Attached is a document, “Debate Schools for 2018-19.pdf,” that captures current information that we have in the League office regarding Debate participation. Broken down by classification – recall Classes 1-3 are combined this year, highlighted schools are those that we have on record as completing the Debate Rules Clinic, and thus we anticipate participating in the upcoming championships. If your school is not highlighted and intends to participate, please contact us (dwilson@vhsl.org and scondoulis@vhsl.org) so that we may update the list. If your school is missing for some reason, and intends to participate, please let us know that as well. This would be particularly relevant in the Class 1-3, and Class 4 groupings.

Hosting?

If you will be hosting a Region or Super Region, please forward that information (dwilson@vhsl.org and scondoulis@vhsl.org) as soon as it is decided so that the hosting guide can be updated, and we can prepare hosting kits. For the combined Class 1-3, we currently have proposals from Turner Ashby to host the Central Region and potentially the Central/North Super Region; and from Brookville to host the South Region. We need sites for West and North, and for West/South Super Region. If you are willing to host, please contact the League office.

Advancement

Please be aware that while we are committed to Regions making the decisions related to how schools advance toward the state championships from sectional, region or super region; it is important to point out that representation at State should be considered fully when making those decisions. In Debate, the number of participants per classification at the state level are as follows:

Policy 6
Lincoln-Douglas 8
Student Congress 24
Public Forum 6
In a Super Region advancement model, those numbers have been achieved by advancing 3 Policy, 4 LD, 12 Congress, and 3 PF from each Super Region. If the decision is made to advance to state directly from a Region and not hold a Super Region with a paired Region, discussions should be conducted with that paired Region to determine advancement. LD and Congress should be easy given the even numbers – 2 LD and 6 Congress from each Region – and should work. However, Policy and PF are odd numbers between two Regions. The paired Regions could send 1 each of Policy and PF, or a combination of 1 from one Region and 2 from the other. This could be for both styles of debate, or could alternate (Region A 1 Policy, 2 PF; Region B 2 Policy, 1 PF); however the Regions involved wish to decide to send their representatives. If there are any issues, please contact Darrell Wilson at the League office.

State Championship Date and Location

After much discussion and research, the currently published State Championship dates of April 19 and 20, 2019 will remain for this coming season at Randolph-Macon College.