Jack Humphrey and Skyler Algiere represented the St. Francis High School Debate team at the 2025 National Speech & Debate Tournament in Des Moines in June. A total of 6,700 students from 1,500 schools around the nation participated in the event.
“(The experience) was amazing,” Humphrey said. “I got to debate against students from 19 different states. Meaning, I got to see all the different styles from 19 states of Debate from these students and had fun adapting my debating on the spot to better compete against my fellow Representatives.”
“It was eye-opening,” Algiere said. “Many competitors from big states, like Texas and California, debated similarly, while competitors from smaller states debated somewhat ‘unorthodox’ compared to what I’m used to.”
Both students competed in the category of Congressional Debate: House, which totaled more than 430 competitors. Humphrey finished fourth in his preliminary round to earn a spot in the quarterfinals, which narrowed the field to 144 competitors. He placed 16th in his quarterfinal group. Algiere placed 11th of 18 in his preliminary group.
The 2024-25 season was the first in 12 years the team competed in Congressional Debate and the first time the team sent a competitor to nationals since 2012.
Read this story from ABC Newspapers to learn more about the SFHS Debate Team.
More from the students:
Jack Humphrey
What was your favorite part of the experience?
I have two main favorite parts of the 2025 NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament. The first would have to be when I learned that I had broken to the Quarterfinal Round in Congressional Debate: House, which was the first time in 20 years that a student in either Speech or Debate had advanced in a main event, the first time in 28 years a Debater had advanced and the first time in 33 years a Congressional Debater had advanced from St. Francis. My second favorite part would have to be the atmosphere of the National Tournament. Speech and Debate are amazing activities that I would recommend to all students in SFAS. The National Tournament was something truly special and having this opportunity to compete at the highest level and represent SFAS was truly a dream come true for me, and nothing short of surreal. Furthermore, it was great getting to cheer on all of Team MN, across both Speech and Debate, watching them advance further and further and even getting to watch my friends perform on the Final Round Stage and receive the recognition they deserved from all of the effort they had put in during the year.
What is one thing you learned/will take away from this experience?
I learned so many intricacies and strategies from other students & states within Congress that I am excited to pass on to next year's St. Francis Swamp Rat Debaters to help our team succeed as a whole, and pass my “torch” and love of this activity to the next generation of St. Francis Debaters. I also learned the importance of strategy in Debate with specific wordings and how to effectively communicate further. Debate has already helped me so much with my critical thinking skills, but getting to see what others did successfully at Nationals allowed for me to further my understanding of my event and, hopefully, prepare myself to have a great final season of Debate in the fall.
Skyler Algiere
What was your favorite part of the experience?
Talking to kids from all across the nation. I competed in two different buildings and before every round I would strike up conversation with someone different and it would be unique every time.
What is one thing you learned/will take away from this experience?
How to make myself stand out. I heard bits and pieces of “Standing out at the National Tournament will boost your scores” and I didn’t really understand how, but now I understand you have to make your judges remember you and show that you can debate at this high level to succeed at Nationals.