Archived Minutes 

Louisiana High School Speech League

Spring Coaches Meeting

David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy--Lafayette

March 26, 2025

AGENDA

I. Welcome 7:00

II. Roll call 7:02

• Abbeville HS

• Acadiana HS

• Alexandria Senior High 

• Ascension Epscopal School 

• Benjamin Franklin High 

• Caddo Parish Magnet HS 

• Caldwell Parish HS

• Cecilia HS

• David Thibodaux HS 

• Dutchtown High 

• Episcopal School of Acadiana

• Isidore Newman HS 

• JPG 

• Kaplan HS 

• Lafayette HS 

• LSMSA

• MACA 

• Parkway High 

• Peabody Magnet

• St. Thomas More Catholic 

• St. Mary's Dominican HS 

• Teurlings Catholic HS 

III. Elections  7:07

a.  Council members (expiring terms:  Kasi McCartney, Alma Nicholson, Christopher Vincent) - all re-elected

IV.  Coach of the Year 7:10

1. 3 coaches nominated 

2. Megan Brousard elected by present members 

IV. New Business 7:18

A.  Split Oral Interp into Prose and Poetry events

1. Megan Brousard - gives more flexibility to coaches and allows for more entry fees for tournaments and matches the national format.

2. Barbara - takes up classroom space 

3. Jacob - easier to recruit new members because it simplifies it 

4. Scott - tournament host can decide to host events that aren't sanctioned for LHSSL. CFL still has them combined as a major event 

5. caters to student preferences to build teams 

6. Greg- makes it to where they are more limited in the total number of events that they can add. might decrease numbers in other events 

7. Kasi - separating at tournament level would affect sanctioning for TC

8. Barbara - rooms for tc would have to increase - limits possible hosts 

9. Scott - motion to propose a committee - seconded 

   1. Scott 

   2. Megan 

   3. Jacob 

   4. Macy 

   5. 
      

B.  Judge ratio for teams traveling to State 7:35

1. Martha Claire - cost prohibitive for traveling school 

2. Greg - this year is a pilot year. might work or not 

C.  Consider going back to rotating locations for State

1. Kasi - Combined with the above topic. Rotation needs to happen to offset traveling school cost of lodging 

2. Move to executive council to confirm rules 7:45pm 

D.  TC 2026 Location

E.  Tentative Tournament Calendar 2025-26 7:47

1. September 

2. October 

   1. 25th Ascension   IE’s and Duo 

3. November 

   1. 7-8 Tuerlings 

   2. 14- 15 JPG    Debate only 

   3. 14-15 Ascension IE only 

   4. 21-22 Abbeville IE Duo Congress 

4. December 

   1. 5 -6 Southside IE and Debate 

   2. 12 - 14 Newmand All IE, Debate, Congress, Worlds 

5. January 

   1. 9-10 ULL/LSU All events 

   2. 16-17            STM              All events except worlds 

   3. 23-24            Ben Franklin   All events and Congress 

   4. 30 - 31          Dutchtown      All events and Congress 

6. February 

   1. 6-7           Sophie B Wright All events 

   2. 6-7 Parkway All Events 

   3. 14                 Cecilia         speech only 

   4. 20 -21          Kaplan           speech and congress 

   5. 27-28         New Orleans Charter 

7. March 

   1. State last weekend 

V. Announcements  8:04

-David Thibodaux STEM Magnet Academy

Softball game tomorrow consider parking 

please reset anything moved 

saturday after the finals for IE has happened there is a college preview and 

seminars in POI and informative 

please remind students not to text in round

Louisiana High School Speech League

Fall Coaches Meeting

Southside High School

August  24, 2024

AGENDA

I. Welcome

A.  Introduction of Executive Council Members

II. Roll call

Abbeville High School

Alexandria Senior HS 

Fisher Middle/High School 

Bolton High School

Caddo Magnet High School

Caldwell Parish High School

Carencro High SChool 

Cecilia High School

Ascension Episcopal

The Delores Taylor Arthur School for Young Men

Episcopal School of Acadiana

Isidore Newman School

David thibodaux Stem magnet Academy

Kaplan High School

Lafayette High School

Zachary High School

Parkway High School

Peabody Magnet 

Southside High School

St. Mary's Dominican High School

St. Thomas More HS

Teurlings Catholic High School

III. Old Business

1. National Tournament Reports

   1. Lafayette CFL

      1. Report given by Scott Johnstone - 9:20am

      2. Dues have increased for national membership to $85 

      3. National tournament this year will be in Chicago memorial day weekend

      4. National tournament results report  

      5. In process of getting national tournament hosted by Lafayette

   2. New Orleans CFL - 9:30am

      1. Report given by Alma Nicholson 

      2. Meeting in september - email to come soon 

   3. NSDA - 9:32am

      1. Introduction of committee members

      2. 2024 nationals results

      3. Speech and debate week 

      4. Resources on website speechanddebate.org

      5. Springboard tournaments  

2. Committee Reports - 9:43am

   1. Inclusion of Middle Schools

      1. Report from Jacob Leger - 9:43am

      2. Suggestion of a middle school division of events at host tournaments 

         1. Oi, duo, impromptu, dec, policy and ld 

         2. Maybe saturday only - allow hs students to judge

      3. Middle school competition helps students succeed nationally

      4. Would ente

      5. r under middle school name - do not need to join lhssl

   2. Adding Informative as an Event - 9:57am

      1. Scott johnstone speaking on behalf of informative 

         1. Could be an event alternative for oratory competitors

         2. Proposal to adopt rules set by NSDA 

      2. Do not have to have a visual aid 

      3. Motion to add as a sanction event at LHSSL and state tournament 

         1. Motion seconded 

         2. Vote 18-0 passes 

   3. TC Judging Quota Committee - moved to new business area

3. Tabled Discussion - 10:05 am

   1. Change of TC qualification requirements

      1. Recap of tc qualifications post covid  - Craig Wall 

      2. Discussion in the spring was to up requirements post covid 

      3. Committee report - Massey Hammons

         1. Proposal to use the AFA qualifications system 

            1. Anytime students enter the event there is an opportunity to qualify for state if the event has 2 competitors. 

            2. Must get a 2 legs in an event  that add to a total of 5 or less to qualify  - different leg amounts based on entry size for event 

            3. Must enter in 2 tournaments min to qualify for state

      4. Could still use the free entry system from pre-covid with the new system  -  Greg Malis 

      5. Is the proposal a temporary or permanent move? - Megan Broussard 

      6. Why go to more tournaments if you already qualify? - Scott Johnstone

         1.  could use this system to do seeding for state tournament   

      7. Chris Vincent - number of tournaments offering debate make it hard for debaters to qualify under proposed system 

      8. Greg Malis - suggestion of different system for debate than for speech and leave debate to be decided later Greg Malis - allows for more total events to happen at a tournament bc now small events can still qual for state 

      9. Motion to adopt system for speech qualifications at state - Kasi McCartney 

         1. 2nd - Megan Broussard

         2. Vote passed 19-0-0

   IV. New Business

4. Proposed Changes to State Tournament - 10:22 am report Greg Malis

   1.  Replace Judge Bond with Fine System

      1. Fine wouldn't have to be for a set person. In theory schools could swap in advance 

   2.  Elimination of increased judge requirements for “local schools”

      1. Raising the cap instead of eliminating as an alt 

   3. Motion to move the judge bond and move to fine - Rex Jones

      1. 2nd

      2. 18 -0-0 passes

   4. Motion to form a committee to evaluate ratios for the state tournament with a December 1 deadline 

      1. 2nd 

      2. Vote 20-0-1 passes 

   5. Codifying current number of Preliminary rounds

      1. Recommend a motion to codify the current rounds at state as 4 rounds of debate and 3 of speech 

      2. 2nd

      3. Vote 16-0-5 passes 

   6. Volunteers for judge committee 

      1. Chris, Jacob, Rex, Martha Claire, Blake 

5. Tournament Schedule 2024-2025 - 11:00am

*Based on tournament notifications submitted online by Wednesday, Aug. 21

October

10/12 -10/14   DTA Debate only 100% online

   10/25-10/26 Teurlings Catholic All events/Novice and Advanced

November

11/2 MACA speech only no congress 

11/8-11/9 David Thibodaux Novice/Advanced Speech and Debate 

Events and middle school in every event

Congress

11/15-11/16 John Paul the Great Debate Only - combined with ESA speech

ESA speech combo with JPG and congress

11/22-11/23 Abbeville High Speech events/Congress add middle school

December

12/6 - 12/7 Southside All events and middle school congress

12/13-12/15 Isidore Newman All Speech Events

    Congress

Novice/Advanced LD

Novice/Advanced PF

        Novice/Advanced Policy

  World Schools

January

1/10 -1/11 ASH Backup

1/17-1/18 St.Thomas More All Events Congress and middle school

1/24-1/25 Ben Franklin All Events except Policy

1/24-1/25 Peabody Magnet OO, Novice Ext, Impromptu, Info

  NLD/ALD/NCX/ACX  - all events

     1/31 - 2/1     Dominican All events, january topic, congress

February

2/8 Cecilia speech only

2/21-2/22 Kaplan Congress friday and IE/duo Saturday, ms fri

    March

3/7-3/8 Lafayette CFL District Teurlings?

New Orleans CFL District

               3/21 - 3/22 NSDA District New Orleans?

     3/27-3/29     LHSSL State Championship           DTSMA or Southside 

V. Announcements

1. Reminders - 11:30am

   1. All LHSSL dues and paperwork to Kasi McCartney by September 12, 2024

   2. Congressional Debate legislation 

   3. $8 IE entry and $16 Debate Entry

   4. Blake Ziegler as Clerk of Congress  - Blakeziegler.debate@gmail.com

   5. Judge training for multicultural biases - Blake 

      1. NSDA and NFHS have online training 

      2. Tabroom setting to prevent judges for entering tournament without training

Meeting Adjourned - 11:35am

Spring Coaches Meeting Minutes - April 3, 2024 @ St. Thomas More