KANELLIS INVITATIONAL
February 23-25, 2018
Iowa City West High School
2901 Melrose Ave
Iowa City, IA, 52246
Dear Colleagues:
Iowa City West Speech and Debate cordially invites you to the third annual Kanellis National Invitational which will be held at West High School in Iowa City on Friday, February 23rd - Sunday, February 25th. We will offer both novice and varsity divisions in policy debate. We hope you can join us.
Our tournament is named in honor and memory of David Kanellis, former debate coach and language arts teacher at West High from 1968-86. Kanellis impacted many students in his time at West High, and his policy debaters achieved great success, including a state championship in 1980. Kanellis was inducted into the National Forensics League Hall of Fame in 1987.
Varsity and novice policy debate divisions will be switch-side, cross-examination style, with an 8-3-5 format. Only debaters in their first year of high school competition may enter the novice division.
A school may enter a maximum of six teams in the varsity division and four teams in the novice division. However, we encourage you to utilize the waitlist as we may have flexibility to allow additional teams to attend the tournament in both divisions.
The policy topic for the 2017 Kanellis National Invitational is as follows:
Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its funding and/or regulation of elementary and/or secondary education in the United States.
There will be six preliminary rounds in both varsity policy and novice policy. Varsity policy will break to an octofinal; novice policy will break to a quarterfinal. However, we reserve the right to adjust the posted schedule and break to an appropriate elimination round based on the number of entries. Competitors reaching the final round of the varsity division will receive a bid to the Tournament of Champions.
With the help of our state speech association, we are in the process of getting our tournament officially sanctioned by the Kansas State High School Activities Association in order to ensure that Kansas schools can attend. We will also go thought is process for Missouri. If you are a coach from another state that requires our tournament to be sanctioned to attend, please let us know.
We ask that you read through the information on this site carefully as it contains important details about the tournament schedule, entry and judging requirements, fees, lodging, etc. Please direct any questions to Megan.
Hope to see you in Iowa City in February!
Megan Johnson, Director of Speech & Debate
johnson.megan@iowacityschools.org
Travis Henderson, Assistant Coach
henderson.travis@iowacityschools.org
