2013-2014/1.0 - Kentucky High School Speech League

KHSSL Handbook 49 2013-2014/1.0INVITATIONALS AND QUALIFYING SPEECH TOURNAMENTSWe are fortunate to have a number of schools in both the Junior and Senior divisions who are willing tohost invitational tournaments throughout the year. These tournaments provide benefits not only for theschools attending, but also for the host school. Contestants participating at these tournaments gaininvaluable experience and practice for the tournaments at the regional and state level. The students andcoaches running the tournament gain insight into the technical aspects of other tournaments they willenter and often realize a profit from entry fees, concessions, etc. which can be used to offset some of thecosts of attending future tournaments.Schools hosting invitational tournaments are strongly encouraged to follow all rules and regulationsoutlined in the KHSSL Handbook. Invitational tournaments are, by their very nature, independent, andwhile such tournaments may choose to offer additional events or modify certain rules, some standards areessential if the tournament is to be considered a KHSSL prequalifying tournament. School may set theirown entry, drop, and drop fees and fines. To this end, the following rules and regulations apply to allinvitational tournaments which are to be sanctioned by KHSSL as prequalifying tournaments:1. Schools wishing to host an invitational tournament must submit a tournament request in the mannerestablished by the Executive Director by no later than 30 days before the Spring Board meeting ofthe Board of Directors. The use of tabroom.com or another on-line registration andtabulation system is vastly preferred over paper. The Executive Director must be givenadministrative access to the tournament system used. If a pay-for electronic service (i.e.,Joy of Tournaments) is used, then the Executive Director must receive pdf versions of allresults printouts. Based on those requests, the Executive Director will draft a schedule reflectingthe following priorities:i. Schools hosting tournaments on their ‘traditional weekends’ii. No division may have two tournaments in the same Region on the same date, unlessone is Debate-only, and the other is Speech-only.iii. Higher priority on the requesting school’s list of dates.iv. When possible, tournaments in adjoining Regions should be avoided.v. When possible, no more than two tournaments per division per date will beapproved.The Board of Directors will approve the schedule at the Spring Board meeting.2. Events offered at invitational tournaments must be titled the same as KHSSL events and mustfollow the same guidelines for these events as outlined in the KHSSL Handbook.3. Schools may offer novice-only tournaments for pre-qualification if all events follow KHSSL rules.Novice-only events must be clearly noted in the invitation. Schools who host novicetournaments/events must be prepared to devise a method of proof that competitors are novice(someone in their first year of competition in their respective division)4. A novice student may compete in the novice category all year without respect to results at anyprevious tournament. Novice competitors must pre-qualify twice in a novice category in order to