As happened a few years ago, State IHSSA Debate may have to be re-scheduled due to weather. The debate committee has a scheduled phone conference with the tournament directors at 3:45pm on Thursday to further plan implementation of such a move (if needed). A final decision will not be reached until Friday am when we see for certain the timing of the storm coming toward the metro.
In the year it was re-scheduled it went the following week to the Iowa site scheduled for that week which happened to be Iowa City West. This year there is NO scheduled Iowa tournament that fits the calendar of events. Because this is an Association hosted event-it must conform to the master high school schedule which includes music, speech, debate and athletics. It needs to be run the next weekend.
Thus, the association began a search for a potential backup site that has sufficient rooms and ability to host the weekend of January 17-18th. Roosevelt was contacted as a potential site and our administration accepted hosting if that is what needs to happen.
While that presents some challenges and likely brings Valley back into the tournament, it also saves an additional travel trip as happened to us a couple of years ago. When we had one week to get hotel rooms in Iowa City and charter a bus-the costs exceeded $3000 to the program. So, if need be, we would host to save the $3000 or whatever the travel costs might be AND run concessions to profit from the tournament. The association would allow us to collect all concession profits.
No doubt several other schools have been contacted for the same reasons. I can tell you it won't be Lincoln or East and not likely Dowling. Thus, I believe the only likely candidates in the metro will be Valley and us. Since Valley hosted All Iowa Finals last year on short notice-I have little doubt it would be us.
