State District Two

Please Note the new participation rule from the WSFA for the 2008-9 season: In order to be eligible to compete at the State Tournament in an event (Debate/Speech/Congress) your school MUST have competed at least once in that event BY THE END OF DECEMBER and must notify the District chair of their competition after that first tournament. Failure to do so will result in that school being ineligible for the WSFA State Tournaments in March.

Welcome to District Two. We look forward to an outstanding year culminating with success in March. Students can qualify for the state debate and IE tournaments in two ways. They can qualify through their performances at meets throughout the year, or they can qualify through the District Two State Qualifying Tournament at the end of February (site and date TBA). The following are our state qualifying meets.

Note: To be a state qualifying meet, each must meet state minimums of 12 schools competing at the meet and 10 total entries in the event’s highest division. Students only qualify at the highest division offered (senior, open, or champ).

WEEKLY UPDATES: The District website www.emeraldcityspeech.org will be updated after each tournament. If you have a qualifier, you have three weeks after the last day of the tournament to notify the chair via email. Late and last-minute qualification notifications are invalid. Please say the student’s name, and exactly how he/she qualified. (Example: “Mary McGillicuddy has provisionally qualified for state in Oratory by finishing second at Federal Way.”)

District Two has a specific number of allotted slots in each event for state. There are three possibilities we could face at the end of our final regular season qualifying meet. One is that we have the perfect number qualified, for which we would be sincerely thankful. More likely, however, is that we will have qualified too many or too few for state. In these situations, the District Two State Qualifying Meet will likely be necessary.

TOO MANY: If there are too many qualifiers, we will first automatically award bids to any students who have qualified at more than one meet in order of the total number of bids received. Among the remainder, we will have a meet to pare down to the allotted number of state competitors. Potential qualifiers will be judged at least three times and speak at least twice. Lowest rank (or ranks) get the qualifying spots. Ties in IEs will be broken by considering speaker points, judges’ preference, and a playoff (in that order).

NOT ENOUGH: If there are not enough qualifiers, all students who have met state qualifying standards will automatically be admitted to state. We will have a meet to fill the remaining slots. Potential qualifiers will be judged at least three times and speak at least twice. Lowest rank (or ranks) get the qualifying spots. Ties in IEs will be broken by considering speaker points, judges’ preference, and a playoff (in that order).

TOO MANY: If there are too many qualifiers, we will first automatically award bids to any students who have qualified at more than one meet in order of the total number of bids received. Among the remainder, we will have a meet to pare down to the allotted number of state competitors. This will take place at the final district meet of the season (2008-09 this will be Garfield), wherein slots will be filled on the final order of rank at that tournament. Ties will be broken as per the NFL manual.

NOT ENOUGH: If there are not enough qualifiers, we will have a meet to fill the remaining slots. This will take place at the final district meet of the season (2008-09 this will be Garfield), wherein slots will be filled on the final order of rank at that tournament. Ties will be broken as per the NFL manual.

--Any student who has been a semifinalist or finalist at any meet (not necessarily a state qualifier) is eligible to compete in state quals.

--Any student who has competed in an event at three or more meets is eligible to compete in state quals in that event.

Please note the WIAA rule that no school can have more than 2 State entries in any one form of debate (CX or LD) nor can they have more than 3 entries total in both forms combined.

Each school who:

1. Declares via email to the District Chair that they are doing Student Congress by Jan. 1

2. Has declared to the WIAA (via their AD) that they are doing Student Congress by Jan. 1

3. Has participated in Student Congress at a meet by Jan. 1

Gets 2 slots for State.

If, when we come to mid-February, there are open slots due to any schools not using theirs, the District Chair will put the schools who would like those slots in alphabetical order, and then have a blind draw to determine where on that list to begin. Those slots will then be offered, one at time, to those schools, rotating over and over until they are exhausted.

4A/3A BREAKDOWN: To deal with the need for equity between 3A and 4A schools at state but ensure our best students go to Tacoma this March, we will allot state berths in each event by the following breakdown:

First priority for at large bids will go to students who have qualified during regular season meets. Second priority will go to students who finish at the top of the state-qualifying meet in February. Please do not hesitate to contact Joel with any questions you may have. Thank you, and have a great season.

Meet	Qualifying Standard
Whitman	Finals
Eastside Catholic	Superior
Snohomish	Finals
Renton	Superior
Auburn Riverside	Finals
Gonzaga	Finals
UPS	Finals
Federal Way	Finals
Mt. Vernon	Finals
Tahoma	Finals
PLU	Finals
Kamiak	Finals

Meet	Qualifying Standard
Whitman	Quarters
Eastside Catholic	Finals
Snohomish	Finals
Auburn	Quarters
Auburn Riverside	Finals
Gonzaga	Octas
UPS	Quarters
Federal Way	Semis
Mt. Vernon	Finals
Tahoma	Finals
PLU	Quarters
Kamiak	Semis

3A and under schools (43 listed on the WIAA site)	50% of entries
4A schools (11 listed on the WIAA site)	25% of entries
At large bids	25% of entries