Permission slips required!!! Please print on line off the blog under parent resources. The name of the tournament is All Iowa Finals. Be sure you sign the form as a parent even if your student is 18!!!
Should something happen, the University police will want to see a travel permission slip.
All Iowa finals are hosted by the University of Iowa Debate program and have been with the exception of last year for 85 years. It is the traditional state championships in both Speech and Debate. These two, combined with IHSSA State debate represent the trifecta of championships in Iowa.
We will take a charter bus from Roosevelt on March 6th leaving apx 10am and the bus will return to Roosevelt apx nine pm on Sat night. We will also have a backup expedition for late stragglers. We are sharing the bus with Des Moines Lincoln who will take 14 of the 48 seats. Two of our students will come down on Friday am (still need a driver) for debate only. Seven of our students will return on late Friday afternoon (need drivers) so they aren't stuck waiting for debate to end to come back to Des Moines.
Hotel: We will stay at the Iowa House Hotel which is inside Memorial Union on the campus. This works well for our kids in that they have full campus access and hotel access during the tournament.
Meals: Students will have access to the downtown restaurants in Iowa City. They are not allowed to go by themselves but rather must be in groups of threes and have texted a coach of their departure off campus before they go off campus. The downtown Iowa City core is along the east side of the campus-just a five to 10 minute walk from the union.
Tournament: Is all over the campus but mainly confined to the Old Capitol area and the area from the Union south to the English-philosophy building and the Journalism School.
Costs: We project this trip comes in between $125-135 per student for two nights out and bus fare.
Students were told today to advise me if $$ is an issue and will reduce the price for them as best as the program can afford to do so. Otherwise, the cost is expected to be the above.
Expectations: Because we are on a college campus there are some extra rules for the students, all of which were covered today in our team meeting. We will cover them again next team meeting. Students who violate rules will have their parents called to be picked up.
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Younger students can feel the pressure of this event. Encourage them to relax and do their thing to the best of their ability. We've had freshmen win state championships and seniors have their hearts broken by not advancing from prelims. You never know what will happen. But it is entirely possible we will have a younger student shock the world and win a state title.
Coaches have handicapped the field of entries and believe we have chances to win both tournaments but it takes everyone contributing what they can in sweep points to make it happen. We will practice late each night after school and this weekend as follows:
Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 12-5 in the library.
