The Odyssey: Your Speech Journey Begins Here

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General information

This information is from a tournament in a past season!

This is a High School tournament in Minnesota.

View manager contact information

Come accept the challenge and begin your speech journey at The Odyssey Speech Tournament hosted by Orono and Mound Westonka on January 19, 2019. The Tournament will be held at Mound Westonka High School and Hilltop Elementary School (on the same campus, in walking distance). We will use Speechwire and will accept all MSHSL and NSDA speech categories. We will offer Impromptu and POI, provided we have a minimum of 6 entries in either category. We will have novice and varsity divisions with three preliminary rounds and honors (for novice) and finals (for varsity) rounds. Team sweepstakes trophies will be given to the top 2 large and top 2 small schools. Concessions will be provided to students, and our booster parents will be providing food and beverages for judges, coaches, and bus drivers at both buildings.

Registration and Fees

• The cost is $7 per entry.
• Registration Deadline:
  • Thursday, January 17th, 2019 at 8:00pm (drops and adds – all drops after this point will not result in a change of statement)
• Drops made after the registration deadline will be charged $7 per drop.
• Entry changes (drops or adds) can be made on the speechwire.com tournament site up until the end of registration. We will be site scheduling all rounds of competition in order to make sure rounds are equal and fair. For this reason, registration must be completed promptly by 7:45 AM or a phone call to 612-308-3038 must be made to report your team drops.
• Please make checks payable to Westonka Speech Team and either hand them in at the information desk that morning, or mail to:

Lynne Peterson
c/o the Westonka Speech Team
Mound Westonka High School
5905 Sunnyfield Rd E
Minnetrista, MN 55364​

Format

• All divisions (Varsity and Novice) will compete together in the three prelim rounds.
• All entries will be sorted at the completion of the third prelim round:
  • First break to Finals will be by overall ranks in combined divisions (top 1-7 overall).
  • Second break to Honors Finals will be by ranks of the remaining Novice competitors (remaining top 1-7 Novice). 

​Team Sweepstakes:

• Team trophies will be available for the top 2 schools in both LARGE and SMALL sizes.
• Novice ranks will have a strong influence in team's sweepstakes in order to encourage teams to continue to develop their novice competitors. 

Novice Division

A Novice competitor needs to meet either of the following criteria:

1. A first time ever competitor in speech (changing events does not count), and can be in any grade.
2. Any student in 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th grade who has never broken into an out round (eg. Honors, Quarter, Semi, Final) at any previous varsity tournament.

Due to anticipated small registration numbers, there will not be a Novice division for Program Oral Interp (POI) and Impromptu.

Schedule

Judges

• Each team is required to bring 1 judge for each 6 entries (including double entries).
• For each uncovered entry, the team will be assessed a $100 fee.
• We hope to have 3 judges in Finals Round, and so ask that your judges please stay for Finals. 

Double Entering

• Double entering is permissible. Triple entry is not allowed.
• Draw categories (ER, ES, STY) are not allowed to double entry in other draw categories, or Discussion. Draw categories may double enter in any other category, including Impromptu Speaking.
• Discussion is not allowed to double enter in a draw category. Discussion may double enter in any other category, including Impromptu Speaking.

Locations and Logistics

• We have asked for initial registration to be completed by Monday, January 14th. This allows us to make any last minute room assignments so we keep rooms close to each other in each category.
• Please drop your team off at the Mound Westonka High School's East entrance. This is also known as our upper entrance, and is located next to the new Westonka Performing Arts Center:

Mound Westonka High School
5905 Sunnyfield Rd E
Minnetrista, MN 55364

Minnesota State High School League Event Info:

• Extemp. Reading Prose: Students will draw from 1-8 number stories. (students cannot repeat a story from their preliminary rounds in finals)
• Extemp. Reading Poems 1-20 (students cannot repeat a cutting from their preliminary rounds in finals)
• Storytelling Stories 1-8 (students cannot repeat a story from their preliminary rounds in finals)
• Discussion will have tasks from Topic 1 (Section). Tasks for prelim rounds will be distributed approximately 3 days prior to the tournament. This is a Novice-friendly tournament, and we want Novices to feel comfortable in rounds where they are also competing against Varsity. Since tasks are distributed ahead of the tournament, we expect that every Discussant should have their research ready going into the round. That should eliminate the need to hold research periods in rounds, and make preliminary rounds run efficiently. Final round tasks will be distributed in those rounds.

Manager contact information

Rhys Jones
Email address: rhys.gjones@outlook.com
Phone number: 612-308-3038

Mailing address

None provided