Colleagues,

The Hooch Debate Team is excited to invite you and your students to attend the annual Cougar Classic Debate Tournament with events to be held at Chattahoochee High School Friday September 30th, Saturday October 1st, and Sunday October 2nd, 2016. 

We are pleased to announce that the Cougar Classic has again been certified as a TOURNAMENT OF CHAMPIONS qualifier at the FINALS level for varsity policy debate. 

The varsity policy debates will take place on Chattahoochee’s campus Friday through Sunday. Please note that all Varsity policy judges are obligated for the quarterfinals on Sunday morning.

The following events will be held Friday and Saturday — with no competition on Sunday:

• Novice Policy
• Junior Varsity Policy
• Novice Lincoln Douglas
• Varsity Lincoln Douglas
• Novice Public Forum
• Varsity Public Forum

The Hooch Debate Team has been working hard to ensure a quality tournament experience and we look forward to hosting you this fall. 

A few important things to note:

1. We request that you follow the Georgia Forensic Coaches Association rule stating that, “a novice debater is a student who is debating his or her first national high school resolution at high school tournaments”.

2. Novice teams and judges will be expected to abide by GFCA rules concerning novice arguments and evidence. Please read the event/fee information page of the tournament website carefully. 

3. We will be using the September/October resolution for both divisions of Public Forum Debate: Resolved: In United States public K-12 schools, the probable cause standard ought to apply to searches of students. 

4. We will be using the September/October resolution for both divisions of Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Resolved: Countries ought to prohibit the production of nuclear power.

5. You must specifically request hired judges. We will fill as many hire requests as possible, but it is likely that we will not be able to meet demand. Please plan on providing as many judges as you can to fulfill your team’s commitment. If you request judges close to the tournament date, we may not be able to provide them.

6. All judges in the varsity policy division will be expected to have judge philosophies posted to the national judge philosophy wiki (http://judgephilosophies.wikispaces.com/) and/or Tabroom; we fully anticipate using mutually preferred judging in the varsity policy debates.      

7. We take pride in offering a high quality event at a low cost. Lincoln Douglas entries are $40, public forum entries are $50, and policy entries are $70. 

8. If your Georgia school is a new program in its first few years of competition, we offer half-off registration fees. 

We hope to see you in September,

Garrett Abelkop
Director, Cougar Classic
Assistant Administrator, Chattahoochee HS
abelkop@gmail.com
o(470) 254-7553

Kevin Bancroft
Head Debate Coach, Chattahoochee HS
bancroftk@fultonschools.org