Entering multiple tournaments and even having a student advance to Nationals, Atlantic High School’s speech and debate program has been speeding along its tournament season. The team has attended multiple new tournaments this year. Speech coach Alex Bales said, “It’s been a pretty solid year so far. I just hope to get more kids involved.” For the past four years, the program has been able to send two or three students to Nationals each season. This year, junior Troy Roach managed to achieve this feat with his individual piece. He and junior Genevieve Martinez also participated in the contest as a duo, earning the first-alternate position for the National competition. At the contest, which was held Saturday, Feb. 15 in Johnston, seniors Aly Brockob and Zach McKay entered as a duo as well.

Competitions for speech and debate are judged in two different ways, depending on which category the contest falls under. Debate tournaments have three to four rounds with a different judge each time. Meanwhile, IHSSA–the Iowa High School Speech Association–tournaments have a singular judge at Districts and three at State for a final rating. The National-qualifying competition is through the NSDA, or the National Speech and Debate Association. Roach and Martinez’s duo placed first in rounds one and two against four other entries. Round three, however, was a tie for 2nd place. “So it was very close,” Martinez said. Their role as first-alternate allows them to take the place of the winners going to Nationals, if said winners are for some reason unable to attend.

The piece they had selected was from “She Kills Monsters.” It involved the main character struggling through the trauma of losing their sister in a car crash. The piece then shows the character adapting the sister’s lifestyle and getting involved with “Dungeons and Dragons.” Martinez said they chose the piece due to its interesting characters and switches that “inspired us to do a lot of creative blocking.” The blend of a serious emotional backstory with funny elements “sold the piece for us.” With a ten-minute time constraint, they began to cut down the story into something that held the original aspect of it while still remaining within the time limit.

Nationals will be held in Albuquerque, N.M. from Sunday, June 14 to Friday, June 19.