Dear High School Forensic Team Coaches,

The Rowan County Senior High School Forensic Team and Boosters are pleased to invite you to the fifth annual Harlen Hamm Senior Invitational, which will take place on January 9, 2016 at Rowan County Middle School. Harlen Hamm, the tournament's namesake and longtime teacher, professor, and coach at University Breckenridge School and Morehead State University, always advocated for theatre and communication instruction at all levels of education. This tournament pays homage to Mr. Hamm’s legacy and lifetime commitment to forensics and theatre education.

UK TOC AND NIETOC BIDS: We are pleased to announce that this year’s Invitational will be a qualifying tournament for speech events at the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions and a bid tournament for the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions! For more info about the UK TOC, go to https://ci.uky.edu/toc/ and for more info on NIETOC, go to http://nietoc.com/.

SPONSOR: We would like to thank Morehead State University for sponsoring the awards at our Invitational again this year. MSU has been an incredible supporter of Rowan County Forensics since the days of Harlen Hamm and we thank them for their generosity. For the past 12 years, Morehead State has been named by U.S. News and World Report as one of the top public universities in the South and we urge all students in attendance to visit www.moreheadstate.edu to see what MSU can offer them!   

REGISTRATION: The tournament will be managed and tabulated through Tabroom.com. If you need assistance with the website and getting your team registered, just email Ryan Brown. Student and judge entries need to be completed on the tournament website by 3:30pm on Wednesday, January 6. Drop and add fees will apply after this time. If you do have a drop, you will be able to enter it yourself online until noon on Friday, January 8. If you have an add after January 6, or if you have a drop after noon on January 8, you will need to contact Ryan Brown and he will make the change.

EVENTS AND ENTRIES:

• Entry Rules: Teams may have unlimited entries in each event, but only the top three will count towards sweepstakes. Students competing in only speech events may compete in up to three. Students competing in Congress may also compete in one speech event.

• Entry and Drop Fees: Single events will cost $5 each and partnered events will cost $10 each. Dropped or added entries made after the online registration deadline has passed will cost $5 plus the original entry fee.

• Events: Broadcast Announcing, Congress, Declamation (9th and 10th graders only), Dramatic Interp, Duo Interp, Extemp, Humorous Interp, Impromptu, Improv Duo, Informative Speaking, Original Oratory, Poetry, POI, Prose, and Storytelling. All events, excluding Congress and Informative Speaking, will use KHSSL rules. Go to www.khssl.org/the-handbook for rule details. Informative Speaking and Congress will use NSDA rules.

• Novice Students: Novice categories will not be offered, but each event’s top non-advancing novice will be recognized. KHSSL rules stipulate that a student is defined as “novice” if this is his or her first year competing in high school speech and debate. Please indicate your novice students as such on your team roster in Tabroom.com before registering for the tournament.

JUDGES: Teams must bring one speech judge for every six entries, or fraction thereof. Each missing judge from a team’s quota will cost $30. Each team with Congress entries must designate one of their judges in their entry as their Congress judge. Coaches should email the name of their designated Congress judge to Ryan Brown by the online registration deadline; failure to do so will cost $30. Any dropped judge after the registration deadline will cost $50. Please make sure all judges are familiar with KHSSL rules and procedures.

CONGRESSIONAL DEBATE: Each school entered in Congress is expected to submit at least one piece of legislation. If more than one piece of legislation is sent, one must be designated for use in finals in case a supersession is held. Please email bills and resolutions to Ryan Brown no later than 3:30pm on Tuesday, January 5 in Microsoft Word format. A complete packet of legislation will be made available by 5:00pm the same evening. If there are fewer than 24 entries, there will be only one chamber with four sessions of prelims and no supersession. If there are 24 or more entries, there will be two chambers with three sessions of prelims and the top six from each chamber will break to the supersession.

INFORMATIVE SPEAKING: We will be offering Info this year and it will follow NSDA rules. If there are insufficient entries in Info to justify holding rounds, the event will be collapsed into Original Oratory as KHSSL rules allow for an OO speech to be either persuasive or informative in nature (however, speeches in OO are not allowed to use audio/visual aids). If a coach would rather drop a student entered in Info rather than compete in OO, that coach will be allowed to do so at no additional cost and will recuperate the original entry fee. Those schools' judge obligations will also be reconfigured to reflect the dropped entry(s).

SCHEDULE: The tournament will be held in a stagger-flighted pattern, meaning each event will have three rounds over four flights. Changes may be made to this schedule, depending on tournament size.

7:00-8:00am: Registration
8:00-8:30am: Draw/Judge Meeting
8:30-10:00am: Flight A (Bro, Duo, Ext, HI, Imp, Ipv, OO, POI, Pro, Sto)
8:45-10:00am: Congress Session 1
10:00-10:30am: Draw
10:30-12:00am: Flight B (Bro, Dec, DI, Duo, Ext, Ipv, Info, OO, Poe, POI, Sto)
10:45-12:00am: Congress Session 2
12:00am-12:30pm: Draw
12:30-2:00pm: Flight C (Bro, Dec, DI, Ext, HI, Imp, Info, OO, Poe, Pro, Sto)
12:45-2:00pm: Congress Session 3
2:00-3:30pm: Flight D (Dec, DI, Duo, HI, Imp, Ipv, Info, Poe, POI, Pro)
2:15-3:30pm: Congress Session 4/Supersession
3:30-4:00pm: Final Draw
4:00-5:30pm: Final Round (all events)
6:00pm (or sooner): Awards

FOOD: A hospitality room will be provided for all adults. Competitors will have a concession area in the cafeteria. Please make sure students know to bring bills no larger than $20 to use for concessions. The smaller the bill, the better!

AWARDS: All top six competitors in each event will receive trophies. Top non-advancing novices in each event will receive certificates. The top three schools in sweepstakes points will receive trophies. The student who scores the most sweepstakes points will be awarded the Harlen Hamm Individual Sweepstakes Award, regardless of event types entered.

LOCATION: Rowan County Senior High’s campus is under renovation this year, so the tournament will be held at Rowan County Middle School instead. It is located at 555 Viking Drive, Morehead, KY 40351. Morehead is situated on I64, roughly one hour east of Lexington, two hours east of Louisville, two hours south of Florence, and two hours north of Hazard. For more detailed directions, you may contact Ryan Brown.

LODGING: For those teams traveling a long distance to Morehead, the following hotels are recommended:
Comfort Inn and Suites: 606-780-7378; Hampton Inn: 606-780-0601; Holiday Inn Express: 606-784-5796

Other, less expensive, options include:
Red Roof Inn: 606-784-2220; Days Inn: 606-783-1484; Super 8: 606-784-8882

WEATHER: The tournament falls on a date that is prime for large amounts of snowfall and ice. In the event weather becomes an obstacle, one of two actions will be taken: (1) If there is minor snowfall and most teams will be able to safely travel if the roads are given time to be scrapped and salted, the tournament will operate under a one-hour delay; (2) If there is heavy snowfall, the tournament will be cancelled. Teams will be notified via text message and email as soon as a decision is made.

CONTACT: Get in touch with Ryan Brown anytime via email at ryan.brown@rowan.kyschools.us or by cellphone at 606-776- 5089. Email is the best and most efficient way to communicate!

Thank you for adding the Harlen Hamm Senior Invitational to your competition schedule! We can’t wait to see you in Morehead on January 9, 2016!

Ryan Brown
Head Coach

Connie Bowman
Speech Booster President

Makda Mehari, Emily Moore, and Joe Newcomb
Team Captains