District 1 Invitation

January 25, 2021

Dear Colleagues:

The virtual District 1 state qualifying tournament of the Pennsylvania High School Speech League will be held on Saturday, February 27, 2021.  We cordially invite you and your team to participate in this tournament which qualifies students for the virtual P.H.S.S.L. State Tournament, scheduled for Saturday & Sunday, March 13-14, 2021.

**REGISTRATION: Please note that registration is being taken on-line only on Tabroom.com. Registration will be conducted on a combined webpage for Districts 1, 2, 3, and 16..."PHSSL District Qualifiers 1. 21 3, & 16" on the Tabroom.com website. Tournament registration will open on Wednesday, February 

 10th and will close at 5 p.m. on Tuesday February 23rd There will be no adds after that time. When registering, be   sure that you register your students in their event in District 1 and your judges must be registered in the District 1 pool of judges.

In addition, make certain that all of your tournament judges and student entries have tabroom.com accounts and that judges have a smart phone, a tablet, or a laptop for judging on February 27th.**

 Remember, the deadline for online submission of all entries is 5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23rd

 Registration will begin at 7:45 AM on February 27th and will conclude at 8:30.

         There will be three rounds of competition in all speech events with final rounds scheduled in events             with eight (8) or more actual participants.

Here are other specific tournament details, times, quotas...

Events offered: Informative, Persuasive, Extemporaneous, Commentary, Prose, Poetry, Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Duo Interp, Policy Debate, Lincoln­ Douglas Debate, Public Forum Debate, Parliamentary Debate, and competitive Senate.

REMINDERS: --Informative & Persuasive time limits are ten (10) minutes; Commentary time limit is 5 minutes.

--

   Note that entries are limited to 2 entries from each school in each event (including the Senate). unless any of your students earned bids to the state tournament during the season.

 --In the Senate two students will automatically advance to the state tournament as in all other events. If you wish to enter students in the district Senate, you must submit legislation to Mr. Robert Hall. District 1 co-chair, NO LATER THAN Monday, February 8th

 Please note that this legislation can be the same one that you have submitted for the P.H.S.S.L. state Student Congress. Email this legislation in the accepted format to Bob Hall at this address... hallr@fairviewschools.org.

IMPORTANT SENATE NOTE: The procedures for Plan A (with eight participants or fewer) changed several years ago. Coaches...please the PHSSL District Standing Rules for clarification.

 --Beginning with the 2019-20 academic year, state qualification ratios were changed. At least two contestants shall qualify for the State Tournament. If there are 10-20 contestants, a third contestant qualifies to the State Tournament; if 21 or  more contestants compete, a fourth contestant qualifies to the State Tournament.

 --Be aware that P.H.S.S.L. rules require that copies (preferably typed) of all Informative and Persuasive speeches, complete with a title page signed by the coach and student declaring it is an original speech, must be mailed to the district chairman before the start of competition on February 2ih. In  addition, a bibliography for each speech must be mailed to the District Chairman prior to Round 1 the day of the tournament.

**ALL RULES AND REGULATIONS FOR EACH EVENT ARE OUTLINED IN THE NEWLY REVISED P.H.S.S.L. BYLAWS AND ON ALL BALLOTS. A LINK TO ALL BALLOTS AND REGISTRATION FORMS FOR THE DISTRICT TOURNAMENT CAN BE FOUND ONLINE AT http://phssI.org/docCenter.htmI.

TOURNAMENT TIME SCHEDULE:

 We will do our best to try and run this first-ever virtual tournament on time. To help us, please make sure you are on time! CHECK IN ONLINE BETWEEN 7:30 and 8:15 a.m. ON FEBRUARY 27TH SO WE KNOW EVERYONE IS PRESENT AND READY TO COMPETE/JUDGE.

8:30 AM... Registration ends
8:45.........Extemp & Commentary Draw and Students'/Judges' Meetings
9:00........... Round 1- all events
10:15......... Round 2
11:15......... Round 3
12:00 NOON.... Break (lunch)
1:00-1:30 PM.... Finals postings
2:00.................. Final Rounds
3:30.................. Awards Assembly

NOTE: Times for Senate and debate events may vary from the speech schedule

 JUDGING QUOTAS (Senate judges are considered part of the Speech pool.)

(Note specific quotas!)

**Speech & Senate- 1 judge for 1-3 contestants

                                   2 judges for 4-6 contestants, etc. 

Plus one (1) additional speech judge (i.e.- 3 total contestants = 2 judges, 6 contestants = 3 judges,

12 contestants = 5 judges, 18 contestants = 7 judges, and

20 contestants = 8 judges

This judging quota (the same one that has been used the last eight years) will allow for more flexibility in scheduling judges.

**Public Forum- 1 judge per entry

**Lincoln-Douglas Debate- 1 judge for 1-2 contestants

**Policy Debate- 1 judge for 1 or 2 teams

**Parliamentary Debate- same quota as Policy Debate NOTE: Public Forum judges no longer come from the speech pool.

Public Forum should be judged by debate judges.

 Remember that registration for this district tournament will be done on tabroom.com. Only qualified and experienced judges are to be included in your entry. Once again this year, in most cases, District 1 judges will judge District 2 contestants and vice versa.

 The entry fee is $55.00 per school or $7.00 per contestant, whichever is larger. Make all checks payable to: Hugh P. Ringer. We ask that all entry fees be paid in full before registration the day of the tournament.

 **PLEASE NOTE: Because the district operates on a tight budget each year, and based on standard procedure at most awards tournaments, there will be   no refunds given for any drops made after the Tuesday, February 23rd 5 p.m. registration deadline.*

 If you need to contact Hugh Ringer at home with questions or drops in registration, his contact numbers are as follows...724-699-2390 (cell), 724-662-3094 (home phone), and the email address is hpr@zoominternet.net. In the event that you have changes or an emergency the day of the tournament (02/27/2021), call Hugh's cell phone from 6:30 AM-8:45 AM...724-699-2390

**PLEASE DO NOT CALL MERCER HIGH SCHOOL WITH QUESTIONS!!**

As you know, Bob Hall, the co-coach at Fairview High School, is again serving as District 1 co-chair. Feel free to contact Bob as well with tournament-related questions at his email address... hallr@fairviewschools.org. On the day of the tournament, Bob can be reached on his cell... 814-392-4524.

PLEASE NOTE: If any head coaches from District 1 member schools are interested in either serving as District 1 chairman or as a member of the District 1 committee for the 2021-2022 school year, please submit a letter of interest to Hugh Ringer and Bob Hall.

We look forward to your participation at our first virtual District 1 tournament on February 27th!

Sincerely,

Hugh Ringer & Bob Hall District 1 Co-Chairmen

**IMPORTANT PHSSL DISTRICT 1 TOURNAMENT DATES...**

--Wednesday, February 10, 2021...Online tournament registration begins on tabroom.com. Be sure to register your students as District 1 participants and place your judges in the District 1 pool.

--Monday, February 8, 2021...Deadline for submission of Competitive Senate legislation to Bob Hall, District 1 co-chairman...hallr@fairviewschools.org

--5 p.m. on Tuesday, February 23, 2021...Deadline for online submission of your complete District 1 Tournament entry on tabroom.com. No refunds on drops will be made after this date & time.

--Tuesday, February 23, 2021...Payment of all entry fees and submission of Informative and Persuasive speech texts, title pages, and bibliographies must be mailed to Hugh Ringer, District 1 Co-Chair, 368 Sanbern Drive, Mercer, PA 16137 so that they arrive before the start of the district tournament.

A reminder to all head coaches...In case you have not heard, a new non-qualifying PHSSL event was added during the 2019-20 school year...Extemporaneous Debate. PHSSL now offers four (4) state-only events...Student Congress, Impromptu Speaking, News Broadcasting (a 2-person event), and Extemporaneous Debate.

Each PHSSL school is permitted one (1) entry in each of these events. Please refer to the PHSSL By-Laws for event descriptions of these and all other PHSSL events.