Phoenix MS Speech & Debate Invitational

May 10th at Phoenix High School

Dear coaches and students,

We’re excited to be able to offer a middle school tournament this year, allowing your students to judge and middle school students to get a taste of our Southern Oregon speech and debate tournament culture. The tournament will allow for an introduction to basic individual events, as well as SPAR (Spontaneous Argumentation)-style debate and Congressional Debate for an introduction to debate.

- Celine Farrimond & Quentin Kanta, Tournament Co-Directors

Registration

All registration will be online at http://phoenixsd.tabroom.com. The deadline for adds is Monday, May 6th by 8:00pm, and drops can be processed until Wednesday, May 8th. If you need to make changes after this time, please text Celine Farrimond at 541-535-2305 or Quentin Kanta at 541-291-2105 with your school, the name of the student, and event details. You should also notify tournament staff of any changes upon arrival.

Events

Our middle school tournament will offer a limited selection of OSAA individual speech events, designed to offer the most accessible events for middle school competitors. As such, we will offer two patterns, with double entry allowed in both, as well as a session of Congressional Debate. Students entered in Congress may not enter in Pattern A. Additionally, Interpretation and Manuscript will be judged as collapsed rounds, which may include any of the events listed in parentheses. Finals rounds will be run as permitted by number of entries, with medals for finishers 1st, 2nd, and 3rd.

SPAR (Spontaneous Argumentation)

Those who attended the 2018 Phoenix HS Speech Invitational will notice that our format will be identical for the middle school tournament. As quoted from the Phoenix HS Speech Invitational website: We are excited to try out SPAR (Spontaneous Argumentation) at our tournament and encourage debaters to join in. It is a 1 vs 1 debate of 13 minutes. The Proposition speaker will receive two resolutions, one serious (eg, Charter schools are good for education in America) and one not serious (eg, Wonder Woman is superior to Spiderman). The Prop speakers select the resolution. Here is the format:

Prop Prep 1 minute

Prop Case 2 minutes

Opp Prep 1 minute

Opp Case 2 minutes

Prop/Opp Crossfire 3 minutes

Prop Rebuttal 2 minutes

Opp Rebuttal 2 minutes

Today I Learned…

Adapted from the Willamette Winterfest tournament, competitors prepare a self-written  3-minute memorized speech on a little-known fact. From the Willamette Winterfest webpage:

The aim of the speech is to provide a short, interesting, little-known fact that is culturally relevant or universally appealing…Visual aids are not permitted.

Congressional Debate

Our legislation packet will be comprised of HS student-submitted bills, which can be emailed to quentinkanta@gmail.com by Friday, May 3rd. These will be compiled and sent out to teams on Monday, May 6th. Students entered in Congress may also enter in Pattern B, but cannot participate in Pattern A.

Tournament Fees

In an effort to keep this tournament accessible, we have elected not to institute entry fees. We will, however, have food served by the Phoenix HS Speech & Debate program in the commons, and we encourage you to have your students purchase their food here.

Judges

Your students will be delighted to hear that we will allow them to judge all our events. Please have interested students entered as judges on Tabroom. Coaches will be utilized as parliamentarians for Congress and as judges where necessary/desired on both days of competition. Interpretation and Manuscript are to be judged as collapsed rounds; a Prose and Poetry may be judged against one another in Manuscript.

SCHEDULE

Saturday, May 11th

7:30-8:00 - Registration and judge training for HS students

8:00-9:30am - Congressional Debate

8:30-9:30am - Pattern A1

9:45-10:45am - Pattern B1

11:00-12:00pm - Pattern A2

LUNCH - concessions available for purchase in commons

1:00-2:00pm - Pattern B2

2:15-3:15pm - Pattern A Finals

3:30-4:30pm - Pattern B Finals

5:00pm - Awards

Thank you for your participation in our middle school tournament, a great way to get the next generation of competitors interested in our events, allowing our high school competitors to judge, and giving coaches a break from running a tournament.