As the Head Captain of the Speech and Debate team here at Holy Family it is in my best interest to look towards the future and what our team must prepare for competition wise. There are three big tournaments that we as a team anticipate in the spring semester: 4A CHSAA State, NIETOC (National Individual Events Tournament of Champions), and the National Speech and Debate Tournament. Today I’ll be focusing on the preparation for the latter tournament, nationals.

First let’s take a look at what nationals exactly entails. The National Speech and Debate Tournament has promoted public speaking since its founding in 1931. Each summer, over 6,000 kids from middle and high schools across the globe participate in the world’s biggest intellectual competition, where they discuss current events, present their opinions, and share personal narratives. The top speakers will be crowned champions in front of thousands of spectators in person and tens of thousands more watching the events online, following months of preparation, demanding qualifying competitions, and five days of prestigious national competition.

This year the National Speech and Debate Tournament will be held in Des Moines, Iowa. While Iowa seems like, well for lack of a better word, a random place to hold this prestigious tournament, there is good reason. The National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) was founded in 1925, so next year we’ll have the 100 year anniversary of  the NSDA. So how does this relate to Iowa? Well the headquarters of the NSDA is located in Iowa so this years nationals is meant to be a test run of sorts so that it can be perfect for the 100 year celebrations.

So what does it take to go to nationals? Well in order to qualify you must attend your national qualifying tournament that’s held for your district. For each event the top two of that event qualify with whoever places 3rd or 4th being alternates should the winners choose not to go for whatever circumstances. Contrary to popular belief your placement at state has no correlation to your qualification to nationals, so you could potentially be a state champion in your event and have an off day for National Qualifiers and become an alternate. Unfortunately (or fortunately for some) that’s just the name of the game.

Now that we have covered what it the nationals is and how you get there, what is the HF team doing in preparation? Well first we have to know what event we want to qualify to nationals in and hone in on whatever that may be. Many members of the team double or triple enter in many events so hopefully you’ve attended enough tournaments to see which event your perform best in. For myself I perform best in Duo Interpretation and Congressional Debate, so I’m planning on trying to qualify for Duo because it’s not only my best event but the one I enjoy most. However, in order to get to a level that will make me top two in my district I have to compete as much as humanly possible and try and get as many coaching sessions with our lovely Coach Mrs. Smith.

Preparing for nationals is no easy feat, it isn’t meant to be. It takes a considerable amount of time, energy, and stamina. However, the benefits of fully throwing yourself into nationals prep hopefully gives the award of the intellectual experience of a lifetime.