This post is to clarify the Varsity Expectations and Policies for this year.
Goals
1. Win AAAA State Championship
2. At least 1 TOC Bid
3. Qualify to CFL Nationals
4. Qualify to NFL Nationals
5. Receive at least 1 All State Bid
6. No losing records inside the state
7. At least 3 members qualify for NFL All American status
Varsity Tournaments
Chattahoochee – Sonya/Sonika, Shaheen/Iesha
Warner Robins – Trusha/Navroz, Shaheen/Iesha
Samford – Trusha/Navroz
Westminster – Trusha/Navroz, ___________
Sequoyah – Sonya/Sonika, Shaheen/Iesha
Carrollton – Trusha/Navroz, ____________
Ohio Valley – Trusha/Navroz
MBA – Trusha/Navroz
Lincoln – Sonya/Sonika, Shaheen/Iesha
Emory – Trusha/Navroz
State (explanied later)
Harvard – Trusha/Navroz
Vestavia – we will only go if we have 1 bid.
UGA- we will only go if we have 1 bid.
Districts- all
Varsity Partnerships
These teams will stay constant almost all year.
Sonya Jooma and Sonika Reddy
Shaheen Kurani and Iesha White
Navroz Tharani and Trusha Daya
Travel
To travel, I must see effort as far as debate work goes.
How do I define effort? I think you should be doing at least 2-5 hours a week of debate work FOR YOURSELF! This means you should be having at least one practice round a week as well as some individual research to make arguments better. Do not include your time at Novice practices in this time on debate work. I believe you should stay for at least two novice practices a month. This may sound selfish, but we need to do work. The third area of effort is argument development. You should be developing new ideas for arguments, affirmatives, etc after each tournament.
Why does one team travel more than the other?
Yes Navroz and Trusha will get the most tournaments, but I think there are easy justifications for this.
1) They’ve done work this year and shown a huge effort.
2) They both went to camp. No one else did.
3) They emailed me back throughout the summer about debate.
Why are we only taking two teams (max) to tournaments?
The reason is because I’m coaching two teams this year- Wheeler and Fayette. My responsiblity is being overstretched and although you are my first priority, I have to give the Wheeler novices some time. I can only adequetly coach two teams maximum at tournaments. Plus this will allow two varsity debaters to always be able to judge for the team and help the JV/Novice. However, your first priority should be the Varsity teams. If you are not debating, you should ask the other Varsity teams if they need help with anything – and if they don’t or don’t want help, then move on to the JV/Novice.
Why am I not going to some of the out of state tournaments?
The reason is directly related to summer work. I told you on the wikispace, the work on the site would decide where you travel, etc. I am only taking 1 team right now to Samford, Ohio Valley, Emory, Harvard, Vestavia, UGA right now because I only think one team deserves to go to these tournaments. However, this is not set in stone. If you can work hard and do well at tournaments, you can earn a spot at these tournaments.
What do the blanks mean?
The blanks are on Westminster and Carrollton. Like I said earlier, I am only taking two teams maximum. Sonya/Sonika and Shaheen/Iesha need to decide between the two teams which team wants to go to which tournament. One of you will go to Carrollton, one will go to Westminster.
The State Team
Our number one goal is to win state. It’s never been done. As of September 8, I do not see any reason as to why Navroz and Trusha do not deserve a spot on the State Team. Both have done tremendous amounts of work and since they both went to camp, they have tremendously improved. My idea is that Trusha will be the 2A and Navroz will be the 2N. This means that the 1A and the 1N spots are open.
How will I decide who fills them? These are the areas I will take into consideration: Overall Win/Loss record on each side, Speaker points on each side, Win/Loss record against 4A/5A opponents throughout the year, attitude and work ethic. There may be a couple other considerations made – but those should be able to give me two debaters.
This sounds great and all, but can I have access to the GMAIL account again?
Sure, but you have to do something first. I need to see a 1AC done first before I give you the password. I don’t mean just copying a camp 1AC – but actually editing it and making it your own. The past two years I’ve threatened taking the password away, but I mean it this year. I expect at least 1 file turned in a month by every debater on the team. If you don’t you will lose access. The password will change monthly.