WASHBURN RURAL HIGH SCHOOL

INVITATIONAL DEBATE TOURNAMENT

September 14-15, 2018

Dear Colleagues:

We cordially invite you to attend the 2018 Washburn Rural Invitational Debate Tournament, to be held on September 14-15, 2018. The tournament will feature 3 divisions: Varsity, Open, and Novice.

            VARSITY DEBATE will feature a mixture of judges, the majority of whom will have experience judging debate or with debating, many of whom would be considered flow judges. We will make every attempt to balance judges so that each team sees a variety of judging preferences and experience levels. We hope to again make round two an all-coaches round for judging, although the size of this division may preclude our being able to provide a coach in every single room. There will be six preliminary rounds of debate in this division, breaking to quarterfinals, with semifinals and finals to follow. Medals and trophies will be awarded to the top 8 teams and top 10 speakers in this division. The Varsity division is a designated DCI division, with the top 16 teams receiving bid points toward qualifying for the Debate Coaches’ Invitational in January. In addition, the winner of this division will receive an automatic bid to the end of the year Kansas Round Robin.  

            OPEN DEBATE is meant for those students who are less experienced and/or enjoy less technical debate than the varsity division. Fourth year debaters should probably not be debating in this division, but there are some whose skill levels might appropriately place them here.  Please don’t load up this division with kids who belong in varsity division.  We trust that coaches will fairly evaluate the abilities and talents of their debaters.  Open division will feature six preliminary rounds, breaking to quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.  In this division, trophies will be awarded to the top four teams of open, and the top eight teams and the top 10 speakers will receive medals. 

            NOVICE DEBATE will take place on Saturday only and will be limited to those students who have not participated in debate prior to this season. It will feature five rounds. The top three teams will receive trophies; the top eight teams and the top eight speakers will receive medals. The Washburn Rural Novice division will adhere to the Kansas Debate Coaches Novice Affirmative Case List. All novice teams entered must run an affirmative that addresses a topic area chosen in August by coaches. A list of the allowed affirmative topic areas can be found on the next page. In the event that teams do not read one of these affirmatives, judges will be instructed to continue watching the round, but award a win to the negative, regardless of outcome. 

            All divisions will be power-matched, with two pre-set rounds. Sweepstakes will be based on the school with the best four team record, with at least two entries in the varsity division. Each school will be allowed four entries total, in any combination.  We tend to fill quickly, so please send your entries as soon as possible. We are limited to a total of 170 teams. Entry fees are $6.00 per team – or whatever your tournament charges.  If you pay us $6 per team, expect to receive from us $6 per team if Washburn Rural attends your tournament. If you charge more for your invitational and expect us to pay the increased price, we would ask that you reciprocate. Hosting is a reciprocal service. 

            Enclosed is a copy of our tournament guidelines.  Please take a moment to look over them.  There are some important changes in this year’s tournament.  If you would like to enter our tournament, please complete registration on Tabroom.com.  Registration on Tabroom.com will open on Monday, August 13th, at 5:00 PM.  Please note that ALL ENTRIES WILL INITIALLY BE “WAIT LISTED” and we will process and accept entries in a timely manner.  If we should receive entries beyond our capacity, entries will be allowed in time-stamped order.  The entry deadline is Monday, September 10^th.  Drops on or after 5:00 pm, Monday, September 10th, will be non-refundable.

We are looking forward to seeing you as the season begins.

Sincerely,

Cindy Burgett and Tim Ellis                                        Grace Kessler            Jake Bery

WRHS Coaches                                                              Tournament Directors

 Email: burgecin@usd437.net   

Email: ellistim@usd437.net      

School phone (DB8 Room: 785-339-4234