West Iowa District Qualifier

for the 2025 National Tournament

The West Iowa District Committee is excited to welcome you to the 2025 edition of our District Tournament, to be held at Johnston High School on Friday, February 14 (Speech) and Saturday, February 15 (PF/LD/CX). This tournament is your students' primary chance to qualify for the NSDA's National Speech and Debate Tournament, held right here in Des Moines, IA in June.

We would love to have as many students and judges entered as possible. Some events, such as Public Forum, are on the cusp of reaching numbers that will give us more than our standard two qualifiers per event. If you have students who are unsure whether they want to compete, give 'em that extra bit of motivation so they can get valuable experience alongside the district's top speakers and debaters. Remember you can only enter four entries per event — so if you have more than four entries who perform something, maybe encourage those kids to try something else for districts! Additionally, note that students must be fully paid members of the NSDA with at least 25 career points.

The tournament will have a fully catered judges' lounge both days. All fees go towards the operation of the District tournament, which includes hospitality, tournament hosting, and hired judges. Here is the relevant information for each day of the tournament:

Friday, February 14 (Speech)

• Events offered: Original Oratory, Informative, Dramatic Interp, Humorous Interp, Duo Interp, Program Oral Interp, United States Extemp, International Extemp
• Schedule: Round 1 will be at 4:00pm (extremp draw at 3:30pm). Rounds 2 & 3 will be at 5:30pm and 7:00pm, respectively. Any event with 8 or more entries will hold a final round at 8:30pm.
• Judging: One judge covers five entries of Speech. Remember: no first-year outs.
• Extemp: 2024 IFL Senior of the Year Charlie Timm will run extemp prep. We will post topic areas when they are decided.
• Finals: We anticipate most, if not all, divisions having a final round. Finals will be in front of a three-judge panel. Final rankings will be cumulative scores.
• Rules: Remember to review the NSDA Unified Manual for questions about script eligibility, public address/program sourcing, etc.

Saturday, February 15 (Debate)

• Events offered: Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, Policy
• Schedule: Round 1 will be at 8:00am. We will hold rounds every 75 minutes, accelerating if appropriate.
• Topics: Public Forum will use the February PF topic (Rome Statute/ICC). Lincoln-Douglas will use the January/February LD topic (UNCLOS/ICC). Policy will use the 2024-2025 NFHS topic (intellectual property).
• Format:
• Public Forum will have four preliminary rounds. All 3-1s or better will break. Then, it will be double elimination.
• Lincoln-Douglas will have four preliminary rounds. All 3-1s or better will break. Then, it will be single elimination.
• Policy will either be a Round Robin or will have the necessary number of prelims/elims based on entries.
• Judging: One judge covers two entries in all debate events. Remember: no first-year outs.

Saturday, March 29 (Congress)

We will be hosting our Congress national qualifier on Saturday, March 29 at Theodore Roosevelt High School in Des Moines. We are looking at a later start than normal (think around 10:00am) to accommodate schools that might be traveling. We will host House and Senate chamber and will break to finals chambers where appropriate. Right now, the plan is to rely on the Iowa Forensic League State Tournament (IFLs) docket for legislation, prioritizing bills submitted by West Iowa schools.

We are looking forward to seeing who will represent West Iowa at nationals this year. If you have questions/concerns, reach out to any member of the West Iowa committee (Jeremy Fitpatrick, Marissa Kuiken, Troy Greiner, Lydia Cowins, Parker Klyn). See you at Johnston!