Hello fellow new and veteran coaches,

 

Welcome to the 2019-2020 Speech & Debate season! Your team is invited to Maumee's "Novice Panther" Classic next weekend on November 2, 2019. This year we are focusing on Novice and Middle School, though Varsity will also be able to participate as usual. As such, we have many exciting changes that all teams can be a part of!

 

In addition to our usual awards, we'll be recognizing the Top Novice in each category and we'll have a separate sweepstakes for the team with the highest ranking Novice students. We also have scholarships available alongside some of the awards that will cover a significant portion of costs for the Classic Debate Camp that is held each summer - a great opportunity for new teams!

 

This tournament is designed to give an educational glimpse into a small tournament while also allowing opportunities for new students to try it out. For this reason, Middle School rounds will begin after the completion of the first High School round so that they have the opportunity to observe a round before they try it themselves. This is also a script-friendly tournament, so judging will be focused on content and delivery while memorization will simply be icing on the cake. High School Novice and Varsity will compete together, but counted separately for Top Novice and Sweepstakes. If we receive enough entries from Novice teams, I will separate the two and offer an additional set of top 3 awards.

 

Varsity High School students will be allowed to judge Middle School rounds - if you put them in for your judge slots, please label them "MS Only" so that we don't have them judging other varsity students. If the Novice and Varsity portions are separated due to a high number of entries, the schedule will allow for varsity students who are competing to also judge the first round of Middle School. This is not a guarantee nor will it be for any other round than the first, so please do not add them under judges if they are competing. We will make an announcement in the cafeteria if the stars align and we open the opportunity up to them. Students receive 2 NSDA merit points for each round they judge.

 

We'll offer a short training session for judges at 8:45am that will cover the basics and how to use e-ballots (more in-depth training sessions will be available at the Springfield tournament). We'll also have typed guides that they can take with them into the rounds, and I plan to have a veteran judge available at the tab table to answer any questions that come up.

 

Lastly, on the subject of learning new roles, I am offering an open Tab room this year! If a team has all of their entries covered by the appropriate number of judges, the head coach is welcome to help in tab so that they can learn how a tournament can be run from an inside perspective. I'd love to see more teams learn the inner workings of a tournament so that they can help grow the Toledo district, becoming more knowledgeable and capable coaches! Please let me know as soon as you can if you'd like to help so that I can prepare.

 

 

Drop deadline: Please submit any dropped entries by 11:59pm on October 30th. After that there will be a charge.

 

Lincoln/Douglas and Public Forum Topics for both High School and Middle school will be per NSDA for the month of November.  See http://www.speechanddebate.org/topics.

The HS Congress Docket will be from the OSDA website for November 2. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sJYudAB272s4PiqO5cSYXPFywGzLyQ7W/view

The MS Congress Docket will be from the OSDA website for the 2019-20 year with a focus on pieces 1-7: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c7_46cUx7FwHGa4MKBQK4gHaVOCzH2LP/view

 

 

If you have any questions, please contact me as soon as possible.

 

Sincerely, Coach Stevan Jechura

 

Stevan Jechura

419-902-4748

stevanjechura@gmail.com

(vr)