This weekend, the AHS Speech and Debate team took four congressional debaters to the Iowa High School Speech Association (IHSSA) state debate tournament. The students competed over the course of Friday, January 10, and Saturday, January 11, 2025.

AHS Debaters competed against 88 other students in congressional debate at the tournament. On the final day of the competition, these students were divided into four chambers, marked A, B, C, and D. Bailey Grieshaber broke to Chamber A, Nissa Molgaard broke to Chamber B, Alix Nath broke to Chamber C, and Hope Mathis broke to Chamber D.

This year was the second year sophomore Bailey Grieshaber competed at the IHSSA State Debate Tournament. “That was really exciting. It made me feel really really good about how I had been doing,” Grieshaber said. Previously, Grieshaber had competed in Public Forum Debate alongside senior Alix Nath, however this year both students are competing in congress for this tournament. Grieshaber said, “I chose to do congress this year because i was thinking I’d have some better luck in Congress.” Grieshaber broke to A house at the tournament and, “making it to A house was crazy and I got a plaque.” She said, “I’ve never gotten a plaque before, I thought it was so cool.”

This was the first year that sophomore Hope Mathis competed at the IHSSA State Debate Tournament. Mathis was “excited” about competing at this tournament, and feels that, “I could have done a bit better. However, I still had fun and really enjoyed the experience.” Mathis enjoyed the group’s trip to Perkins after the first day of competition. She said, “I chose to compete at state debate because I thought it would be a fun experience and it was really fun.”

Coach Trisha Koenig has been coaching speech and debate for 13 years, with this being her first year coaching alone. “I think we’ve had some really good success. I’m excited to see new people coming to the program.” Koenig said. She has been working with the students to prepare for the tournament. “I love that we took four students and they represented us well,” Koenig said. She is proud of how her students did. “I like to see the growth, no matter what the rankings end up being.”