Reminders for the Allstate Expanding Opportunities JV Invitational Tomorrow

Dear Coaches,

I hope everyone’s as excited as we are about the final tournament of the year, a special event focused on JV debaters from our Expanding Opportunities Schools. We’ll have a great competition focused on our youngest students as a way to give them a great tournament to end the year on and build upon for next year.

A few brief reminders:

First, all coaches should please check current official registration and advise of any changes.

Confirm with students and judges and advise of any changes ASAP. You should send changes to David today and tonight (Friday) as you know of them.

Please call/text tournament director with all changes on Saturday morning as soon as you’re aware of them:

8 4 7 – 9 5 1 – 9 6 6 2

Second, note that the location of the tournament at Marine Math and Science Academy, 145 S. Campbell, near the CTA Western station on the Forest Park Blue Line

Third, please note event schedule.

Fourth, we will distribute the $350 incentive checks on-site tomorrow, but these will only go to schools that bring a minimum of four competing students that compete in all four rounds.

And reminders of tournament logistics:

• All schools should plan to arrive around 7:45 am on Saturday, where we start serving breakfast. We will begin calling you not long after that time if you have not yet arrived at the tournament. We have your cell phone numbers and will use them to ensure we’re on-time, so please call us with your changes since we WILL call you otherwise.
• We will provide a continental breakfast and awesome sandwiches from Potbelly for lunch.
• Schools should arrive at the parking lot on Adams and enter Door #5 – connected to the parking lot. Students should arrive in the auditorium (next to Door #5 entrance – the sign will say “Auditorium – Room 110”), where they will be directed to the lunchroom just down the hall, and coaches should register at the judge table (up one flight of stairs), outside Room 225, the Tab Room.
• Students and coaches may wait in the Auditorium between debates or if their rounds end early.
• As soon as you are ready to leave your school and get on the bus Saturday morning, please call/text any changes as soon as you know them. Showing up to the tournament without communicating a changed registration in a timely fashion will mean your students are left off the pairing and forfeited. Changes must be called/texted in by 8 am at the latest to David at 8 4 7 – 9 5 1 – 9 6 6 2, but we’d strongly suggest informing of changes by 7:30 am or 7:45 am.
• Our tournaments run on-time. We respect your time and value the contribution you make to the experience of students from your school and all the others that are a part of the league, it is a professional expectation that coaches ensure their students and judges arrive on time and are ready to debate at scheduled times. Those who are late for debates or have unannounced changes are asking for exceptions that would delay the tournament for everyone else’s students, which we can’t allow.
• Forfeits will occur 15 minutes after the start of each announced round. For Round 1 Saturday morning, 8:45 am is the forfeit time. Please make sure you plan enough travel time and check with your judges in the morning as well – having students lose their first debate due to tardiness is not the way to start the last tournament of the year!
• No voluntary forfeits are allowed! Students must compete or withdraw from the tournament. Since this is a first-year tournament with a number of brand-new debaters, it’s important that students give their best effort and not give up on debates – this is the standard at all CDL tournaments and what is necessary for students to learn and grow.
• All schools will stay until departure at 5 pm following awards on Saturday – no school leaves before first departure at our tournaments and your students are certainly in contention for awards and don’t want to miss the excitement of the awards ceremony.
• We look forward to great competition. Please update tournament directors directly with registration changes and feel free to ask David any questions you have leading up to tomorrow by e-mail.