Wisconsin Forensics Daily

Monday Meditation: Wisconsin Forensics Tournament of Champions

The Monday Meditation Column is designed to reflect on ideas that we all have after a tournament, reflecting on the events that occurred during the the past weekend. Today’s Monday Meditation comes from a real post-tournament reflection that the James Madison Memorial coaches had after Appleton East’s Tournament.

The suggestion was that we (the Wisconsin Forensics Community) create our own Tournament of Champions and offer this as an additional competition to the Wisconsin Forensics Season. Read more below for more details on this idea. Wisconsin Forensics Daily would like your input as to whether or not this is a good idea.

The idea is to create a small tournament with a large number of high quality competitors. The relatively small size of the tournament would make it easy to attract a significant number of quality judges. This might eliminate concerns that are often expressed about the State tournaments. The goal of this tournament would not be to replace the existing state tournaments, but instead to provide an additional tournament with high quality competitors and judges. This type of experience could be crucial to develop regions of the state where forensics competitions are not often held. For example, a Wisconsin Forensics Tournament of Champions might include Conference Champions and those that reach a “Gold” status at the WHSFA State tournament.

Here’s our tentative thoughts as to how this might work. The WiFTOC would be an invite only tournament. Invites would be given to individuals who have achieved a qualifying leg. A qualifying leg would include: A first place finish at any WFCA/WHSFA tournament provided that individuals are ranked (preference, not points are the basis of comparison) and that a final or power round is held when necessary, a first place finish at any Conference tournament provided that the competitors are ranked, qualification to either NFL or CFL Nationals (in a Wisconsin Forensics Category. e.g. IX and USX would just be extemp, DP would work for both HI or DI. Declamation would work for prose or would not receive a bid.), a “Gold” score at WHSFA State and a final round appearance at the WFCA State tournament. Some categories would be exempt from qualification status. For example, Novice Prose would not qualify some one in prose.

There are several issues that would need to be hashed out. First: Do we really need to offer all of the categories? Of the schools that would be interested in attending this tournament, if it happens, not all of them would be interested in all of the categories. So what happens when we have three people interested in Moments and two in Four-minute? Should we combine them into a greater category? The same thing holds with Play Acting/Duo/Group interp.

Second: how do we get results from all of these contests to varify. WFD and the WFCA does a pretty good job tracking down the WFCA tournaments - but there are WHSFA tournaments that we often don’t get results from. Moreover, conference results are often not reported. Some conferences don’t hold forensics. How should we deal with that?

There are also broader issues involved that need to be discussed. Are schools interested in an experience like this? Would this undermine the WFCA/WHSFA state tournaments? When would this be held to not interfere with the WFCA/WHSFA tournament schedule? Who should host such a tournament? What coaches should be involved in creating the tournament?

Posted in Columns, Monday Meditation |