Wisconsin Forensics Daily

Appleton East Alum Honored

For the last three years the Wisconsin Alumni Association has honored young University of Wisconsin-Madison alumni with its Forward Under Forty awards. The Forward Under Forty awards recognize UW grads under age 40 who are making an impact on the world by living the Wisconsin Idea.

Brian Riedl was awarded with one of the Forward Under Forty awards for 2010. Brian was honored for his work on the Federal Budget with the Heritage Foundation. A great description of his efforts is in the above link – so I won’t bother rehashing the Alumni Association’s excellent work.

I had a chance to talk to Brian’s speech and debate coach, Mike Traas, about his involvement with the Appleton East team. Traas said the following:

Brian was a part of that magical group that was successful at Kansas City, along with Ben Bayer, Erick Lichte, Dan Jessup, Ben Schurg, Nick Stumbris, Jack Champeau, Ann Hackel, Tara Hofkins. Erick Lichte finished 2nd in DI, Nick Stumbris 4th in House, Tara Hofkins Semi Finalist in Oratory, Jack Champeau Finalist – senate supersession, Dan Jessup & Ben Schurg both quarterfinalists in HI, Ann Hackel Quarterfinalist in DI, Ben Bayer – Foreign Extemp Quarterfinalist (missed Semis on the 3rd tiebreaker), Ben had the Black ribbon and was 3-3 in LD with cases he wrote on Sunday (he didn’t care about LD any more at that time), and Brian Reidl – the only one not to break, he missed the break on a tie breaker.

That year, Brian gave his economy speech and hand gun control speech so many times – you would think those were the only topics that he knew about, but he had a broad breath of knowledge. [Which is impressive because...] Brian only started forensics/debate during January of his senior year. Brian also really enjoyed Student Congress.

I felt that this was worthy of mention on WFD because Brian’s experiences directly relate to debate and public speaking. If you were not sold on the benefits of speech and debate to your professional career, Brian’s example should convince you of the activities benefits.

If your team has an exemplary alumni that Wisconsin Forensic Daily should feature, let us know!

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Practice Extemp Questions – JMM Version

As promised, here are the full list of questions from the Madison Memorial tournament this weekend.

Included is a list of “questionable questions.” Because Tim Scheffler and I have a good time writing these, we frequently come up with not quite real questions. We planned to leave these out for our extempore speakers – to freak them out (I don’t know anything about college basketball!). Someone informed them of our intentions – they were not phased.

Some of the “questionable questions” are decent (otherwise the joke would not have worked), so feel free to cherry pick those. The others, should just be ignored. Unless you’re preparing for a career in sports journalism. Then it might be a good thing to be able to answer those questions.

The questions are below the break. Happy practicing. Read the rest of this entry »

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Coaching Opportunities

WFD is proud to announce that we are now listing Speech and Debate Coaching Opportunities. If you are interested in coaching speech and debate, please see the permanent page. The page will be periodically updated as information is made available to WFD.

The link is:

http://www.wiforensics.com/coach-speech-and-debate/

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WSDT Judge Preference Resources

Coaches,

I am making available three resources for the 2009 WSDT. They are:

• An offline copy of the Judge Wiki
• A PDF copy of the Judge Wiki
• A Word document copy of the Judge Wiki

South Milwaukee does have a wireless connection, so you should not need these resources. But in case you like killing trees or you don’t have a laptop/wifi card, we figured you’d be interested in these resources.

Enjoy.

Tags: wsdt

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WSDT Important Information

Dear Coaches,

The Wisconsin State Debate Tournament is upon us, and there are few things we need to tell you before we see you in South Milwaukee this weekend.

First, judge preferencing in the Joy of Tournaments system is now active for the divisions that use it (V4, VSS, LD). Please log into your account and rate the judges according to your desires. We will be turning off the judge preferencing system at 8:00 p.m Friday night. This means that you need to have your ratings completed in the system by 8:00 pm Friday night. If you are having problems with the technology, please let us know and we can accommodate that. If you fail to have your judge rating in by 8:00 p.m., you will be allowed to rate judges Saturday morning – however, you not be allow preferred critics for rounds 1 and 2. So please complete the information on time. 95% of the judge paradigms have been posted to the WSDT wiki site (http://wsdtparadigms.wikispaces.com). One judge in each divisions is missing information and we expect it to be completed tonight.

Tomorrow afternoon we will be emailing all coaches a judge preference booklet for your use at the tournament. South Milwaukee has an open wireless connection that you should be able to access the wiki at the tournament. We will also make an offline copy of the wiki available and have all of the paradigms posted in case you forget.

Second, schools are reminded that they must call in to verify their entries tomorrow evening. The call-in time is between 4:30-7:30 p.m. The phone number to call is 608-628-3114. If Tim Scheffler does not pick up, do not leave a voicemail. Wait a few minutes and then call again. The penalty for failing to call is a $50 fine. Please do not forget, as this is essential for our running the tournament on time Saturday morning.

Third, for schools who wish to register early (Friday evening) – our early registration will be at the La Quinta Inn on 7141 South 13th Street, Oak Creek. Early Registration will run from 7:30 to 9:00 p.m Friday. Schools are reminded that no changes can be made after they register. Thus, only schools who are traveling are encouraged to take advantage of this option.

Fourth, there will be a meeting on Saturday during the tournament for all WDCA and WHSFA coaches. It will be short, and a survey will be distributed on this season’s changes and we will discuss next year’s calendar of tournaments.

Thanks – and see you in South Milwaukee!

-Tim Dale Tournament Director

Tags: wsdt

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UW-Oshkosh Announces Titan Debate Institute

Douglas Roubidoux, head debate coach at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, has announced the creation of the Titan Debate Institute.

The Titan Debate Institute plans to offer both one week and two week options for debaters. The institute plans to offer affordable instruction for both local students and those traveling from other states. The two-week option for debaters who commute to the UW-Oshkosh campus is only $300.

The institute runs from June 27th to July 11th 2010. The registration deadline is May 28, 2010.

Click here to download the Titan Debate Institute at UW-Oshkosh Flier. For more information, contact Doug Roubidoux at roubidou@uwosh.edu

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January PF and Jan/Feb LD Topics Announced

The National Forensic League has announced the January Public Forum Topic and the January-February Lincoln-Douglas Topic. These topics are not used at any WDCA tournament. However, these topics are used for NFL and CFL qualifiers and several second semester tournaments outside of Wisconsin. The topics are:

January-February Lincoln Douglas Topic
Resolved: Economic sanctions ought not be used to achieve foreign policy objectives.

January Public Forum
Resolved: President Obama’s plan for increasing troops in Afghanistan is in the United States’ best interest.

Tags: Lincoln Douglas Topic, Public Forum Topic

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The Alexandra Hoechrel Challenge

This coming weekend is the Appleton East “Alexandra Hoechrel” Challenge tournament.  Friday December 4th & Saturday December 5th. (I know… I have the 5th & 6th on the invite – but the tournament is REALLY this Friday and Saturday!)  If you need info pertaining to the tournament – you can find it here – http://wdca.org/calendar or you can just e-mail me at traasmichael@aasd.k12.wi.us

Registrations are due Tuesday, December 1st.  After Tuesday, I will post on here who is entered.  (I will post names of  debaters and judges, as I know them). 

Judges – post your VSS/LD judging information to the WSDT wiki site – http://wsdtparadigms.wikispaces.com it can then be used for the Challenge, but more importantly – it will be up and ready for the State tournament next week.

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Wisconsin Votes for Latin America

The balloting for Wisconsin’s five-topic vote for the 2010-2011 Policy Debate Topic has completed. Our ballot will now be submitted with ones from other state organizations and the three national organizations (the NFL, the NCFL, and the NDCA). The topics receiving the two lowest cumulative score will be placed on a second ballot. The final ballot will be out in November and must be returned by the conclusion of the Wisconsin State Debate Tournament.

15 Schools participated in the five-topic balloting process this year. The participating schools were: James Madison Memorial, Appleton West, Sheboygan North, Messmer, West Bend, Janesville Parker, MacDowell Montessori, Mukwonago, Rhinelander, Nicolet, Muskego, Rufus King, Brookfield East, Marquette, and Bradley Tech.

The voting was really close for the top two and bottom three spots. The topic voting was as follows:

1.) Latin America – 36 cumulative score
2.) China – 37 cumulative score
3.) Overseas Deployment – 49 cumulative score
4.) United Nations – 50 cumulative score
5.) Russia – 53 cumulative score

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WDCA Releases Novice Evidence Packet

For the second year, the Wisconsin Debate Coaches’ Association is adopting a novice evidence packet for the novice division of policy debate. Please see the following post describing the novice evidence packet.

The files included in the novice evidence packet are listed below:

• Immigration Medicaid Affirmative and Negative (Word | PDF)
• Block Grants Affirmative and Negative (Word | PDF)
• Head Start Affirmative and Negative (Word | PDF)
• Military Recruitment Disadvantage and Affirmative Answers (Word | PDF)
• Fiscal Discipline Disadvantage and Affirmative Answers (Word | PDF)
• Immigration Disadvantage and Affirmative Answers (Word | PDF)
• Topicality Arguments and Affirmative Answers (Word | PDF)

Click here to down load the entire Novice Evidence Packet 09-10 in a zip file

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