The 31st Annual Dolores Korfhage Hilke Memorial Speech Invitational

 

Thanks to the generosity of the family of the late Dolores Korfhage Hilke, a former South St. Paul speech great, South St. Paul is again extending this invitation to our tournament, which will be held Saturday, March 9. As a reminder to you, we added a final round to the format of our tournament a few years back with a "next-in" final for any event with 24 or more competitors.  We hope you and your students will find it a rewarding, competitive experience. We also include the categories of Impromptu and Program Oral Interp. POI is very small at our Invitational since most competitors are at the National Qualifying Tournaments for the Central and Southern MN Districts. If there are no more than six competitors, we will base results in that category solely on the three prelim rounds.

 

Saturday, March 9, 2024

 

South St. Paul High School

700 No. 2nd St., So. St. Paul, MN 55075

 

For any questions or concerns PRIOR to the competition, please contact me, Ceil McDonald at:

 

Cell phone (651) 900-3797

E-mail:  cmcdonald@sspps.org 

 

 

REGISTRATION: We are again using www.speechwire.com for registration and scheduling. Our school can accommodate approximately 600 competitors so please register by 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 5.  After that date we will accommodate registrations only as space permits.  

 

ENTRY LIMITS:   Since our goal is to provide a rewarding tournament for small and mid-size teams, registration is limited to no more than 56 entries per team for the 13 MSHSL events + Impromptu and POI.  If you have more than 56 entries, you can divide your team in two and enter the remaining students with another team name.  For example, instead of South St Paul, I could enter my remaining team members as Packers.  Double entries are allowed, but, please, no triple entries.  

 

To encourage your students to enter Impromptu, entries in this special event DO NOT COUNT against the team entry limit of 56. These entries DO count toward your school's judge requirement and entry fee!  Please check the General Information section for details on this fun event.  

 

Discussion rounds will start fifteen minutes AFTER the other events, to allow discussants to double-enter.  

 

IMPROMPTU: All schools registering students in impromptu are encouraged to check out the details under General Information and some sample topics from past years. The material is provided specifically to give students a chance to practice this event prior to the competition. Please note that anyone in Impromptu is double-entered.  Judges are instructed to take the student in the order they arrive.  If your student hasn't double-entered before, please explain to them that if they are scheduled to speak in the last half of their their regular event, that they should go to Impromptu FIRST, and then go to their other room; if they are early in the round for their regular event, they should excuse themselves to go to Impromptu after presenting their speech. Any discussant that is in Impromptu goes to Impromptu first before heading to their Discussion group.

 

FEE: $7.00 per student per event.  Each duo event counts as one student for purposes of assessing fees and judging obligations.  Your fees and judge obligation are based on your registration as of 10 p.m., Thursday, March 7.  There will be no fee adjustment for drops after that time.  THE EXCEPTION to this policy is for students who are competing at Nat Quals on Friday and qualify for semi-finals on Saturday, which would then make it impossible for them to compete at Hilke. If your team has drops on Saturday due to this exception, please let me know and I will adjust the drop fee accordingly.  The same will be true if it changes your team's judge obligation.

 

JUDGES: Bring one judge for each six competitors or fraction thereof.  Because our goal is to provide a quality experience for both competitors and judges, we work hard to keep sections, as much as possible, to six and at most seven contestants. Keeping sections small will be especially important now that we also have a final round. Therefore, please understand that your judge obligation is based on your registration numbers at 10 p.m. March 7 and will NOT be affected by drops after that time. (See exception noted above under fees).

 

AWARDS:  Trophies will be presented to the top three competitors in each event, with our beautiful rosette ribbons awarded to those who place 4th, 5th, and 6th. Ribbons will be awarded to those who advance to the "next-in" final.  Team trophies will be awarded to 1st, 2nd, 3rd place schools in both large-entry and small-entry divisions. 

 

SCHEDULE:  Registration is from 7:00-8:00.  It is essential that your team be registered by 8:00.  Once we begin computer scheduling, it is a mess to add teams or students to the first round. Speechwire makes this so much easier for all of us.  I will keep the team registration open for you on the website, so that you may adjust your registration, as needed, either before you leave school or from the bus on your way to SSP.  We would appreciate a text  from the bus once you have departed with your team indicating that you HAVE UPDATED your registration on-line OR giving us any drops/adds if you were unable to do so. The cell number to contact is 651-900-3797. A text is easier than a phone call...no being pushed to voice mail, and honestly things get so hectic in the morning that it is hard to hear well on the phone.  This is especially crucial if you think you might arrive late. The information we receive before you arrive will make registration much quicker and simpler!

 

Note that the staggered schedule allows any competitor, regardless of event, to double-enter, even discussants.!  

 

Please note that Discussion will begin 15 minutes after the other events.  

 

Round 1 Draw:     8:30

Round 1 (All events, but Discussion):    9:00

Discussion:   9:15

Round 2 Draw:   .9:50

Round 2 (All events, but Discussion): 10:20

Discussion:   10:35

Round 3 Draw:   11:10

Round 3 (All events, but Discussion:   11:40

Discussion:   11:55

 

FINAL DRAWS WILL START at 1:00, or as soon as possible after that.

FINALS for all events but Discussion:  1:30

FINALS for Discussion:  1:45

Awards:  3:15, or as soon as possible

 

 

FOOD: There will be the usual array of tournament food available for purchase at the concessions stand.  Students may, of course, bring their own lunches.  Coffee, water, juice, rolls and a light lunch will be available in the lounge for coaches and judges.  Those of you who have attended our tournament in the past are well aware that we take pride in serving a quality spread!

 

(vr)