Grapevine High School Forensics

3223 Mustang Drive, Grapevine, Texas 76051

Debate Office: (817) 251-5248

 

August 5, 2010

 

Dear Colleagues,

 

Please accept this as your personal invitation to attend the 22nd Annual Grapevine Classic TFA and TOC qualifier to be held September 17-18, 2010 at Grapevine High School. We are excited about the schedule of events, level of competition, quality judging and seeing good friends. We hope you can attend.

 

We expect a large number of entries so you will want to enter as early as possible.  Remember though, only school officials may enter. Grapevine CANNOT accept unaffiliated entries. An adult sponsor must be at the tournament as long as his/her school is competing.
 

Please note that The Grapevine Classic is a Quarter-Finals qualifier for the National Tournament of Champions (TOC) in CX , Semi-finals qualifier in LD and a finals qualifier in Student Congress and Public Forum Debate.  Grapevine is honored to be named a NIETOC qualifier for the 2nd year!  (National Individual Events Tournament of Champions).

 

New this year:  Individual events will be Saturday only with every IE entry guaranteed 2 preliminary rounds for each event before going into the required elimination rounds depending on the entry.

 

Continuing past traditions:  All debate will have 5 preliminary rounds before going into the required elimination rounds depending on entries.

 

To ensure plenty of room for our competiton, the Policy Division Preliminary Rounds will be held at Cross Timbers Middle School.  All other events will be held at Grapevine High School.

For those who are trying to reduce airline baggage costs - there is shipping information on the information page.

We do have entry limits for the Grapevine Classic. Entries in CX will be limited to 2 entries, 4 entries per LD per school, and 4 entries in PFD. We will have a waiting list for schools who might want more than their limit, but that list will only be used if the entry total is below our maximum. Entries are limited in student congress to 15 from each school with a wait list available for more entries, and it will run on a schedule that Student Congress entries may enter one Individual Event in Section B of  IE as well. Entries are limited in all Individual events to 8 per school per event with a wait list. We will be offering HI, DI, USX, FX, OO, as well as prose and poetry. Grapevine will also be offering both Duo Interp AND Duet Acting this year.

 

ALL Debate may only enter that event only - no cross entries for any debate entries. Brackets will not be broken in any debate event.  We will also be planning to have panels in all elimination rounds, if possible. For IE, Duo, and Duet, we will have 8 in finals for the events that meet the TFA standard for 8 in a final round.  

 

Schools are expected to bring QUALIFIED  judges. Schools may not “buy out” their obligations unless they are traveling at least 250 miles one way to our tournament. School judges must be available for both days (all rounds)  or will be charged for a judge for the day (rounds) they are not available. If you have a judge on Friday, you must also have a judge on Saturday or you will pay for a judge on Saturday. Schools must provide 1 judge per section they enter before they may pay for a judge (unless they are come 250 miles or more to the tournament).

 

Anyone wishing to be hired by the Grapevine Classic should email Jason Sykes at: sykesjason@verizon.net

 

The LD topic will be the September/October NFL topic.

The CX topic will be the high school 2010-2011 Policy topic.
The PFD topic will be the NFL topic for September.
 

Contact us if you need event rules for the TFA events, which can be found at www.txfa.org.
Congress legislation is available in the same location.

 

Initial entry on the website is necessary.  NO phone or fax entries will be accepted.  Entries will be accepted until 4:00 pm on Thursday, September 2 but it is HIGHLY recommended to enter earlier  because we will close entries as we reach our limit.  We will only be accepting entries and changes on line.   See the information page about specific drop deadlines and fees.

 

Remember to nominate a Senior Debater for the Jonathan Brody Award.  Information is included on this site. Nominations are due on Tuesday, September 14 by 4pm. Last year's Brody Award winner was: 

 

Sincerely,

 

Jane Boyd

Director of Forensics

jane.boyd@gcisd.net   

 

Jason Sykes

Associate Director of Debate
 

jason.sykes@gcisd.net

Grant Hahn
Director of Oral Interpretation
grant.hahn@gcisd.net