Saint Francis Debate Team

Saint Francis Debate Team Est 1972. If you have any questions, please message us and we will answer you ASAP! *Student-Run*

Are you a current or former Swamp Rat? Do you want to help support and represent the SFHS Swamp Rat Debate Team?! Do you...
12/11/2025

Are you a current or former Swamp Rat? Do you want to help support and represent the SFHS Swamp Rat Debate Team?! Do you like cool merchandise which is all student designed?!?

Well then, do we have the store for you!!!

Open until 12/25 at 11:59 P.M. we now have our St. Francis High School Swamp Rat Debate Team merch shop set up!!!

We hope you enjoy the merchandise we have made and that you consider helping and representing our State & Nationally recognized Debate Team 😁🐀

https://st-francisdebateteam2025.itemorder.com/shop/home/

Congratulations to our two Nationally Recognized debaters from the 2024-25 season! These awards truly show off their ded...
12/04/2025

Congratulations to our two Nationally Recognized debaters from the 2024-25 season!

These awards truly show off their dedication to their team, community & competitiveness and we couldn’t be more proud of them!

NSDA NATIONALS.A few months back we ventured to the exotic Des Moines, Iowa for the 100th year celebration of the Nation...
12/04/2025

NSDA NATIONALS.

A few months back we ventured to the exotic Des Moines, Iowa for the 100th year celebration of the National Speech and Debate Association at this years NSDA National Tournament!!!

Skyler and Jack both competed in Congressional Debate: House and had a great time!

Skyler & Jack both presided their first session of the tournament, and after two days of preliminary competition Jack Humphrey made SFHS history after breaking the 20 year “curse” of St. Francis having not broken to elimination rounds in a main event.

After being eliminated from Congress, Skyler participated in Extemp Commentary and Impromptu & broke to the first elimination round in Impromptu!!!

Jack Humphrey also presided in his quarterfinal session, where he ended his Nationals run placing in the top 144 out of all Congressional: Debate House participants at the National Tournament!!!

Aside from competing the team had a great time watching final rounds, meeting Josh Gad (twice!) and learning a lot from all of those around us.

We cannot thank all of those who support us and inspire us time and time again, and truly are appreciative of all who helped facilitate our participation at the National Tournament by donating to our cause.

What a great way to wrap up the 2024-25 season, here’s to the 2025-26 one!

WE’RE GOING TO IOWA!!! 🌽🌽🌽Last year In December the Debate Team competed at the Northern Lights District Tournament and ...
11/06/2025

WE’RE GOING TO IOWA!!! 🌽🌽🌽

Last year In December the Debate Team competed at the Northern Lights District Tournament and absolutely killed it!!!

Earlier in the week Rowan competed in LD online and sadly did not break to elimination rounds after going 1-3 (sorry, no pictures 😔) Later that same week we took 6 Swamp Rats up to Pequot Lakes to compete at the Congress District Tournament.

At the tournament Jack & Skyler made it to the final round. Cailynn ended up placing 6th in the Senate, Skyler placed 3rd in the House 🥉 and Jack placed 2nd in the House 🥈

Also at the tournament we had three students recognized for presiding over their rounds! Ava & Jack presided their first sessions and Skyler presided in his second session.

Overall, our cumulative placements earned us the right to call ourselves CONGRESS DISTRICT SWEEPSTAKES CHAMPIONS!!! 🏆 Mr. Tichy forgot our award, so enjoy the original picture I made of Swamp Rat Alum Chris McDonald holding a Congress District Sweeps plaque and then enjoy Jack holding our plaque in absolute awe of what our small, but mighty, team was able to accomplish in our first year of Congress.

By placing 3rd, Skyler earned the first alternate spot to Nationals! (Which he would later end up taking) By placing in the top 2, Jack qualified to the 2025 NSDA National Speech and Debate Tournament!!!

And, while I’m at it as the Speech Team hasn’t posted it, in March Jack was the sole St. Francis Speech student to compete at the Northern Lights District Tournament!!!

After a day in Moorhead Jack qualified to the Semifinal round in Humorous Interpretation!!! Then day two was postponed for a snow storm (that never came.) and was rescheduled for April!

After completing day 2 in April Jack finished in 7th place marking one of the highest final placements St. Francis has EVER had in Humorous Interpretation!!!

All in all, our Northern Lights District Tournament was a great experience and we can’t wait to participate again next year!!!

Who doesn’t love a late post!!!Last year in December, Jack and Skyler made SWAMP RAT HISTORY by becoming the first EVER ...
11/06/2025

Who doesn’t love a late post!!!

Last year in December, Jack and Skyler made SWAMP RAT HISTORY by becoming the first EVER MSHSL Section Participants in Congressional Debate from St. Francis!!!

Though neither qualified to the State Tournament… they learned a lot and are excited for their final MN Debate Season next year.

Cailynn and Ava also both competed at the MDTA JV/Novice State Tournament and had a great time!!!

We hosted our first ever Swamp Rat Swap last year too!!! It was a great event and truly brought us closer together, Skyler even got Jack a super duper awesome Kermit Puppet 😁😁😁

Finally St. Francis HA, I mean RA, capped off our MN season in January competing in Lincoln Douglas at Sections. She went 2-4 and was close to making the State Tournament, but sadly did not.

This was Rowan’s final debate tournament as a Swamp Rat & we are very proud of all that she has accomplished in her 4 years as a Swamp Rat and are very thankful for all that she has given to our program.

Also, Mr. Tichy brought our award that I’ll explain better in our next post 🙃

Want to learn more about how to get involved with our State & Nationally recognized Debate Team here at SFHS? Join us fo...
09/03/2025

Want to learn more about how to get involved with our State & Nationally recognized Debate Team here at SFHS? Join us for our Info Meeting tomorrow!!!

SFHS Room D215 2:45 P.M. & 6:00 P.M.

02/04/2025

St. Francis High School’s Congressional Debate team is on a comeback. After the debate program took a 12-year break from this governmental form of argument in favor of other competitions,

Continuing with the trend of our, very, late tournament posts (next season there will be same weekend posts, trust me) w...
01/28/2025

Continuing with the trend of our, very, late tournament posts (next season there will be same weekend posts, trust me) we are now onto the final regular season tournament of our 2024-25 season! On the 23rd of November, the Swamp Rats competed at the Robbinsdale Birds of Prey!!!

In Varsity Congress:
Jack broke to the final round of Congress Senate and placed 2nd overall!!!🥈‼️

Congratulations as well to all of our friends who competed in the Central Minnesota & Southern Minnesota Congressional Debate District Tournaments!

On November 16th we traveled to Edina, put up with Tabroom crashing, manual pairings, and ate birthday cupcakes all in o...
01/02/2025

On November 16th we traveled to Edina, put up with Tabroom crashing, manual pairings, and ate birthday cupcakes all in order to participate in The Edina Classic!!!

In Varsity Congress:
Jack was recognized for placing within the top 24 as ‘Next-In’ (and also turned 17!)

On November 9th we hosted our first annual St. Francis Swamp Rat Debate Tournament!!! Thank you to everyone who traveled...
12/27/2024

On November 9th we hosted our first annual St. Francis Swamp Rat Debate Tournament!!! Thank you to everyone who traveled out to lil ol’ St. Francis to debate with us!

This tournament could not have been possible without the help and support of our Administration who support both our team and our hosting of this tournament and from the support of volunteers helping to set up and run both the tournament and our concessions stand! Thank you to both of these groups for their efforts in making this tournament run smoothly and awesomely.

Thank you also to SF Swamp Rat Alum D.J. Brynteson for leading Tab! (See last pic for a surprise )

In Novice/JV Congress:
Ava broke to the final round of Congress House and placed 7th overall!!!

In Open LD:
Rowan placed 3rd overall with a 4-1 record!!! (1st - 5th all went 4-1, the 5 way tie was broken with speaker points) 🥉‼️

A few weeks back we debated at Farmington!In Varsity Congress: Jack broke to the final round of Congress Senate and plac...
11/21/2024

A few weeks back we debated at Farmington!

In Varsity Congress:
Jack broke to the final round of Congress Senate and placed 2nd overall in a pool of 42 PEOPLE!!! 🥈‼️

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