Ankeny is hosting the first novice night of the year tomorrow evening after school. We will leave from room 1290 about 3:15, drive to Ankeny and return to Roosevelt by 9:15pm. Students will either get two or three rounds of debate against other novice students depending upon their event. I will be driving from Roosevelt, and a number of upperclassmen will drive as well because they will help judge the tournament. Coach Nate will drive from Scavo so he cannot take students.
Parents: If you are uncomfortuable with your students riding with a junior or senior driving to Ankeny, then I need more parent drivers. If you make the trip--you might as well get your feet wet judging in PF as well!
Food will be for sale by Ankney debate parents.
There is no pressure on your students to win a round of debate. They will be nervous, unsettled and otherwise out of sorts before the tournament. Generally they will be laughing about it when they come back from the event. After tomorrow night, novice nights will be nothing to worry about ever again.
Some of our novices are also in action on Friday night and Saturday at Northern Iowa. We will be staying at the Clarion Inn in Cedar Falls overnight Friday night. The cost of the trip will come in around $65 per student. Both Coach Nate and I will be driving and your student will be with us. High school students do not drive out of town for competition (except for Indianola). We will need a signed permission slip for each student.
They will also need $$ for food Friday night and during the day Saturday and dinner Saturday night when we return. We should be back in Des Moines around 10:30 Saturday night.
We will be leaving Friday after first block of the day....this means, yes, your student will MISS classes the rest of Friday. I will handle the excused abscense to compete. Do NOT call them in as absent on Friday. Once in a while the attredance office screws something up and you might get a call on Monday about the abscence--but usually it is not a problem. Again coaches handled attendance per DMPS guidelines.
Finally in both cases, Tuesday and Saturday, you will be able to pick up your students in the North parking lot (Chamberlain street) on our return. PLEASE do not make us wait for your arrival. We will provide a 20 minute notice of our arrival to give you time to get there. Coaches have a long day or weekend when we compete--waiting for parents only adds to our day as we still have to return rental vehicles, etc. We will not leave Roosevelt until all students have been picked up.
