Hello Friends,

Shawnee Mission South High School cordially invites you and your squad to compete in our annual Debate Invitational on Saturday, September 28th. 

We will offer Novice and Open divisions. Both will be 5 rounds, Saturday only. Awards will be based on win/loss record, ranks, opposition seed (which is wins+ranks), and opposition ranks in that order. The top eight teams in each division will receive medals. We will provide a pool of community judges in the OPEN division. We are offering the “novice experience,” meaning you will need to bring one advanced debater judge for every two novice teams you bring. 

Our novice division will feature a “kick off assembly,” that celebrates the first novice tournament experience for the debaters and encourages them to have fun and not stress too much because everyone is nervous at their first tournament. We are requiring one advanced judge for every novice team to ensure that there is always an advanced debater at the back of the round to support the novices if need be. We will require advanced judges to attend the “training session,” where we will remind them to be kind and quality mentors in the rounds and on their ballots. We will also provide a hospitality room for the novice judges. All novices competing at the tournament will receive a duck (if you aren’t in EK, you will learn about the significance at the event--it’s sweet). We will medal the top 8 in this division but will also have awards for all teams with a 3-2 or 4-1 record who are not in that top 8. The tournament will conclude with a quick (but celebratory) “congrats on surviving your first tournament,” assembly for awards. We will also celebrate the “Best Ballots,” with fun awards for the top 5 judges. Please choose appropriate advanced judges--meaning folks you trust to be kind. 

Sweepstakes awards will be given to the top three schools and will be based on entries of the top four teams per school, in any combination of divisions. We will present sweeps and awards at an informal assembly at the conclusion of round 5 in the commons.

Each school may enter four teams in any combination. “Extras,” will be awarded to those schools that award us extras first and then to KCKSNCFL and EKNSDA schools. 

Students will be allowed to use the internet for email chains during rounds. Teams will have 8 minutes of prep and road maps will be off time. Management reserves the right to handle situations as they arise and as we see fit to best facilitate student learning. Students will debate: Resolved: The United States federal government should substantially reduce Direct Commercial Sales and/or Foreign Military Sales of arms from the United States.  

The Novice division will adhere to the Kansas Debate Coaches Novice Case List. All novice teams entered must run an affirmative that addresses a topic area chosen by coaches. A list of the allowed affirmative topic areas can be found on the next page. In the event that teams do not read one of these affirmatives, judges will be instructed to continue watching the round, but award a win to the negative, regardless of outcome. Feel free to register your go-getters in the Open division.

We will offer a tasty hospitality room for coaches and concessions for student use. We will offer a Saturday $5 meal option for lunch. Please consider utilizing this service as it will act as our squad fundraiser and will help our tournament to run smoothly--we do the same at your events. Tab will be open.

Deadline for registration is either Monday, September 23rd at 5:00 p.m. OR when we are full! Fees will be locked at that time. You can edit names through September 27th. Preference will be given to those who do favors for us, KCKSNCFL schools, and EKNSDA schools (in that order). Entry fees are $6 per team or whatever you charge us. Cancellations made after Monday, September 23rd are still obligated to pay entry fees. Please sign-up on tabroom: http://smsdebate.tabroom.com.  You will need to have a tabroom account to sign up for the tournament.

We look forward to seeing you!

Carolyn Cook 

SMS Director of Debate

PLEASE SEND ENTRY FEES TO:

Shawnee Mission South High School 

Attn: Carolyn Cook 

5800 W. 107th St

Overland Park, KS 66207

SCHEDULE

SATURDAY, December 1st

 OPEN NOVICE

Registration 7:30 a.m. Registration 7:30 a.m.

Round I 8:00 Welcome Assembly 8:00 a.m.

Round II  9:45 Novice Division Judge Assembly 8:00 a.m

Round III 11:30 Round I 8:30 a.m.

LUNCH 1:00 Round II 10:00 a.m

Round IV 1:30 Round III 11:30 p.m.

Round V 3:15 Lunch 1:00 pm

Awards ASAP Round IV 1:30 pm

Round 5 3:00 pm

Awards ASAP

NOVICE 2019 AFFIRMATIVE CASE LIMITATIONS

In accordance with survey results and decisions made by Kansas debate coaches, ALL TEAMS ENTERED IN THE SATURDAY NOVICE DIVISION must run an affirmative case in one of the following areas:

• drones

• Israel

• Saudi Arabia

• Taiwan

• Ukraine