We cordially invite you to attend the 2017 Hutchinson High School Tom Kelly Invitational Debate Tournament, to be held on October 13-14, 2017. The tournament will feature 3 divisions: Varsity, Open, and Novice.

Varsity division will feature a mixture of judges, to allow a larger portion of experienced judging debate we request that for each school who brings an entry in the Varsity division to provide one judge. There will be five preliminary rounds of debate in this division, and it will break to quarterfinals, with semifinals and finals to follow. Medals and trophies will be awarded to the top 8 teams. Varsity is a designated DCI division. The top 16 teams will receive bid points toward qualifying for the Debate Coaches’ Invitational in January.

Open division 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 five preliminary rounds. In this division the top eight teams will receive medals. It will only be on Saturday.

Novice division 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 eight teams will receive medals. The Hutchinson Novice division will adhere to the Kansas Debate Coaches Novice Case List. All novice teams entered must run an affirmative that addresses a topic area chosen 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 varsity division. Each school will be allowed four entries total, in any combination. We are limited to a total of 110 teams. Entry fees are $5.00 per team.

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.

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY

1. The resolution to be debated is Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially increase its funding and/or regulation of elementary and/or secondary education in the United States.

2. The tournament will be cross-examination style with 8-3-5 time limits. Prep time will be 5 minutes. Our tournament will not follow KSHSAA guidelines concerning wireless access. You MAY use email chains to send evidence to one another to expedite the flashing process. If you choose not to, and you struggle with flashing, electronic issues, etc., you will not be given extra prep.

3. Rounds 1 and 2 in all divisions will be pre-set. We will follow delay power match in subsequent rounds.

4. Entry fees will be $5.00 per team. Check tabroom for deadlines.

5. AWARDS:

A. The top 8 teams in all divisions will receive medals. 

B. The sweepstakes trophy will be awarded to the school with the best four-team record, with at one in each division.

ENTRIES:

A. Each school may enter a TOTAL of 8 teams in the tournament. Schools registering in a timely manner, will be guaranteed 8 teams across all 3 divisions until we reach our entry cap of 110 total teams.

B. We will ONLY accept 4 teams in the DCI Division. If you believe your school is worthy of additional considerations above 4 in the DCI division, contact us for special circumstances.

C. Acceptance of additional teams will be based on the following criteria. ● West Kanasas NSDA District Schools will be be given extra teams first. ● Schools that host tournaments that Hutchinson traditionally attends will receive consideration in that the school will guarantee Hutchinson the same additional allotment in its tournament.

 7. NOVICE 2017 AFFIRMATIVE CASE LIMITATIONS

In accordance with survey results and decisions made by Kansas debate coaches, ALL TEAMS

ENTERED IN THE SATURDAY NOVICE DIVISION must run an affirmative case in one of the

following areas:

A. Increasing STEM funding

B. Increasing funding for vouchers

C. Increasing CTE funding

D. Increasing Title I funding

E. Desegregation

F. Establishing a federal right to education

8. Coaches and sponsors will be used to judge if necessary. If you are sending a sponsor, please send one capable of judging. Any school that does not/ will not fulfill a judging request will have the judge removed from a room in which one of its teams is debating and will forfeit that round with a 3-4 loss.

NOTE: If you have DCI entries, you will be asked to provide a suitable DCI quality judge that will be available to judge 5 preliminary rounds and 1 elimination round.

Traditionally, a number of attending schools provide volunteer judges for the tournament, although not required. If you wish to provide additional judges, PLEASE remember to add them when you register on Tabroom.com. Volunteered judges will most often be used in the DCI division.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE (Projected / Tentative)

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13

Registration for varsity Outside of Library in B Hallway 3:30 pm

Round 1 4:00 pm

Round 2 5:45 pm

Round 3 7:30 pm

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14

Registration for novices/Open Outside of Library in B Hallway 7:00 am

Round 1 (nov&open)/ Round 4 (var) 8:00 am

Round 2 (nov&open)/ Round 5 (var) 9:45 am

Round 3 (nov&open)/ Assembly in the PLC (var) 11:15, Quarterfinals soon after

Round 4 (nov&open)/ Semifinals (var) 1:30

Round 5 (nov&open)/ Finals (var) 3:15

Awards ASAP