Western Oklahoma NFL

From the District Chair 
October 08-09 Newsletter #1

West OK District Chair Newsletter

 Greetings to all Western OK NFL Coaches and squads, especially the number of schools joining us for the first time!  We are all already in the opening throes of this year’s competitive season.  Hope all of you are taking time to be good to yourselves and spend some rare time with family and friends.  Contact me at eballard@norman.k12.ok.us throughout the year for additional help and news.  Please refer to the following items for NFL information:

1)      National NFL Information:  Please pay your $99 yearly dues to the national office ASAP so you can get put on the district listing with the national office.  Remember if you are an affiliate or chapter, you can receive FREE DVDs of the national finals in all 3 Interp events.  Just fill out the form “Licensing Agreement,” send it in to national office, and they will send you the 3 DVDs for FREE.  You can also purchase other DVDs and/or CDs of the other events’ finals.  These, along with other features at nflonline.org are valuable teaching tools.  If you are confused about the difference between Duo Interp and HD/DD, WATCH THE FINAL DVD.

2)      West OK NFL Information: 

a)      Money:  your school’s yearly dues are $50, payable to West OK NFL, not the national office.  You will also be billed for a “surcharge” for each 25 increment of memberships/degrees over 50.  Many schools have already paid—thanks!  I will send you a bill later in the year, but you can estimate the amount now and submit your PO in advance to your financial department.  This money goes to pay college judges at District, buy our Burton coaching award, pay for extemp topics service at District, and pay for our program ad in the national program.  Last year West OK won outstanding program ad!

b)      Dates/places:  our District Congress is scheduled for March 7, 2009, at Bishop McGuiness in OKC.  Jana Harrison from Edmond North will be the clerk of Congress.  Bills and PO resumes will be due to her by Friday, Feb. 6, 2009.  You can give them to her personally at the Norman High contest on that day, or send them electronically.  Do not assume she received the bills electronically unless she sends you an e-confirmation.  Her e-mail address will be sent in a later newsletter.

Our District tournament is scheduled for April 2,3,4, 2009 at the Forum Building at OU.  You will need to send me FIRM numbers for each event by Saturday, March 14.  These numbers CANNOT decrease.  I will need to plan for #s qualifying and will be contacting those who have not brought their full quota to bring more.  Do NOT bring fewer than you say you will in each event by March 14.  I will need FIRM names by Thursday, March 26, 2009.  This will be during my spring break, so you will need to send the names to my home e-mail, kiko01@earthlink.net.

c)      entry procedures:  remember, these are different from OSSAA contests.  All entrants must have 25 points on record and be entered as an NFL member one week before the tournament, i.e. by March 26, 2009.  Your entry numbers are keyed to your total number of memberships and degrees.  Check the national website for the number you are allowed to bring.  You may enter only 4 students or 4 teams MAXIMUM in each of the offered events (LD, CX, Public Forum Debate, FX, DX, OO, Duo Interp, HI, DI).  Students may enter only 1 team event.  Students may enter 2 events MAXIMUM.  Students double entered must sign a “Letter of Intent,” as they may take only 1 event to nationals.  I will need Interp material titles with your students’ names when you make your entry.  You must bring your original book/magazine with you to registration for interp entrants.  You must bring an OO to file at registration.  Your extemp students will be offered 3 topics from which to choose per round, and we will have cross-examination in the finals of both extemp events.  We will have 2 prelim rounds in everything with 1 judge, using 3 judges for Round 3 and beyond.  The tentative schedule is available upon request.  It is the same one we have used for years.  All events take place all 3 days.