A New Competition Opportunity - ASDA
DFW Speech and Debate has provided coaching for every major high-school speech and debate league over the last fifteen years. We’ve watched leagues grow, and observed with excitement as our students are given new opportunities to compete and excel. Today, we’d like to highlight a new opportunity: The American Speech and Debate Association
As some of our members may remember, DFWSD once launched its own league (Veritas Forensics Association) in an effort to better serve groups of students who didn’t fit naturally into the traditional offerings provided by public, private and home-school leagues. We strongly believe the skills taught through speech and debate help shape strong thinkers and persuasive speakers ready to change the world by persuasively defending the truth. ASDA brings a similar vision, and is focused on providing conversational-style speech and debate competitions open to everyone who qualifies for their eligibility criteria (which will be most high-school aged students).
ASDA’s first competition is coming up November 11-12, located in Lewisville TX at Founders Classical Academy. Click on the button below to download their official flier - although we’d like to highlight a few benefits for our students in particular:
ASDA is offering TP and LD using the NCFCA resolutions, making this a great early-season practice opportunity for NCFCA students.
ASDA is offering several core speech categories ubiquitous across multiple leagues - meaning this is fantastic venue for sharpening speeches early in the year.
ASDA membership is inexpensive at $25, and even less expensive for cross-affiliated families.
Affiliating with ASDA will earn you a discount code for significant discounts on DFW Speech and Debate curriculum/sourcebooks!
We’re excited to welcome a new league into the speech and debate space, and are excited to assist families interested in affiliating. We encourage our families to view ASDA as a complement to other established leagues, and an opportunity to continue refining critical soft skills.
For everyone’s convenience, we’ve copied some of ASDA’s Frequently Asked Questions below for reference:
Question: What are the rules for the events?
Answer: Event rules can be found in the handbook. Please note that rules will look very familiar to NCFCA families although there are a couple differences. There is a new speech type called "Values & Faith." Interps can use original source material. The most notable difference is that ASDA offers fewer speech types due to limited tournament schedule. Debate events are practically identical to NCFCA rules and resolutions.
Question: What is the tournament schedule?
Answer: Friday 5pm-9pm two rounds of debate/ Saturday 8am-9pm 4 rounds of debate and 3 rounds of speech (including outrounds). Please note that there is also an impromptu intensive class on Friday night designed to teach novices an effective way to approach impromptu speaking.
Question: Do I have to affiliate with ASDA?
Answer: Yes. Affiliation is inexpensive ($25). If you are already affiliated with another league such as NCFCA, STOA, Ziggy, etc, your affiliation fee is deeply discounted. Cross-affiliates only pay $10 for affiliation with ASDA
Question: What do I get if I win?
Answer:
* Recognition at the tournament
* Invitation to compete in ASDA Nationals in the spring
* Cash prizes for top 3 competitors in each category (up to $100 each)
Question: If I cannot come to this event, will there be additional ASDA events?
Answer: Yes! We will have tournaments each month. Some will be in person and some online. There will be tournaments in several locations throughout the country. Check the Tournament Calendar page regularly for more information as it becomes available. https://www.americanspeech.org/tournament-calendar/