On Friday, February 14, the Atlantic High School speech and debate team competed at the National Speech and Debate Association’s (NSDA) National Qualifier Tournament. The team competed over the course of three preliminary rounds and a final that evening.

At the end of the the four rounds, students were awarded points for competing, and the top two competitors in each category qualified for the national tournament. This year, the NSDA National tournament is hosted in Iowa for the 100 year anniversary of the organization, making the 2025 tournament the centennial celebration.

The Atlantic High School Speech and Debate Team had three national qualifiers at the tournament, including Alix Nath and Dean Cook in Humorous Interpretation, and Margaret McCurdy in Dramatic Interpretation. This was Nath and McCurdy’s third year qualifying for the tournament, and Cook’s first. The other competitors who didn’t qualify this weekend have additional chances to qualify at the last chance national qualifier tournament hosted online later this year, as well as the national qualifier for Congressional Debate held on March 29, 2025. Students including Nissa Molgaard and Bailey Grieshaber already plan on competing at the Congressional Debate national qualifier this March.

Humorous Interpretation qualifier Dean Cook said, “it was a very huge unexpected moment for me.” This is the first year Cook has qualified for the tournament. He said, “as a first time qualifier I was really excited.” Cook was excited because he was unsure of how he was going to place. “I was excited to the point where I ended up crying. Qualifying hit me very hard and it was honestly something I didn’t know I’d end up doing,” he said.

To find more information about the 2025 NSDA National tournament, follow this link