Email Archive

March 11th, 2024

Congrats and thank you to all district coaches for helping make Nat Quals such a success! This is your email for next steps and key information. 

Congress Quals Details 

We hope to maintain 59 entries in the House, so please be sure to bring as many Congress students as you can! If we drop below 59 our qualifier numbers drop from 6 qualifiers to 4 in the house. The Senate will qualify 2 for Nationals regardless of entry numbers. 

Logistics: 

We will run an AM session for the house from 8:30-noon. 4 House chambers, with 15 students and 3 judges in each chamber. The top 5 from each chamber will advance to the afternoon super session (20 advancing entries total). From that super session, the top 6 will qualify for nationals. Super session will use the PM docket, and should run for 3.5 hours. 

Students competing in the Senate will compete in the AM and PM session. 2 judges and a parliamentarian in each session, the parli does not change, generating 5 ranks to determine our National Qualifiers. 

Planning Numbers: 60+ House entries (currently at 59), 18 current Senate entries, 15 judges (currently at 9). 

District Awards: 

We had nominations for Student of the Year (winner: Prudence from Golden) and Administrator of the Year (winner: Mike Ackerman from Ralston Valley). Meaning that we still do not have any nominations/district winners for New Coach of the Year, Coach of the Year, or Assistant Coach of the Year. If there are multiple nominations for these awards by Congress Quals, we will have coaches vote at Congress Quals. Otherwise, any uncontested nominations will be declared our district winner and sent to the national office on Saturday. 

--Coach of the Year

https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

--Assistant Coach of the Year

https://www.speechanddebate.org/assistant-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

--New Coach of the Year

https://www.speechanddebate.org/new-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

1st Alternates List 

There is always so much excitement at Nat Quals awards, we wanted to make sure all district coaches are up to date on who the current first alternates are in each event.

LD: Eden Ansebo (RISE) 

PF: Collier & Mugford (East) 

HI: Micah Sacks (DSA) 

DI: Fiona Perry (East) 

OO: Ginika Chukwumah (DSST: GVR) 

IX: Crosbie LaCasse (GW) 

POI: Victoria Nungaray-Arias (RISE) 

INF: Victoria Nungaray-Arias (RISE) 

USX: Joshua Whitmire (DSST: Cedar) 

Duo: Acheampong & Tangu (RISE) 

March 7th, 2024

Hello! Here is our final rollup of information before the tournament tomorrow! 

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Time-Sensitive: 

End of Year Awards: 

I forgot to include this in Monday's email (I'm so sorry). But we are still accepting applications for our end of year awards! Links are provided below for you to turn in recommendations. We will print redacted versions of the nominations on Saturday for coaches to vote on. 

--District Student of the Year 

https://www.speechanddebate.org/student-of-the-year-nomination-form/

--Coach of the Year (Shout out to Maryrose who won the NATIONAL COTY last year!!!) 

https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

--Assistant Coach of the Year

https://www.speechanddebate.org/assistant-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

--New Coach of the Year

https://www.speechanddebate.org/new-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

--Admin of the Year

https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-administrator-nomination-form/

Fillers & Entries Update

Expect an email from Devin Sarno at some point today to confirm we know who your fillers are and who your real entries are!! Our collective efforts will send 11 more Rocky South students to Nationals!! The filler handout for coaches and students can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ol-KoyEXCY0R4iw2WFksYcblilmURz4iq8zNa73h8KU/edit?usp=sharing

World Schools & Double Entry Form

Please mark World Schools debate on the double entry form (attached below) if you have a student that is interested!! And include in their line of preference. For example a student might rank their options as: 1st - OO, 2nd - USX, 3rd - WSD, 4th - House

It is the cleanest way for us to handle the placing of WSD students. Please help us out and double check with your kids if they are interested or not. 

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General Tournament Information:

Arrival: 

Please try to enter the building after 4pm. We hope to have the first rounds of competition starting by 4:30pm. That is a tight turn around. Additionally, some speech events might see their first round go at 4:30 (instead of 5pm) to maximize judge usage. 

Coach Check-In: 

Please check-in with the tabroom when you arrive so we can triple check entry numbers, we also ask that coaches check-in to judge as a last resort measure. Especially for that first round on Friday. We will deactivate you when we hit enough judges. 

Concessions: 

Students may want to bring snacks, there will not be a concession stand. There will be a judges lounge for coaches and judges.  

March 4th, 2024

Hello coaches! Congrats to all teams on their success at the 4A and 5A State Tournaments! Rocky Mountain-South teams were some of the strongest in the field! 

Below is an update on several things you will need to know for this weekend's tournament. It is a lot of information, but it is all in one place

Paperwork: 

Any student who is doing more than one event at any of the national qualifiers (ex: LD, Congress, BQ) needs to fill out the double entry form so we know what their preference is in case they qualify in multiple events! Fillers do not need to fill out the form/include their filler event in the form. 

The double entry form is attached at the bottom of this email. 

While very rare, in the event of a protest Head Coaches need to have access to script source material and their students OO and INF manuscripts. 

Schedule: 

All events will have two rounds on Friday. Our first rounds begin at 4:30. Please encourage your judges to get their as early as possible on Friday so we can run things on time! On Saturday, our first round begins at 9am. Saturday morning will see prelim rounds 3 and 4 and all outrounds. Hopefully starting final rounds around 3pm. 

https://www.speechwire.com/c-schedule.php?tournid=16002

Judges: 

We get it, it's Monday! Please work to recruit judges to the tournament. We do not have enough judges to run the tournament right now, fortunately most schools still need to enter their judges. We are paying judges as a district to help encourage more sign-ups! Judge pay rates can be found on the general information page on Speechwire. 

https://www.speechwire.com/c-info.php?tournid=16002

Fillers: 

It takes 30 entries to get a third qualifier at Nat Quals. Thanks to our shared effort, we are now officially at three qualifiers in all events (except Policy Debate)!!! Please help us by filling any drops you have (if you can). If you can't, let us know ASAP!! 

We also have a great handout (shout out Devin at GW) to help you and your students. The headline is this: being a filler should cause zero stress!! 

Handout --> https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Ol-KoyEXCY0R4iw2WFksYcblilmURz4iq8zNa73h8KU/edit?usp=sharing

Topic Areas: 

TOPIC AREAS

International

Round 1 - Europe

Round 2 - Africa

Round 3 - Global Environmental & Humanitarian Issues

Round 4 - Americas & Caribbean

Finals - North Africa & Southwest Asia

United States

Round 1 - Education, Healthcare, and Social Issue

Round 2 - US Foreign Policy & National Security

Round 3 - US Supreme Court & Legal Issues

Round 4 - Energy & Environment

Finals - US Politics & Elections

Food: 

George Washington family's are generously donating food/snacks for the judges lounge. Since this is a communal tournament, we wanted to include a community in helping run it. Communicate with the GW coaches if your families can also help contribute to our judge lounge. 

Email Archive: 

You have gotten a lot of information from us, you can always find our archive on our district website! 

https://sites.google.com/striveprep.org/rockymountainsouth/email-archive

Up Next: 

Congress Quals, March 16 @ Ralston Valley HS 

https://www.speechwire.com/c-info.php?tournid=16003

Big Questions Quals, March 23 (held virtually) 

https://www.speechwire.com/c-info.php?tournid=16004

February 27th, 2024

Hello Rocky South coaches! 

We know many of you are in the midst of preparing for 5A State this coming weekend, and wish you all the best! As this is the paperwork portion of the season, I wanted to remind everyone of two things you will need as you register for Nat Quals next weekend! 

1. Double Entry Form: 

ANY student who will be doing more than 1 event MUST fill out the double entry form attached below. For example: if a student is just doing LD next weekend, and then Congress the weekend after that, they need to fill out the form! Additionally, any student interested in World Schools Debate must indicate their interest through the form. AKA, it is important. 

Reminder of the double entry rules: 

You can double enter at Nat Quals on March 8-9 (IX and PF, for example). No more than two events that weekend. 

You can then enter Congress Quals the next weekend, if you want. 

You can then enter Big Questions Quals the weekend after that. 

2. Registering on Speechwire 

We use Speechwire to run all of our district tournaments. In order to do that, you need to LINK students to their NSDA account. There is a really convenient button for that. Check out the photo below, you want to click "link NSDA student accounts"  

January 29th, 2024

Hello all! 

As hard as it may seem, we are quickly approaching our series of National Qualifier tournaments. We need to start preparing for our Congress Quals hosted at Ralston Valley High School on Saturday, March 16th. 

In order to facilitate Congress Quals, we need to set a docket as a district. Please start having students draft potential legislation and email it to me at gthomas@rockymountainprep.org. As legislation gets emailed to me, I will put it in a Google Folder and share it with all coaches. This will hopefully allow you to preview the potential legislation before our meeting. 

Guidelines for Congress Legislation: 

-Bills for Qualifiers should not have been debated at local tournaments this season 

-Bills for Qualifiers should not have been debated at the last 2 congress qualifiers (2022 & 2023 attached below) 

-As a district we strive for a balance between domestic and international topics. 

-All bills should be debatable on both the AFF and NEG side. 

-No school is allowed to have more than 3 pieces of legislation in the final docket, and schools are encouraged not to submit more than five to help with the selection process. 

All coaches across the district are invited to join our virtual meeting on Monday, February 12th at 7pm to set the docket. Calendar invites and a Google Meets link will be sent out soon as well. 

Feel free to reach out to anyone on the committee with questions! And share the email with anyone I might have missed. I tried my best to include everyone, but we have a handful of new coaches this year and I know we all want them to be included! 

Thanks, 

Your Rocky South Committee 

September 6th, 2023

Hello Rocky South district! 

Yesterday, 13 coaches joined our district wide call to pick competition sites for our various national qualifying tournaments. That, plus other details, included below. 

1. Dates & Sites 

March 8-9: Speech & Debate Nat Quals at George Washington High School 

March 16: Congress Quals at Ralston Valley High School 

March 23: Big Questions Quals, will continue to be held Virtually 

2. Additional Tournaments 

We are exploring hosting a novice tournament at Northglenn High School on October 28th. All schools (in and outside of Rocky South) are invited. More details to come. 

We are also exploring hosting a virtual tournament on November 18th (the weekend before Thanksgiving break). Plenty of things still to discuss around that. If that possibility interests you, let us know! 

Additional updates around NSDA re-organizing, rules, and our WSD procedures coming later. But for this update, here are the dates and sites for your tournament calendar! 

March 7th: Nat Quals - Tuesday Update

Hello Rocky South! 

Nat Quals is this FRIDAY and SATURDAY at Denver East! A tentative schedule is posted on our Speechwire page. Available here: https://www.speechwire.com/c-schedule.php?tournid=14112

Our current qualifier numbers are being tracked on this document. We are really pushing more entries in: LD, PF, & HI to try to get those events three qualifiers as well. INF and OO are already at 3 qualifiers!! 

 23 Rocky South # of Qualifiers Tracker

There are a series of reminders our committee wants coaches to keep in mind for this weekend. Those reminders have been compiled in the document below. This allows you to print it off and keep on your desk or keep the tab open on your computer! Instead of constantly coming back to this email.

 Rocky South Reminders 23

Coach Assignments at Nat Quals

Judges Table - Devin Sarno & Seth Wilden

Ballot Access Liaisons - Betsy O’Connor & Meaghan McDowell

Tab - Maryrose Kohan (Debate Scheduling) & Anna Steed (Speech Scheduling)

→ It is our hope to run an open tab inviting all coaches to be in the room!

Ombudsman & Speechwire “blaster” - Grant Thomas

Judge Pay & Fee Enforcer - Tammie Peters

Extemp Draw - Erin Husmann

Ballot Publishing & Auditing Committee (confirm comments match judge decisions) - All other head coaches

As always, previous emails can be found in our email archive on our district website. Linked here: 

See you Friday! 

Your Rocky South Committee 

March 4th - Congress Quals Full Results & Ballots Release 

Hi all! 

First, you can find complete ballots for today's Congress Qualifiers in your coach accounts on Speechwire.

Second, you can find the complete listing of where students finished today listed below. This is the order alternates will be pulled in. 

House: 

In 1st place, from Denver East, Connor Hise.

In 2nd place, from Regis, Emma Nicotra.

In 3rd place, from Mountain Vista High School, Mykie Kamberos

In 4th place, from Denver East, Toby Penner.

In 5th place, from Strive Prep SMART, Mia Vasquez.

In 6th place, from Regis, Callen Patel.

In 7th place, from DSST Byers High School, Valentina Rutledge.

In 8th place, from Mountain Vista High School, Liliana Smith.

In 9th place, from Denver East, Lucian Frisby (lew-shin).

In 10th place, from Denver East, Alexander Cisneros.

In 11th place, from George Washington, Erika Engelstad.

In 12th place, from George Washington, Maggie Duffy.

In 13th place, from Denver East, Scout Chomas.

In 14th place, from Mullen High School, Audrey Baughman.

In 15th place, from STRIVE Prep RISE, Denisse Gonzalez-Marquez.

In 16th place, from Denver East, Kairine Brown.

In 17th place, from Strive Prep SMART, Tram Nguyen.

In 18th place, from Mountain Vista High School, Aiden Susser.

In 19th place, from Denver East, Garrett Mugford.

In 20th place, from DSST Byers High School, Jackson Ledesma.

SENATE

In 1st place, from Mullen, Nick Dohr

In 2nd place, from Regis, James Ritsick

In 3rd place, from Denver East, Grace Taub

In 4th place, from DSST Byers, Joshua Whitmire

In 5th place, from Wheat RidgeIan Okeson

In 6th place, from DSST Byers, Tally Shannon

In 7th place, from Denver East, Liska Torok

In 8th place, from Mullen, Trace Taylor

In 9th place, from George Washington, Josh Dupree

In 10th place, from Wheat Ridge, Jackson Lowers

In 11th place, from Strive Prep SMART, Christopher Rubio

In 12th place, from George Washington, Ilana Steele

In 13th place, from STRIVE Prep RISE, Brianna Valle-Carcamo

In 14th place, from Golden Kevin Matisheck

In 15th place, from Regis, John Wood

In 16th place, from D'Evelyn Jr/Sr, Reilly Harrington

In 17th place, from Golden, Luis Perez-Holguin

In 18th place, from Strive Prep SMART, Evelia Chavez

February 10, 2023 - Nat Quals Planning Meeting

Hello district coaches! 

We will be meeting on Monday at 7pm over Google Meets to discuss planning logistics for Nat Quals. ALL coaches are welcome to attend this meeting. Have questions? Ideas? Additional things you would like to discuss? Please join the call! A tentative agenda is linked below, as well as the link for the meeting. We hope you can join! 

Google Meets Link: https://meet.google.com/oiy-ioaq-aup?authuser=0&hs=122

Best,

Your Rocky South Committee 

February 9, 2023 - Congress Quals Docket Now Available 

Hello Rocky South! 

The docket for Congress Quals is now available on Speechwire. It is also attached below. We are only 14 House entries away from sending SIX kids to Nationals from the House. Please get your registration in over the next few weeks so we can plan judges and hospitality accordingly. 

Thanks! 

The Rocky South Committee 

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January 23, 2023 - Congress Call - Rocky South Congress Quals 

Hello all! 

As hard as it may seem, we are quickly approaching our series of National Qualifier tournaments. The first up is our Congress Qualifier, hosted at D'Evelyn Jr/Sr High School on Saturday, March 4th. 

In order to facilitate Congress Quals, we need to set a docket as a district. Please start having students draft potential legislation and email it to me at gthomas@striveprep.org. As legislation gets emailed to me, I will put it in a Google Folder and share it with all coaches. This will hopefully allow you to preview the potential legislation before our meeting. 

Guidelines for Congress Legislation: 

-Bills for Qualifiers should not have been debated at local tournaments this season 

-Bills for Qualifiers should not have been debated at the last 2 congress qualifiers (2021 & 2022 attached below) 

-As a district we strive for a balance between domestic and international topics. 

-All bills should be debatable on both the AFF and NEG side. 

-No school is allowed to have more than 3 pieces of legislation in the final docket, and schools are encouraged not to submit more than five to help with the selection process. 

All coaches across the district are invited to join our virtual meeting on Wednesday, February 8th at 7pm to set the docket. Calendar invites and a Zoom link will be sent out soon as well. 

Feel free to reach out to anyone on the committee with questions! And share the email with anyone I might have missed. I tried my best to include everyone, but we have a handful of new coaches this year and I know we all want to be included! 

Thanks, 

Your Rocky South Committee 

March 14th, 2022 - Wrap Up Email

Congrats to all of our qualifiers this weekend! Thank you to our all of our participating schools for recruiting judges, students, and for stepping into various roles throughout the weekend. The tournament ran pretty smoothly this weekend, and that is absolutely a group effort. Here are the final announcements post-tournament. 

Drops, if you know a student cannot attend Nationals, please report that drop to the committee as soon as possible so the school of the student who gets pulled in has ample time to prepare. 

COVID policies are set for the Nationals, including a vaccine requirement. Read the full details of covid precautions and requirements this weekend by using this link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Me_ZZXNAfgsoys4Fn7v2C5xS9S_1FB8oHiquBlYtdz4/edit?usp=sharing

Congress Nat Quals is in two weeks, please submit legislation by tomorrow night so we can announce the docket Wednesday morning. 

World Schools team is currently listed below, if you have a student on the list who does not plan to accept the spot let us know as soon as you can so we can pull in the next kid. 

Alexander Hernandez-Gonzalez (RISE) 

Caroline Colclasure (DSST Byers) 

Jacobo Gracia (SMART) 

Joshua March (Mullen) 

Ariana Linhardt (Mullen) 

Travis Hockin (Mullen) 

Will Ryan (George Washington) 

Sophie Azam (George Washington) 

Margaret Baughman (Mullen) 

Patrick Schack (Mullen) 

Thanks all! 

Your Rocky South Committee 

March 2nd, 2022

Hello Rocky Mountain-South district! 

Our National Qualifying tournament is only 9 days away and below is where we are at in the planning process. Let us know if you have any questions, your district committee has been hard at working trying to plan an efficient tournament for you all. 

COVID Policy Update

DPS has changed its COVID policies since we first met as a committee, and as a result we must adapt as well. Regrettably, we will not be able to check vaccination status or enforce a masks-at-all-times policy. However, we have worked out a few new policies to try to keep mitigation low. 

--Team hubs will still be in use 

--Students may choose to attend the round only for their speaking slot. Students can choose to enter the room when it is their time to perform and then are allowed to leave if they would like. This is what the policy will be at Nationals as well. 

--If a student has a medical accommodation that needs to be met, please reach out to one of us on the committee so we can help best facilitate that. 

--We plan to message to judges that you should be aware of your personal, implicit bias around masks the same way you are about other extenuating factors. 

--Masks are still strongly encouraged 

E-Ballots at Nat Quals!

Please have judges bring an electronic device they can use to submit ballots. Eballots will help speed up the entire tournament. We are working to secure some loaner computers that judges can borrow for the day, but obviously will not have enough for everyone. 

Updated Saturday Start Time

Rounds will begin at 9am on Saturday, not 8am. Please note the change in the schedule and enjoy an additional hour of sleep. 

Judges and Entries 

Please get your entries in ASAP so we can begin to plan for room numbers and make any needed adjustments to the schedule. Even if they are only tentative. With still half the district left to register we have several events that are approaching the 30+ threshold that gets us a third qualifier in that event. 

And of course, judges judges judges.

 Rocky South # of Qualifiers Tracker

District Awards

Please get your nominations in for our district awards. Any category that has more than 1 nomination will be decided by a vote of all coaches at Nat Quals. Voting will run throughout the tournament and conclude in time for us to announce the winners at awards. 

Currently we have: 1 nomination for Student of the Year and 1 nomination for Coach of the Year. 

Links: 

Student of the Year: https://www.speechanddebate.org/student-of-the-year-nomination-form/

Coach of the Year: https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

Assistant Coach of the Year: https://www.speechanddebate.org/assistant-coach-of-the-year-nomination-form/

Admin of the Year: https://www.speechanddebate.org/high-school-administrator-nomination-form

Email Archive: 

Looking for a previously sent email? Check the district website here: https://sites.google.com/striveprep.org/rockymountainsouth/home

Thanks, 

Your Rocky South District Committee