Tournaments Held
Member Schools
Students Attended the NCFL National Tournament
Students Participated in at Least one Tournament
Founded in 1952, the Washington Area Speech and Debate League (WASDL) has a rich history of serving students across the region, originally known as WCFL and then WACFL. Today, WASDL operates as a 501(c)(3) non-profit, all-volunteer organization dedicated to assisting in the development of articulate leaders and promoting speech and debate activities.
We are the local league of the NCFL, serving all public and private middle and high schools in the greater Washington, D.C., Metropolitan area. Our mission is to provide an invaluable activity for students in grades 7-12, helping them develop essential, lifelong skills in critical thinking, confident communication, and research.
We run a series of competitive tournaments most Saturdays from October through March. Students competing at WASDL events are eligible to earn points in the National Speech and Debate Association (NSDA) Honor Society. Annual dues are paid by member schools, and we work hard to keep these costs low so that any interested school can participate. Middle schools can compete independently or as part of their affiliated high school program.
Speech and Debate is for everyone. Please encourage your student to join their school’s team today! If your school doesn’t have a team, WASDL is here to help you form one. Contact us to get started!
WASDL offers four styles of Debate and seven styles of Speech. We hold five preliminary tournaments in each event on Saturdays from October through February. At these, students can qualify to compete at the WASDL Metropolitan Championship (MetroFinal) Tournaments held in late February and early March. Metro Finals determine which students will represent WASDL at the NCFL Grand National Tournament, held over Memorial Day weekend each year. Our league operates independently, but its geographic boundaries align with those of the two major regions in our service area. These two regions compete together at WASDL preliminary tournaments but qualify and compete separately at MetroFinals. WASDL is an all-volunteer organization with no paid staff. The Executive Committee, comprising the coach or adult representative from each member school, meets in person twice annually, in September and May. Tournaments are managed by the WASDL Executive Council, which consists of 13 members elected by the Executive Committee.
