Colleagues,

The Hooch Debate Team is excited to invite you and your students to attend the annual Cougar Classic Debate Tournament with events to be held at Chattahoochee High School Friday September 28th, Saturday September 29th, and Sunday September 30th, 2018.

We are pleased to announce that the Cougar Classic has again been certified as a TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS qualifier at the FINALS level for varsity policy debate.

The varsity policy debates will take place on Chattahoochee’s campus Friday through Sunday. Please note that all Varsity policy judges are obligated for the quarterfinals on Sunday morning.

The following events will be held Friday and Saturday — with no competition on Sunday:

* Novice Policy
* Junior Varsity Policy
* Varsity Lincoln Douglas
* Varsity Public Forum

The Hooch Debate Team has been working hard to ensure a quality tournament experience and we look forward to hosting you this fall.

A few important things to note:

1. In order to maintain a safe and educational environment, we have high expectations for the decorum of both students and adults on our campus.  Behavior that violates the Fulton County Schools code of conduct will not be tolerated and could be grounds for immediate dismissal from the tournament. 

2. We request that you follow the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association rule stating that, “a novice debater is a student who is debating his or her first national high school resolution at high school tournaments”.

3. Novice teams and judges will be expected to abide by GFCA rules concerning novice arguments and evidence. Please read the event/fee information page of the tournament website carefully.

4. We will be using the September/October resolution for Public Forum Debate.

5. We will be using the September/October resolution for Lincoln-Douglas Debate. 

6. You must specifically request hired judges. We will fill as many hire requests as possible, but it is likely that we will not be able to meet demand.  Uncovered entries will not be accepted. 

7. All judges in the varsity policy division will be expected to have judge philosophies posted to the national judge philosophy wiki (http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/) and/or Tabroom; we fully anticipate using mutually preferred judging in the varsity policy debates.    

8. We take pride in offering a high quality event at a low cost. Lincoln Douglas entries are $40, public forum entries are $50, and policy entries are $70.

9. If your Georgia school is a new program in its first few years of competition, we offer half-off registration fees.

We hope to see you in September,

Garrett Abelkop
Director, Cougar Classic
Assistant Principal, Taylor Road Middle School
abelkop@fultonschools.org
(470) 254-7063

Kevin Bancroft
Head Debate Coach, Chattahoochee High School
bancroftk@fultonschools.org