Invitation to the 2022 KHSSL UK & AR Regional Tournaments

Contact person: Dustin Combs, KHSSL Regional Manager, Upper Ky & Appalchian

Email: dustin.combs@knott.kyschools.us

Cell: 606-634-3878

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The KHSSL UKR & AR Regional Tournaments are fast approaching, so please read through this information carefully and reach out if you have any questions.

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REGIONAL TOURNAMENT LOCATION:

● Knott County Central High School

97 Patriot Lane

Hindman, KY

SENIOR HIGH REGIONAL TOURNAMENT DATE AND TIMES:

● Registration Due by Friday, January 27^th at 11:00 pm

● Saturday, February 4, 2023 (9:00 am – 1:30 pm)

● Detailed Schedule Forthcoming

● Inclement Weather Plan: Bumps Forward 1 Weekend following Jr. High Regionals

● Health restrictions plan: Online tournament

NUMBER OF ENTRIES ALLOWED:

● Schools may enter no more than three students in each event.

● Individual students may enter no more than three events.

FEES:

● Competitor entry fees are $10 per individual event and $20 per duo event

● Competitor Drops or Adds between Sunday and Thursday at 5:00 pm the week of the tournament:

○ entry fee + a $10 nuisance fee.

● Competitor Drops or Adds after 5:00 pm the Thursday prior to the tournament:

○ entry fee + $50 nuisance fee

● Competitor Substitutions between Sunday and Thursday at 5:00 pm the week of the tournament

○ Free

● Competitor Substitutions after 5:00 pm the Thursday prior to the tournament:

○ $25 nuisance fee

● Judge fees:

○ Each school must provide the following 1 judge per every 6 entries or fraction thereof; schools may hire only ONE judge for $65 to cover required entries at the Regional Tournaments.

● Judge Name Changes after 5:00 pm the Thursday prior to the tournament:

○ $10 nuisance fee

● Judge Drops after 10:00 pm the Friday prior to the tournament:

○ $100 nuisance fee payable to Knott County Schools

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING PAYMENT:

● Please have two checks available at registration:

○ A check made out to KHSSL for all entry fees (and the $65 judge fee if applicable)

○ A check made out to Knott County Central High School for any nuisance fees

● Please remember that no school can compete until all fees are paid.

QUALIFYING FOR STATE, EXEMPTIONS, AND PENALTIES FOR TEAM DROPS OR ABSENCES:

● Any Senior division school that attends the regional tournament but does not attend the State Championship will, unless excused for good and sufficient reasons by the Executive Director, be deemed to owe State entry fees as if its entries at the Regional Tournament were entered at the State tournament; these deemed entry fees must be paid before the school may join KHSSL for any subsequent competition year. This rule no longer applies to Junior Division schools, though they are strongly encouraged to attend the State tournament as well as Regionals.

● If a team drops from the Regional or State Championships, they must pay all the drop fees or a nuisance fee of $150 (whichever is lower) by the time of registration in KHSSL the following year unless excused for calamity by the Executive Director.

● Please read carefully through this next section, pasted directly from the Handbook (page 56):

Rule 2: A student may qualify an event for entry into the KHSSL STATE SPEECH TOURNAMENT by:

a. Competing at their KHSSL Regional Tournament and getting a composite score of no more than 8 in that event during the current school year. If 7 or fewer contestants compete in an event in a division at Regionals, all students who compete at the Regional tournament in that event make State.

OR

b. Competing at no fewer than two (2) in-state tournaments (in a particular event for which they wish to qualify for state) that use KHSSL competition events and rules during the current school year.

OR

c. Advancing into the final round of that KHSSL event at any in-state tournament that uses KHSSL competition events and rules during the current school year.

OR

d. Advancing to the semi-final round in the same event at the previous year’s KHSSL State Tournament (must be in that Division).

● A school may take their strongest entry to the STATE TOURNAMENT as long as each of the students entered has qualified for the STATE TOURNAMENT in one of the aforementioned ways in that particular event(s). The school will have to provide documentation of each student’s eligibility when completing the STATE TOURNAMENT ENTRY. In other words, Johnny can go to State in Prose, even if he didn’t compete in Prose at Regionals, as long as he earned State qualification in Prose through one of the other three methods.

● Keep in mind, however, that schools can enter as many entries total at State as they entered at Regionals (or fewer), so students should attend the Regional tournament if possible, obtain an Exemption (see rule 3 below) and pay the entry fee for missing, or have another student compete at Regionals in that event in their stead.

○ Rule 3: Exemptions

Some students may be unable to attend the Regional Tournament owing to academic or familial reasons. Coaches may apply for an exemption for such a student. Exemptions should be rare and will count towards the school’s total entries at the Regional tournament. The reasons for the exemption must be stated in the application. Exemptions should be requested when both of the following requirements are met:

a. The student has an academic (including Academic Team or standardized testing) or familial reason for missing the Regional tournament, AND

b. the student has qualified for state in one of the other methods listed under Qualifying for the State Speech Tournament in rule 2.

○ The student must be listed on the regional entry and regional entry fees must be paid. The student can be dropped from the regional tournament with no penalty fees once the exemption has been approved by the director. In other words, an exemption is NOT necessary for a student who has earned State Qualification in one of the other methods in that event but cannot attend regionals; however, a school cannot bring more entries to state than it entered/paid for in the regional tournament.

○ Please contact KHSSL Executive Director, Steve Meadows, at khssl@khssl.org with any questions about qualifying for State or exemptions.

AWARDS:

● A Regional Champion and a Regional Runner-up will be named in all events.

● In the event of a tie for either Regional Champion or Regional Runner-up, ties will be broken in the following ways:

○ Lowest composite rank

○ Highest reciprocal composite

○ Highest total rating points

○ If there is still a tie after these three methods have been exhausted, then we will hold a run-off round in that particular event with one judge. That one judge will determine the Regional Champion and/or Runner-up, as the case may be.

● The top three schools in both the Junior and Senior divisions will be awarded trophies.

JUDGE TRAINING AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

● At the 2021 KHSSL Board of Directors meeting, the Board passed a requirement for all judges to go through a training regarding implicit biases. Your judges must complete this online training before your Regional tournament. Please don’t wait until the last minute; if your judges are not trained before the tournament begins, they will be dropped, and you will have to pay the $100 drop fee before your kids can compete, so please don’t let this slide.

● The Judge Training against Implicit Bias is available at this link and is also a link on the KHSSL homepage.

https://forms.gle/6MYsr2nTCSqRPzwe6

● Judges at the Regional Tournament must be available for all rounds.

● Please make your judges aware that they may be assigned to judge ANY event - including limited prep events. Requests for exemptions from particular events will be ignored.

● It is the coach’s responsibility to ensure that all judges are properly trained in KHSSL rules prior to the Regional Tournament.

ONLINE BALLOTS:

● We are planning on using online ballots at this tournament, meaning your judges should each bring a LAPTOP OR TABLET (phones will not suffice) to type comments in and score the rounds. If this is impossible for a particular judge, we can help provide a device to use or provide paper ballots, but it’s our hope after so many virtual tournaments that judges will be able to manage online ballots. Please contact me if you have any questions or concerns here. We will utilize paper ballots as a back-up in the event of tech issues.

ORIGINAL SPEECHES:

● Coaches must have Oratory and Informative speeches electronically available for retrieval (or paper copies available) at Regionals and State tournaments should questions of originality arise, but these documents no longer need be turned in at Registration.

COACH OF THE YEAR:

● Each region is tasked with submitting a name for the Coach of the Year Award for both the Junior and Senior divisions. Please email me your coach of the year nominations along with a brief description or profile of the coach by Friday, February 3rd. I will have ballots available at registration.

Hospitality:

● We will be following the past “regional traditions” regarding hospitality and concessions.

· For SENIOR HIGH: An open hospitality room will be observed for all judges, coaches, AND students. No food or drink concessions will be sold at the SENIOR HIGH tournament. I will be reaching out to coaches of each school to gather commitments of what each team will be bringing.

I know this is a lot of information, so please reach out if I can help you clarify any of these details.

Looking forward to seeing everyone soon!

J. Dustin Combs

KHSSL Regional Manager, Upper Kentucky River & Appalachian Regions

KHSSL Board of Directors Member

Knott County Schools