All public and private middle and high schools in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area are invited to join!  WASDL is a membership-based organization.  The team coach must complete an application, approved by the school principal, to join the league.  The WASDL geographic boundaries encompass the District of Columbia, southern Maryland, and Northern Virginia.  Middle schools can compete either independently or as members of the high school they would normally feed into.  

WASDL administers tournaments in seven different speech and four different debate formats.  Schools can attend as many or as few tournaments as they wish. Visit our competition event page to learn more about the different formats offered.

WASDL requires each team to have a school-authorized adult on-site for the entirety of each tournament.  Usually this is the team coach, but school principals can authorize additional people to be the tournament-day chaperone.  These designated adults are there to address any student emergencies that may arise, such as an illness or accident.  Schools must also supply trained adult judges for each tournament, proportional to the number of student entries. 

Entry level membership dues are offered to schools that are joining for the first time or rejoining after an extended absence.  For subsequent years, dues scale based on the number of student entries for the previous year.  Annual dues cover tournament hosting costs, lunch for judges, and awards for students.