• ABOUT
  • RESULTS
    • 22/23 TOURNAMENT RESULTS
    • NSDA DEGREES
    • UKTOC BIDS
  • HISTORY
  • TOURNAMENTS
    • SCHEDULE
  • TEAM
    • TEAM HANDBOOK
  • COACHES
  • ALUMNI
  • CAVALIER INVITATIONAL
  • ABOUT
  • RESULTS
    • 22/23 TOURNAMENT RESULTS
    • NSDA DEGREES
    • UKTOC BIDS
  • HISTORY
  • TOURNAMENTS
    • SCHEDULE
  • TEAM
    • TEAM HANDBOOK
  • COACHES
  • ALUMNI
  • CAVALIER INVITATIONAL
DA SPEECH & DEBATE

2017-2018 weekly updates

Week of august 14th

8/15/2017

2 Comments

 
Good Evening Students, Parents & Coaches:
 
I write to you this evening speechless.  The events over the past 7 days have left us all confused, scared, and upset.  The rhetoric surrounding both North Korea and Charlottesville are forcing us to ask fundamental questions about our society and our values as Americans.  In these times, it is easy to get caught up in the 24-hour news cycle, the tweets, the protests, and the talking heads.  It is easy to be quick to judgement, quick to discredit, and quick to polarize.  It is easy to lose touch with who we are.
 
Even in the wake of these ongoing events, it is important to ground ourselves in our resolve as members of a community that centers itself around morality, happiness and productivity.  This evening I found myself reading Lee Hark’s “The Durham Academy Graduate: A Mission-Driven Life,” in the Summer Edition of the DA Magazine.  In his writing, he writes: 

Defining what we meant by wanting our graduates to be moral, happy, productive people and how that manifested itself in the daily lived experience of 1,200 students ranging in age from 4 to 18 constituted the bulk of our discussions.  It wasn’t an easy task.  What qualities would we identify as universally important, regardless of the age, stage or tenure of a student? After innumerable debates on meanings, connotations and implications of words, we identified the following as the shared characteristics of a moral, happy and productive Durham Academy graduate.  While “portrait of a graduate” is a title widely used by other schools, the word “portrait” itself felt too static, too fixed in time, and not future-oriented.  The group wanted a tittle that would imply that student were hopefully infused with these characteristics while at DA, but also that we are just as interested and invested in the adults they will become and the citizens they will be as well are we are when they are our students.  In the end, “The Durham Academy Graduate: A Mission-Driven life” seemed to capture all of those elements: a sense of striving, a set of characteristics that spoke to every division and values our alumni would carry with them throughout their lives.
 
One word stuck out to me: integrity.  Out of the 15 characteristics highlighted above, integrity is the only one that is also one of the core values of the National Speech and Debate Association.  All of these values are important, but I was moved by this writing from the NSDA on the significance of integrity:
​
Members recognize that integrity is central to earning the trust, respect, and support of one’s peers.  Integrity encompasses the highest regard for honesty, civility, justice and fairness.
 
As members of the NSDA - as members of the DA community – as Americans – we must focus on preserving and exhibiting our integrity.  What we do in this activity is critically important to the development of our character.  From the PFer who is reading the news coming out of the Korean Peninsula with anticipation - to the Interp Student threading their piece in order to share their voice – we must have integrity.  From the Extemper who is wading through countless news sites in order to find articles that are focused on analysis, and not histrionics - to the LDer who is determining whether or not we have a moral obligation to serve our nation – we must have integrity.
 
Every event that we participate in is about encouraging some element of civil discourse that our citizenship demands of us.  It is about developing our ability to speak to one another – no matter how much we don’t see eye to eye.  It is about sharing not only our own voice, but the voice of those who are voiceless.  It is about exhibiting the highest resolve of moral character, of happiness and joy, and of drive and resilience.  Every event that we participate in pushes us to exhibit and exude the characteristics of a mission-driven life.  Every moment of our time in this activity demands integrity.
 
This year, we will be tested.  We will question ourselves.  We will have to lean on each other.  We will understand what the true strength of our family is.  But, we will have integrity.  We will have integrity because this activity grooms us to function with honesty, civility, justice and fairness.  We will have integrity because our DA community demands it of us.  We will have integrity - because more than anything else - it is what we need now. 
 
Crawford
 
Week of August 14th Announcements
  • SENIORS: Please RSVP for Senior Retreat via email if you haven’t done so.  That event is Wednesday, August 23rd at 4:00PM.
    • I have RSVPs from Bhamini, Thomas, Olivia, Jeanne, Sarah, Hebron
  • Meeting for ALL Returning Members will occurThursday, August 24th at 3:45PM
  • All members must resubmit your information on the team website if you haven’t already done so this summer.
  • Information Sessions for New Members will be:
    • September 5th at 3:45PM
    • September 6th at 6:00PM
    • September 7th at 3:45PM
  • Signups are due THIS FRIDAY (Friday, August 18th) for these tournaments:
    • If I have a pending application from you, you are listed next to the tournament
    • Grapevine (Thomas/Hebron)
    • Yale (Davi, Emily D)
    • Laird Lewis at Myes Park (Thomas/Hebron, Luci/Shan, Andrew/Adriana)
    • Holy Cross (Emily K)
    • If you want to go to any of these tournaments, you must sign up by the EOD on Friday the 18th.
2 Comments

Welcome back!

8/5/2017

0 Comments

 
​Hello Everyone!
 
I want to be one of the first to welcome you back to Durham Academy.  I can let you know that campus is buzzing waiting for your return in the coming weeks.  As the school starts to prepare for the beginning of the school year, the Speech and Debate coaches are quickly preparing for the beginning of the season.  You’ll find a large amount of important information in this email.  Please make sure that you look throughout the entire email.
 
Returning Members
We will host a meeting for all returning members on Thursday, August 24th at 3:45PM.  Location is TBD.  Please make sure that you are putting it on your calendar.  If you are involved in other activities, please let those coaches know that you have this obligation.  This meeting will go over the new Speech & Debate Handbook as well as a general overview of the year, coach introductions, preparation for information sessions, and discussion of the practice and tournament schedule.  
 
Prior to that meeting, each returning member needs to go to the website to resubmit their information at this website: http://www.dadebate.com/team-signup.html
 
If you are not returning to the team for the 2017-2018 year, please respond to this email with “Unsubscribe,” and I will have your removed from our mailing list, and our incessant email nagging will cease.
 
Information Sessions
We will be hosting three information sessions for new team members.  They will occur:
  • September 5th at 3:45PM
  • September 6th at 6PM
  • September 7th at 3:45PM
In the coming weeks, we will be emailing out invitations to these meetings to the Parents of the Class of 2021, the Class of 2021, and the Classes of 2018, 2019 and 2020.  If you know anyone that is interested in joining the team, you should recommend that they come to one of these information sessions.  They need to only attend one.
 
Practice Schedule
We have created a temporary practice schedule.  This still will be subject to tweaks as we look at availability in the coming weeks. I’m already considering adding an LD session to that Thursday Evening practice.  This is the current draft:
  • Monday Afternoon – LD (Leavoy), PF (Siegel), EXT (Leech), INT (Harris)
  • Tuesday Afternoon – LD (Leavoy)
  • Wednesday Afternoon – CON (Leavoy), PF (Welty)
  • Thursday PM – CON (Leavoy), PF (Welty/Siegel), EXT (Leech)
If you have serious concerns about this schedule, please email me so that we can know if there are significant scheduling conflicts.
 
Team Communications
In an effort to streamline communications, the following will happen this year:
  • Day-to-Day Communications will move to Slack 
  • Announcement (Travel and Emergency) will move to Remind
  • Newsletters (General Announcements & Results) will still come via Email.
 
We will be releasing the Slack signup information at the Returning Members Meeting.  
 
For both students and parents, you should join Remind by texting “@dadebate” to 81010.  If you have issues with 81010, please text “@dadebate” to 919-238-6906.  
 
2017 -2018 Tournaments
We have released the tentative schedule to http://www.dadebate.com/schedule.html
 
There are some important things to know in regards to changes for the 2017-2018 School Year!
 
  1. In an effort to get travel arrangements to you faster, we are significantly moving up deadlines for travel tournaments. Signups for all Fall Semester travel tournaments now have hard deadlines.
    1. Due on August 18th
  2. Grapevine
  3. Yale Invitational
  4. Laird Lewis at Myers Park
  5. Holy Cross
    1. Due on September 22nd
  6. East Carteret
  7. Florida Blue Key
  8. Apple Valley
  9. Glenbrooks
  10. Isidore Newman
    1. Due on November 9th
  11. George Mason University
  12. Arizona State University
  13. These deadlines will not be extended.  
  14. If you signup, you are obligated to attend.  
  15. If you cancel, you are responsible to pay for all expenses and any associated fees.  You will also be unable to signupfor the next block of tournaments.
  16. For the first time, the Coaches have written some thoughts on the upcoming tournaments requiring signups so that you may plan:
    1. Grapevine – Suggested for PF, LD and Congress.  Speech is welcome, but rounds are limited (2 prelims straight to Semis)
    2. Myers Park – Suggested for PF and Speech students
    3. Yale – Suggested for LD, Congress and “serious” Speech students
    4. Holy Cross – Suggested for PF, LD and Speech
    5. E. Carteret – Suggested for all those interested in qualifying to NCFLs in May
    6. Blue Key – Suggested for all events
    7. Apple Valley – Open only to LD, PF and Congress (Suggested for those wanting to prep for Glenbrooks)
    8. Glenbrooks – Suggested for all events
    9. Newman – Suggested for all events
    10. GMU – Suggested for all events
    11. ASU – Suggested for all events 
  17. Based off of your individual goals, I’m happy to consult with you about what a plan is for the year.  Just email me to set up a time to talk.
 
Tournament Tiers
You’ll also notice that there is a now a column called “T”.  This is because we are creating tournament “tiers.”  This is to help get coaches, students and parents get on the same page about expectations for tournaments.
There are 5 Tiers:
  • Local - Local tournament; same day; open to anyone; Free to $15 (At practice minimum of one time week of tournament; respectable independent work)
  • Extended - Localish tournament; one night overnight; open to anyone; $50 to $99 (At practice minimum of one time week of tournament; respectable independent work)
  • Tier 3 – Driving Regional Circuit; one or two nights overnight; open to anyone; $100 to $300 (At practice minimum of one time each week for two weeks prior to the tournament; reasonable independent work)
  • Tier 2 – Flying Regional Circuit or Small National Circuit; one or two nights overnight; open to limited spots; $301 to $600 (At practice minimum of two times each week for two weeks prior to the tournament; moderate independent work)
  • Tier 1 – Largest National Circuit; multiple nights overnight; limited spots; $601 to $800 (At practice as much as possible month of tournament; significant independent work)
 
Cavalier Invitational
We will host the 4th Annual Cavalier Invitational on January 13th and 14th.  
This is a required activity for all team members.  
Please put it on your calendar now.  
 
International Public Policy Forum
This year, we will attempt to field teams for the Brewer Foundation’s International Public Policy Forum.  Participants have the opportunity to win $10,000 in scholarship money.  We are internal process however.  All interested team members need to apply via the website (http://www.dadebate.com/international-public-policy-forum-debates.html) by September 18th.  The coaching staff will form teams, and work with members to prepare for competition.  
 
Questions or Concerns
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact me at crawford.leavoy@da.org.  I’m looking forward to a great year, and cannot wait to see all of you!
 
Crawford Leavoy
Director of Speech & Debate
Durham Academy
0 Comments

    Archives

    August 2017


​durham academy
speech & debate team