The Sunflower Invitational

Derby High School

January 6-7, 2017

Dear Coaches and Debaters,

            It is that time of the year, once again.  As the debate season draws near to its end, there are still opportunities for our varsity debaters to “throw down” against top competitors in the state, but there continue to be few opportunities for our best novices to do the same.  In the spirit of a novice statewide invitational tournament, we cordially invite you and up to three of your finest novice teams to attend the 2017 Sunflower Invitational Tournament, to be held at Derby High School on January 6-7, 2017.

            This tournament is in no way affiliated with the Kansas State High School Activities Association, so it is NOT an “official” state championship.  It counts as one of the eight tournaments a debater is allowed to attend during the season, so those novices who have used up their eight tournaments (or 7, if your school doesn’t host an invitational tournament) are not eligible to attend this one.  Additionally, novice teams that you wish to enter should have a minimum of a 50% win-loss record.

             We are continuing a format started several years ago.  There will be two divisions in the tournament: a 9^th-grade novice division, and a novice open (9th-12^th-grade) division.  Only novices may participate in either division of the tournament.  No upper-class (10^th-12^th grade) novices can participate in the 9^th-grade division, although 9^th-graders CAN participate in the novice open division.  We hope this will create the opportunity to make it to elimination rounds more possible for all of your students. 

Please note you will be limited to THREE ENTRIES INITIALLY, regardless of which divisions you enter your teams, so long as you enter within the time period provided.  You may request a fourth team which will be “wait listed.”  Once we know this year’s DCI entries and number of rooms needed for the DCI tournament, we will allocate fourth teams to schools if space is available, first come, first served, that originally requested a fourth team.  PLEASE REALIZE that history has shown that many schools are quick to enter four teams, then “drop” one or more teams after Winter Break, which is too late for other schools to add teams.  Our goal is to accommodate all entries, but like most schools, we are limited by the total number of rooms we have available for debates.  Thus, please make reasonable choices when you enter and maximize the number of schools/teams that can participate in this year’s Sunflower Invitational.

            The tournament will consist of 5 preliminary rounds, octafinals, quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals in each division.  Round 1 will be randomly scheduled, and rounds 2-5 will be powered (High vs High).  Medals will be awarded to the top 16 teams in each division.  Speaker awards will be given to the top 10 speakers in each division.  Once again, a Sweepstakes Award will be presented at the Awards Assembly to the school that accumulates the most wins in the five preliminary rounds.  The three best teams entered by the school will count towards this award, regardless of the division(s) entered.

            Each school will be REQUIRED to bring one ADULT judge for every 2 teams (or portion thereof) that they enter.  There can be NO exceptions.  Your current high school juniors and seniors are NOT appropriate judges, but your recent high school graduates would be great, as would coaches, assistant coaches, parents, or other adult sponsors.  Please do bring judges who are sensitive to the fact that these are novices, generally young debaters, who need educational and fair (but firm) comments on ballots.  If you bring 1 or 2 teams, you need one adult judge; if you bring 3 (or are given a 4th team), you are required to bring 2 adult judges.  There are sometimes coaches who ignore the requirement for ADULT judges at this tournament.  Please understand that we will pull your teams from the tournament if you bring high school debaters to be your judges.  If you can’t provide adult judges, please do not enter the teams.

This year all schools will once again register online through Tabroom.com.  If you have an active account, you will be able to use that account to register.  If you do NOT have an active Tabroom.com account, you will need to set up an account before you can register.  Your account does NOT have to be linked to NSDA to allow you to use it to register for this tournament. 

[If you have difficulty setting up your account, or need additional assistance, PLEASE contact Steven Davis, Washburn Rural Assistant for specific assistance:  davisste@usd437.net  .  If you seek assistance, PLEASE do not wait to ask.  This tournament traditionally fills quickly, thus it is imperative that you be ready to register online when the registration window opens.  An inability to register online without very timely notification, will NOT guarantee your school slots in this year’s tournament.]

All entries are to be made on-line at Tabroom.com with registration OPENING at 5:00 pm, Wednesday, November 30. 2016.  Entries will not be accepted by any other means.  The registration window will close at 5:00 pm, Wednesday, December 14, 2016. 

Entry fees are ten dollars per team, which will cover the cost of awards.  Checks should be made payable to “Derby High School” and should EITHER be mailed to be received at Derby High School prior to the start of the tournament, OR be presented at Registration at the start of the tournament. 

Entries will be taken on a first-come, first-served basis, but when the tournament is full we will take no additional teams.  The tournament is limited to the first 120 teams (or so) that enter.  No school will initially be allotted more than 3 entries, although a fourth team will be “wait listed”.  Remember, the entry deadline is 5:00 pm, December 14th.  Your entry will be confirmed within 24 hours of its receipt.  With this confirmation, you will receive additional information regarding additional deadlines for registering specific teams by name, AND registering judges to meet your obligation.

            We look forward to seeing you and your novices at Derby High School in January.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                Lynn Miller

                                                                                                Derby High School

                                                                                                Director of Debate and Forensics

Steven Davis

Washburn Rural Assistant

Sunflower Invitational Tournament Manager