Our Mission
“Make speech and debate the most popular extracurricular activity in the world.”
Welcome to the Professional Speech and Debate Association (PSDA)! We are a community of passionate public speaking and debate enthusiasts dedicated to making this amazing extracurricular activity more accessible and popular than ever.
Our mission is simple: to make speech and debate the most popular extracurricular activity in the world. We believe that everyone should have the opportunity to learn and participate in public speaking and debate, and we work hard every day to make that a reality.
One of the ways we do this is by simplifying the structure of speech and debate to make it more accessible to everyone. We offer intuitive events, shorter rounds and tournaments, and predictable, consistent schedules to make it easier for newcomers and seasoned professionals alike. We also work to shift burdens like judging and tournament directing away from coaches and onto the organization, so that coaches have more time to focus on recruiting, retaining, and developing their students.
In addition to supporting coaches and competitors, we are also dedicated to growing the awareness and popularity of speech and debate. We plan to record and publicize professional rounds of competition, and eventually televise or stream these rounds on major networks and platforms. This will help others learn about and appreciate the value of speech and debate, and we hope it will inspire more people to get involved.
Finally, we believe that the best way to grow speech and debate is through a top-down approach. That's why we are dedicated to lobbying efforts at the federal, state, and county levels. As we grow, we will team up with other organizations and companies to increase the power of the speech and debate lobby.
We hope you'll join us in our mission to make speech and debate the most popular extracurricular activity in the world. Thank you for choosing the PSDA!
Blake Longfellow
Founder
Blake Longfellow is the founder of the Professional Speech and Debate Association, a organization dedicated to growing the speech and debate activity. He is also the founder of Hired Judge, a company that provides judging solutions and services for speech and debate tournaments. In addition to his work with the PSDA and Hired Judge, Blake is currently the director of speech at Concordia University Irvine. With a passion for helping others succeed in the world of public speaking and debate, Blake has dedicated his career to making the activity more accessible and enjoyable for competitors and coaches alike. He is committed to using the power of the PSDA to lobby for the growth of speech and debate at the federal, state, and local levels, and to using the profits generated by the organization to reinvest in the activity.
Our Team
Professional
The PSDA is bringing speech and debate out of scholastic amateurism and into a new era. The professionalization of speech and debate will solve many challenges and negative aspects of the traditional tournament models. Our tournaemnt staff and judges have decades of experience in the speech and debate world as competitors and coaches.
Neutral
PSDA Tournament staff and judges are forbidden from entering their own students into competition. By breaking from the traditional parent judge or coach judge models of speech and debate tournaments, the PSDA is the first “third-party judge tournament.” We believe third-party judge tournaments will become the new expectation for students and coaches worldwide.
Simple
We’ve flattened the learning curve for competitive speech and debate. Fewer events, simpler rules, one platform. The PSDA is designed to bring speech and debate to the masses. By unifying all grade levels under one banner we’ve reduced the cost of tournaments and brought unparalled cohesion to speech and debate.