Wisconsin Forensics Daily

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.

Posted in News, Tournament Invites | 1 Comment »

WSDT 2009 Invitation: Now Online

The Wisconsin Debate Coaches Association and the Wisconsin High School Forensic Association are proud to announce that the invitation for the 2009 Wisconsin State Debate Tournament is now available online.

The website is: http://www.joyoftournaments.com/wi/wdca/info.asp?p=1

The website contains all of the information needed for the tournament. There are several new developments this year attempted to make the tournament a better experience for everyone involved. A brief description of the changes follows. Additional information about the tournament will be made available on the tournament website as the tournament gets closer (such as the early registration location). Registration is currently open and ready to accept your team’s entry.

A brief list of changes:

• The 2009 Wisconsin State Debate Tournament has moved to a Saturday-Sunday format and we have increased the number of rounds for Middle School and Novice Policy students to four. Please pay particular attention to the schedule.
• Schools must be members in good standing with either the WDCA or the WHSFA. If your school has not paid its dues to one organization or the other for this year, your school will not be allowed to compete. Additionally, if you attended the WSDT last year and did not pay dues to either the WDCA or the WSHFA, you must pay last year’s dues on top of this year’s dues in order for your school to compete. Information about where to send your WDCA dues is on the WSDT website.
• Schools must have either a check for their tournament fees or documentation that a check request has been submitted (a purchase order number, for example) in order to compete at the 2009 WSDT. Without a check or documentation your school will be barred from competing.
• All judges in Varsity Policy (four-person or switch side) and Lincoln-Douglas Debate must submit a judge preference/philosophy/paradigm statement. Unlike in previous years, we will NOT be using a numeric form for judge philosophies. Instead, judges must complete a written statement and post it to the WSDT Judge Paradigm Wiki (http://WSDTparadigms.wikispaces.com). Your school’s registration is not complete until each of your judges in these divisions have completed a written statement.
• All registration must be entered into the Joy of Tournament online registration system. Judge Preference forms will be made available through the Joy of Tournament System.

Additional questions about the Wisconsin State Debate Tournament should be directed to Operations Director, Tim Scheffler.

Tags: debate, State Tournament, wdca, WHSFA, wsdt

Posted in Tournament Invites | Comments Off

The Hilltopper Classic at Marquette University HS – Milwaukee, WI (Sept. 18-20, 2009)

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to attend The 2009 Hilltopper Classic at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, WI. The MUHS Webster Club is once again excited to welcome friends new and old from across the state, region, and country to enjoy fine hospitality and excellent competition and judging. We are proud to once again be designated a Final Round Qualifier in Policy Debate for the Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky.

The 2009 edition of the Hilltopper Classic will take place on Friday, September 18th through Sunday, September 20th. That’s right: after holding out as long as possible, we have decided for the first time to extend the Varsity Policy Debate tournament to a three-day event.

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Tournament Invites | 1 Comment »

WDCA Spring Meeting Discussion

This thread serves as a discussion platform for several Standing Rule Changes that will be items of New Business at the WDCA Spring Meeting in Ripon on Saturday, May 9. Please check this thread often as we will be posting the proposals as we have found the necessary language for them.

WSDT Qualification Change
Judging Standard and Ethics clean-up
Independent Tournament Director clean up
Enforce or Eliminate JV
WSDT Operations/Scheduling Change

No Prepared Document:
Reduce PF Judge Ratios. For the WSDT, reduce the required PF Judging commitment to the following:  1 judge for 1-2 Teams, 2 judges for 3-4 teams, 3 judges for 5+ teams.

Rationale: Teams don’t need to bring as many judges as they have in the past to run Public Forum at the WSDT.

Posted in Tournament Invites, Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Sheboygan North Raider Rumble Opens Registration

Sheboygan North’s Tournament Director and Emeritus Coach, Nick Bubb (me), has activated registration on the Joy of Tournament’s website. The Sheboygan coachng staff writes on the invitation,

“The Sheboygan North High School Debate team is honored to host its third annual debate tournament. We invite you and your forensics or debate team to join us for an enjoyable weekend of competition. We are proud to offer the Challenge format previously popularized by great tournament hosts such as Appleton East, James Madison Memorial, Pius XI, and Greendale/Nathan Hale. We will endeavor to live up to their example as the only challenge tournament on this year’s schedule.”

Features of this year’s competition include:

• The popular bobblehead awards from last year for all elimination round participants and the top three finishers in novice four.
• A WWF style championship belt, to the winning team in the varsity policy debate division.
• An affordable tournament hotel. (Act fast! The hotel block is only gauranteed until Novemember 5.)
• Recycled speaker awards, so as to avoid contributing to increasing energy needs.
• Improved hospitality for Judges and Coaches.
• T-shirts for excellent challenges.
• A newly dedicated Top Speaker award for the policy division.
• Sheboygan North Alumni will be visiting/judging/hanging out.

The tournament uses the challenge format in Varsity and JV policy debate, Lincoln Douglas Debate, and Public Forum Debate. All four division are one tournament run over the course of two days. A seperate Novice Four person tournament is offered on each day – one on Friday and one on Saturday.

Registration is done exclusively through the Joy of Tournaments website. If this is a problem, we will let you register – but you need to contact Nick Bubb or Jon Voss at the tournament’s email address: shebnorthdebate@gmail.com

Click here to see the invitation at the Joy of Tournaments website and register for the Raider Rumble.

Posted in Tournament Invites | 2 Comments »

Tournament Invitations Released

Steve Sexton, Doris Sexton, and Jason Chapman have released their tournament invitations. See the links below for more details. This will be a running thread that will be updated as tournament directors release their invitations.

UPDATE: Tim Scheffler, Kristi Plamann, Jim Sauer, and Dan Hansen have released their invitations. One can find them below. The invitations for Brookfield East (going on this weekend) and Nicolet (happened last weekend), have been taken down. I’ve also added Appleton West and South Milwaukee, courtesy of Steve Gargo and Eric Van Ert, respectively.

• On Friday and Saturday, October 17-18 you are invited to attend the La Crosse Central WIZM Z-93 Red Raider Invitational Debate Tournament. Seperate tournaments are offered for Novice policy, JV policy, and Public Forum on Friday and Saturday. Varsity Switch-Side policy debate is offered as one single tournament. Varsity Four-person and Lincoln-Douglas debate are not offfered.Click here for the La Crosse Central WIZM Z-93 Red Raider Debate Tournament Invitation.
• On Saturday, October 18, you are invited to attend the Mukwonago Debate tournament. They will offer, “any division that has enough entries to run.”  This includes VSS, V4, JV, NOVICE, MIDDLE SCHOOL, LD AND PF.   If low entries make it necessary, MS will fold into novice and V4 could be split into VSS. Click here for the Mukwonago invitation.
• On Friday and Saturday, October 24 and 25 you are invited to attend the Duwain Bosin Memorial Debate Tournament at Appleton West High School. They will offer a two day tournament in VSS, NSS, and Lincoln Douglas. Seperate tournaments will be held on Friday and Saturday for JV and Public Forum. Click here for the Appleton West invitation.
• On Saturday, October 25, you are invited to attend the South Milwaukee Debate tournament. They will offer a one day tournament with divisions in Novice, Junior Varsity, and Varsity four person policy debate; Varsity Switch sides policy debate; Public Forum; and Lincoln-Douglas Debate. Click here for the South Milwaukee invitation.
• On Saturday, November 8, you are invited to attend the “I’m too old to change, deal with it” Tournament at West Bend High School. This is a one day tournament that plans to offer VSS, V4, JV4, N4, Middle School, public forum – both novice and experienced, and Lincoln-Douglas – both novice and experienced. Formats are subject to change, due to low entries.Click here for the Invitation to the “I’m too old to change, deal with it” Tournament at West Bend.

Tags: wdca

Posted in News, Tournament Invites, Uncategorized | Comments Off

Register for the Hilltopper Classic!

The Hilltopper Classic will be hosted by Marquette University High School on September 19th and 20th, 2008. Competition is offered in Varsity and Novice Policy as well as Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum. However, we are short on entries in the latter three divisions and many Wisconsin teams that I would have expected to attend have not yet registered. If you’re planning to attend but haven’t registered yet, please visit the Joy of Tournaments page and do so as soon as possible. We look forward to hosting you!

Posted in News, Tournament Invites | Comments Off

WDCA Workshop and Fall Meeting information Now Available

From the President-Elect, me:

Greetings Coaches,

Attached is the schedule and invitation for the 2008 WDCA and Fall Workshop. Brookfield East High School will again play host to this year’s event. The event is scheduled for Saturday, September 13. This year’s event offers an expanded schedule for Public Forum students and will have evidence CD’s available for all policy participants. The initiation contains all the details.

Please provide me an approximate number of students attending by Wednesday, September 10 to this email address. You are – of course – free to bring more students than you indicated. Assistant coaches and judges are encouraged to attend – we’ve even scheduled a judge training workshop for them.

Costs for the workshop are just $10 / student. Please make checks payable to the Wisconsin Debate Coaches Association.

Coaches, you are also reminded that proposals for the Fall Meeting are due this Friday. An email that contains that meeting’s agenda will be sent later this week.

Thanks,

Nick Bubb
WDCA President-Elect

You can find a link to the invitation here: download the WDCA Workshop 2008 Invite.

Tags: 2oo8, fall workshop, wdca

Posted in News, Tournament Invites | Comments Off

Marquette Hilltopper Classic Invitation Released

Bill Batterman has released the invitation for the 2008 Hilltopper Classic. Registration will be conducted through the Joy of Tournaments website. Read below for the full invite:

Dear Colleagues,

You are cordially invited to attend The 2008 Hilltopper Classic at Marquette University High School in Milwaukee, WI. The MUHS Webster Club is once again excited to welcome friends new and old from across the state, region, and country to enjoy fine hospitality and excellent competition and judging.

The 9th Annual Hilltopper Classic will take place on Friday, September 19th and Saturday, September 20th. Competition will be offered in both Varsity and Novice Policy Debate as well as Lincoln-Douglas Debate and Public Forum Debate. Finalists in Varsity Policy Debate will once again earn a bid to the National Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky.

Registration is now open at http://www.joyoftournaments.com/wi/marquette/.

After much consideration, we have decided to maintain our “Texas-style” two-day tournament format again this year. With escalating travel costs and shrinking budgets, regional tournaments are essential to the health of the debate community and we are committed to hosting a tournament that is both affordable and accessible to the broadest constituency possible.

By maintaining the Hilltopper Classic as a two-day event, we hope to help squads minimize costs by arriving on Friday and returning home late on Saturday night, necessitating only a single night’s hotel stay. Teams are of course welcome to stay in Milwaukee on Saturday night if this is within their means, but by concluding the tournament on Saturday night we ensure that no team is required to make that choice.

Of course, the “Texas-style” format is not without its downsides. The schedule will once again be intense and opportunities for relaxation, socializing, and community building will be limited. We will of course do our best to provide a hospitable and friendly atmosphere, but teams will have to endure a long night on Friday and an early morning on Saturday. Squads that reach the late elimination rounds will also have to drive home late on Saturday night and into Sunday morning, but we hope that coaches and debaters alike will appreciate the opportunity to sleep late on Sunday and enjoy a rare weekend “off day” early in the season.

On behalf of the Webster Club and the entire Marquette University High School community, I look forward to hosting you here in beautiful Milwaukee.

Sincerely,

Bill Batterman
Tournament Director

Posted in Tournament Invites | Comments Off

Sheboygan North Congress Legislation

With this week being spring break for most of the students in the state, I figured there might be a few problems with coaches getting legislation to their students for this weekend’s Sheboygan North Congress. Fear no more! You can download the legislation packet right here.

Sheboygan North looks forward to seeing youall this weekend!

Posted in Tournament Invites | Comments Off