students as possible to judge each round. Therefore, some sections may have three critics; please “warn” your students. Remember to bring student judges that you feel have the necessary background to provide positive and instructive criticism. IF YOUR PROGRAM IS NEW and you can’t bring any varsity students please feel free to come! We really want to support your efforts. You may bring observers also!

ROUNDS OF COMPETITION

Three rounds of competition will be guaranteed in all areas. No Finals!

FOOD

Coffee, juice and breakfast items will be served in the morning with lunch provided at noon for coaches and all judges. We will have concessions available for competitors.

RULES

CHSAA guidelines will be used in debate and events with the exception of oratory and informative. Novice orators and informative speakers may use their script if necessary. Computers are welcome in all events, but for retrieval purposes only (no live internet connections!) Remember, no prepared speeches in extemp.

Coaches will receive their student’s exact code at registration as well as on speechwire.com. You will need to share these with your students.

DEBATE TOPICS: (from the National Speech and Debate Association website)

Lincoln-Douglas Debate – 2021 September/October Topic

Resolved: The member nations of the World Trade Organization ought to reduce intellectual property protections for medicines.

Public Forum Debate – 2021 September/October Topic Area: Europe

Resolved: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization should substantially increase its defense commitments to the Baltic states.

Sincerely,

Theresa Ward, M. Ed.

English/Study Skills/ESOL

Forensics Coach

tward@smhscs.org / 719.635.7540

Check us out on social media: @SMHSColorado