December 2024

 

Coaches,  

 

The seventh annual Wayne High/Wayne State Classic will be held on February 8, 2025 on the Wayne State College Campus.

 

The tournament will be varsity only and run in a three-round, no-finals format.  We hope this style of tournament will help you significantly as a coach mid-season, particularly to reward hard-working JV kids with a chance to compete on the varsity level, thus fostering healthy intra-team competition.  We also hope the tournament will help you formulate an early look at your conference and district teams.

 

We have bolder ambitions for the format, however.  If the number of judges is adequate, we will shift to a three-rounds-AND-finals format, with finals being in front of multiple judges.  This would mean your events could potentially go home with at least five ballots from high-quality judges.  This is our preferred format.

 

This year, Wayne will not be paricipating in the team sweepstakes.  Wayne students will participate in group and individual events, however.

 

After a $50 entry fee, fees are $9 per entry, individual or group, while uncovered slots are $15 each.  However, as a financial incentive, the $50 entry fee will be waived for teams who enter only high-quality judges, which we define as head coaches, official assistant coaches, and NSAA-certified speech judges.  Please provide one judge for every six entries; teams are expected to provide a minimum of two judges, regardless of entry numbers.

 

While the per-entry fee is indeed high, we are simply attempting to guarantee a full day of strong competition for your varsity speakers.  

 

The top twelve individuals in each event will medal.  Team scores will be calculated on the 18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 format for medalists, with fourth, third, runner-up, and champion team trophies being awarded.

 

To accommodate electronic balloting, all judges are expected to bring a working laptop, Chromebook, or tablet device.  (If a judge is using a tablet device, a physical keyboard is strongly recommended.)  No devices will be available for check-out.  Cell phones will not be permitted as judging devices.  This year, however, we are strongly encouraging the use of personal cell hotspots for the device used for e-balloting.  Please provide your own cords for all devices, obviously.

 

Entries will only be accepted through SpeechWire.  Double and triple entries are accepted; quadruple or more are not forbidden but discouraged.  Extempers are allowed to triple-enter but no more than that.  In any case, please remember that this event will be held on a college campus, so there could be considerable distance between buildings, depending on individuals’ unique combinations of events.  Also, it being the second weekend of February, weather and surface conditions could be challenging for students with multiple entries or any students/judges with mobility issues.

 

There will be two deadlines.  Preliminary deadline for entries is Friday, January 17, 2025, by NOON.  By this date I would like to have your number of entries and judges fairly well set so that I can inform Wayne State of our room and lunch needs.  Changes will be allowed until the final deadline.

 

Final deadline is Monday, February 3, 2025, by NOON.  All entries and judges must be finalized by that time; these are the overall numbers from which your entry fee will be determined.  After this time, there can be no adds; you may drop events, but your entry fee will be unaffected.  Your school’s fee will be communicated to you shortly after the deadline.  Fees will be due upon registration.  Judge drops/replacements must be handled on your end.

 

We would love to host you and your team at The Wayne High/Wayne State Classic this season.  Join us!

 

My e-mail address is dwspiek1@waynebluedevils.org.

 

Hope to see you in Wayne America on Feb. 8, 2025!

 

Dwaine Spieker                             

Head High School Speech Coach

 

Sarah Oltjenbruns; Grace Longe; Claire Krepel

Assistant High School Speech Coaches

 

Wayne High School

611 West Seventh Street

Wayne, Nebraska 68787

 

School:  (402) 375-3150 ext. 1110

Personal Cell:  402-518-8813

 

(vr24)