The Board of the Illinois Debate Coaches Association invites your novice and junior varsity policy debaters to attend its annual state championship tournament! 

Our host site will be Niles North High School, located at 9800 Lawler Ave. in Skokie, IL!

All procedures are listed below in our invitation and have been added to the pages on the right. We hope that you will join us! Please direct any questions to IDCA President, David Weston via email - weston.david.a@gmail.com

See you in March!

Your IDCA Board:

David Weston, New Trier - President

Wayne Tang, Maine East - Treasurer

Jon Voss, Glenbrook South - Secretary 

TOURNAMENT FORMAT

The tournament will consist of 5 preliminary rounds. Elimination rounds shall be determined based on the number of entries. In the past, this has meant we clear to octofinals in Novice and quarterfinals in JV.

Rounds will follow the standard 8-3-5 format. There will be 8 minutes of preparation time per round.

The tournament will use the 2015-2016 NFHS/NSDA resolution: 

“Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially curtail its domestic surveillance.”

ENTRY FEES

Annual IDCA dues are $60 per year or $20 for programs bringing fewer than four teams total to the JV and Novice divisions of the tournament.

The entry fee is $20 per team.

ELIGIBILITY POLICY

School Eligibility

Participants must be students in good standing at an IDCA member school. The membership dues for each school are $60 annually. Dues must be paid prior to the start of round one. Teams may pay at registration. However, Schools bringing fewer than 4 teams to the Novice and JV divisions of the IDCA state tournament will only need to pay $20 per year.

Eligibility for Novice

In novice, each school is permitted a maximum of 6 team entries. In order to qualify for participation in novice, students must be in their first year of tournament competition on a high school resolution.

Maverick entries are not eligible for participation. If at any time during the tournament a student must participate without a partner, that student will no longer be eligible for elimination rounds.

Eligibility for Junior Varsity

In junior varsity, each school is permitted a maximum of 6 team entries. In order to qualify for participation in the junior varsity division, students must be in their second year of tournament competition on a high school topic.

Maverick entries are not eligible for participation. If at any time during the tournament a student must participate without a partner, that student will no longer be eligible for elimination rounds. 

JUDGING POLICY

Novice Division

Each school must provide one full commitment judge per team. “One full commitment judge” means having a qualified individual available for every preliminary round and any elimination rounds for which the program is obligated.

Students in their third or fourth year of competitive policy debate may judge in this division. Any student judge in the novice division will only be used in novice.

Junior Varsity Division

Each school must provide one full commitment judge per two teams. “One full commitment judge” means having a qualified individual available for every preliminary round and any elimination rounds for which the program is obligated.

Students in their fourth year of competitive debate may judge in this division only if they are brought as “extra” judges. Please see the description below for clarification.

“Extra Judges,” Divisions, and Strikes

Programs are encouraged to bring experienced fourth year debaters to evaluate JV debates. However, an experienced senior considered an “extra” may not fulfill any portion of a program’s judging obligation for junior varsity or novice.

A fourth year debater fulfilling a portion of a school’s commitment in novice will not be used in the JV pool. "Extra judges" in the JV pool could be used in the novice pool. 

All fourth year seniors eligible to evaluate junior varsity rounds will appear on a strike sheet prior to the tournament. Schools may strike as many of these student judges as they wish without penalty. Fourth year judges who are not struck by a school may evaluate JV debaters from that respective program.

We trust that if there are any conflicts between a particular student judge and a JV debater, each coach will use their discretion and strike that judge.

For tabulation purposes, if a senior judge is entered in the JV division, coaches must mark them as "first year out" - this is the easiest way for us to accommodate electronic strikes. 

Hired Judging

We strongly encourage schools to fulfill their tournament judging obligations. However, there will be a very limited number of judges available for hire. The cost to hire a full judge is $375.

Obligation

All judges are required to judge one round beyond their team’s elimination.

Ballots

All judges must have functional tabroom account. All ballots and pairings will be distributed electronically. Please make sure that judges are familiar with this process.

Post Round Disclosure

Oral critiques/disclosure is encouraged after a round. We believe judge accountability and the educational value of a post round discussion strengthens the quality of debate and maximizes its value for students, coaches, and judges. 

Please fill out, submit, and confirm your ballot prior to giving oral critiques.

MEALS

Two meals will be made available at the tournament this year. Please note that our tournament host believes that they are able to accommodate reasonable dietary restrictions by ensuring that vegetarian and allergen free options are available. Special accommodations on meat production (kosher, halal, etc.) are unlikely and we would encourage those students to choose the vegetarian option.

Friday – students may choose to purchase a dinner option to be distributed between rounds 1 and 2. Schools are not obligated to take part in this meal option. However, to ensure that students are able to maintain a healthy lifestyle throughout the tournament, our host has volunteered to make dinner available.

Saturday – lunch will be made available for students between rounds 4 and 5. Students and student judges are required to purchase lunch through the tournament on Saturday.

All meals must be pre-ordered. Coaches should discuss the options with their students and indicate their choices on the tournament’s tabroom page. A meal charge will be added to each program’s total fee.

We believe that this process is the best option for moving the tournament along in timely and efficient manner. Coaches should also recognize that student judges must plan to participate in the pre-ordered meals. Because several seniors and juniors may drive themselves to the tournament, we cannot risk students departing from the campus to arrange their own meals. It would drastically set back tournament operations and put an additional burden on judging resources that the tournament may not be able to accommodate.

All meal fees and concession money will be sent to the host school. The IDCA does not acquire any funds through meals. This is the incentive for programs to host our tournament. Absent a guarantee of some revenue, it is unlikely that host schools can cover things such as building costs, personnel expenditures, etc. Thank you for your cooperation regarding meals and in continuing to incentivize the hosting of our state championship.

SCHEDULE

subject to change

Friday, March 11th

Registration - 3:30 PM

(can call, email confirmations)

Dinner Pick Up

Round 1 - 4:00 PM

Round 2 - 6:30 PM (head coaches meeting)

Saturday, March 12th

Round 3 - 8:00 AM

Round 4 - 10:00 AM

Lunch - 11:45 AM

Round 5 - 12:45 PM

Awards - 2:45 PM

Octofinals/Quarterfinals - 3:30 PM

Quarterfinals/Semifinals - 5:30 PM 

Sunday, March 13th 

Semifinals/Finals - 8:30 AM 

Finals – 10:30 AM