Dear Coach:

You and your debaters are cordially invited to the inaugural Ad Astra Novice After School Tournament.  With the changes brought to our schools and classrooms this season by Covid, Ad Astra has partnered with community leaders and partners to create the money to provide competition opportunities for students in Kansas.  Our first after school competition will be a two-round tournament on Tuesday, October 20^th.  Each school will be required to provide one judge for every two entries, and advanced debaters are welcome to judge.

Novice will be limited to teams that have not participated in competitive debate prior to this season.  The “Novice” division will be limited to the five case areas chosen by Kansas coaches (Abolish the Death Penalty, Decriminalize Marihuana, Defund the Police, end Mandatory Minimums, Juvenile Sentencing Reform), and the Negative Evidence Packet created by Kansas coaches (T – Policing, T – Enact = Congress, Movements DA, Elections DA, Federalism DA, States CP, Abolition K).  All affirmative harms/advantage areas must match the negative evidence packet, and  questions of “executive topicality” regarding fringe advantages will be arbitrated by the Ad Astra Team.  Certificates will be awarded to the top 6 teams. 

Both rounds will be preset.  Registration is available on Tabroom.com at: https://www.tabroom.com/index.mhtml?tourn_id=17613.   All new entries will be waitlisted, and no team will be removed from the waitlist until students’ names have been entered and judges have been submitted.  Name changes will be allowed until October 20th at 12:00pm and any adjustments after this time are subject to a penalty. We should be able to accommodate all entries. 

              Enclosed are our tournament guidelines.  We sincerely hope that your school will be represented at our tournament and look forward to seeing you all in a few short weeks!

Mike Harris                                     David Abel

Ad Astra Debate Founder                Ad Astra Debate Founder