Dear Forensics Coach:

 

The Warren John F. Kennedy Speech and Debate Team cordially invites you and your team to attend the John F. Kennedy HS/MS Speech and Debate Tournament on October 28, 2017!

 

This is a varsity and BQS tournament in the Youngstown District.

 

 

Locations:                         

                        John F. Kennedy-Upper Campus               John F. Kennedy- Blessed Sacrament Campus

                        2550 Central Parkway SE                             3000 Reeves Road

                        Warren, OH 44484                                         Warren, OH 44484

**Since we are hosting Middle School this year, we must wait to see tentative numbers to determine which events will be assigned to our buildings.

 

HIGH SCHOOL EVENTS

 

Individual Events: We will offer a total of four (3) rounds of competition. You may enter up to four (4) competitors in each category and list them as Varsity. Any other competitor should be listed as JV and will be added to the tournament as long as space permits. No more than six (6) competitors may be registered in any category, including JV.  Due to space limitations and interest in the tournament this year, no adds will be accepted after Monday, October 23rd. **Disclaimer: Depending on the number of entries in each category and due to space limitations, we may need to have a staggered start schedule for rounds, or flights.

 

Public Forum Debate: We will offer four (4) preliminary rounds of competition. Please follow the November NSDA topic. There will be a maximum of 4 entries (mark as Varsity in SpeechWire). If you have additional entries, please enter them and mark them as JV. We will add them as space permits. We cannot accept adds after the entry deadline.

 

Lincoln-Douglas Debate: We will offer four (4) preliminary rounds of competition. Please follow the November/December NSDA topic. There will be a maximum of 4 entries (mark as Varsity in SpeechWire). If you have additional entries, please enter them and mark them as JV. We will add them as space permits. We cannot accept adds after the entry deadline.

 

**DEBATE, PLEASE NOTE: LD and PF will be flighted with random pairing in rounds 1 and 2 and power-paired rounds 3 and 4.

 

Student Congress: We WILL be hosting student congress at the tournament and registration for this event is capped at no more than 6 entries per school.   We will be utilizing the October docket assigned for October 28th from the OHSSL for legislation. (It will also be available to all the schools on Speechwire.  Legislation will not be accepted the day of the tournament). We will have 3 preliminary sessions of Congress (approximately 1hr each). We will be scoring based on judge preference. We will also be using direct questioning. We will break to a final chamber and final session legislation will be determined the week prior to the tournament.

 

MIDDLE SCHOOL EVENTS

 

Individual Events: We will offer a total of four (3) rounds of competition. Students may compete in MS Interpretation, MS Oratory, or Declamation. Please enter competitors in their respective grouping on SpeechWire. Due to space limitations and interest in the tournament this year, no adds will be accepted after Monday, October 23rd. **Disclaimer: Depending on the number of entries in each category and due to space limitations, we may need to have a staggered start schedule for rounds, or flights.

 

BQD: We will offer three (3) preliminary rounds of Big Questions Debate. Please use the 2017-18 NSDA BQD topic.

 

PF: Public Forum Debate: We will offer four (4) preliminary rounds of competition. Please follow the November NSDA topic. There will be a maximum of 4 entries. If you have additional entries, please enter them and we will allow them entry as space permits. We cannot accept adds after the entry deadline.

 

Schedule: 7:45-8:15 Registration/Check-in.  We would really like to start round 1 by 8:45 at the latest!

*An official schedule of rounds will be posted by Tuesday, October 24th after final entry counts are conducted.

**An e-mail will be sent out to notify which competitors to drop off at the Blessed Sacrament (Lower Campus) building before coming to the high school.

 

Registration: Please register for the tournament on speechwire.com

Deadline to add entries: Monday, October 23rd @ 3:00 p.m.

Deadline to add/edit judges: Thursday October 26th @ 5:00 p.m.

 

Registration Fees: $3.50 per entry in both HS and MS (PF & DUO count as 2 entries). All checks should be made payable to John F. Kennedy High School- Speech and Debate(Fees may be paid at the time of registration). 

 

Judge Requirements: IE:  One (1) judge for every five (5) IE entries (a Duo team counts as one entry) for either HS or MS.

Public Forum/LD/BQD: One (1) judge for every 2 debaters/teams. PLEASE REGISTER ON SPEECHWIRE AS A MS OR HS JUDGE.

Congress: One (1) scorer or parliamentarian for each school that has Congress entries. IF YOU HAVE HS AND MS CONGRESS YOU MUST HAVE ONE JUDGE FOR HS AND ONE FOR MS.

The fee for being short judges is $30.00 per judge.  This fee will be enforced. JUDGES DROPPED THE DAY OF THE MEET WILL RESULT IN A $30 FINE.

**Please make sure that you register judges as either MS or HS**

 

Lunch & Snacks: Snack items will be available for purchase at reasonable prices on Saturday in both schools throughout the day. A lighter lunch will be provided at breaks for debaters at the Blessed Sacrament Campus. However, a full lunch menu will be served in the High School cafeteria.  The Youngstown District has issued a rule stating that no contestants are allowed to leave the premises for food to bring back to the tournament (i.e. McDonalds, Arby's).

 

Awards: Trophies will be awarded to the top six placements in all events in both HS and MS. School sweepstakes will be presented based on the top ten competitor’s sweepstakes points per school. There will be a team sweepstakes trophy for the top 2 teams.

 

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at acatale@warrenjfk.com 

 

We look forward to seeing you all on October 28th!

 

Anthony Catale

Head Coach, JFK Speech and Debate

 

(vr)