News

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screamin’ Eagles soar to Nationals 

By Brian Ly | Production Chief, Tongva Times

On March 16, the Gabrielino High School Speech and Debate team competed in debate events at Montebello High School to qualify for the 2024 National Speech and Debate Tournament. The Screamin’ Eagles team competed in speech events on March 8 and 9, hosting the tournament at Gabrielino. 

   

To advance to the national championship tournament, held in Des Moines, Iowa this year, students had to place third or higher in their event; with an exception for Congress, which sends the top four to Nationals. The Screamin’ Eagles will be sending 14 students in total.

   

Students who did not qualify through the league tournaments may compete in the Last-Chance qualifier for a second shot at doing so. It will be held on April 25-27 using a virtual format. 

   

Freshman Oliver Li was the only Lincoln-Douglas (LD) debater to qualify from Gabrielino, placing third and becoming the first freshman from Gabrielino to qualify in LD. LD is the only debate event with one-on-one debates, focusing primarily on philosophical and ethical questions for students to argue. 

   

“I had seven debates that day so it was really tiring,” said Li. “When they called my name, I was shocked because I didn’t have that confidence then. Now that I made it, I’m looking forward to doing the best I can.”

   

Senior Pan Keirtjaroonsiri placed fourth in Congress, an event that mirrors the policymaking of the United States House and Senate. Sophomore Carter Mak, junior Jennifer Quach, and senior Sophia Pu also competed in the event. 

   

“I was shaking and I couldn’t stop shaking. I didn’t think I was going to qualify,” stated Keirtjaroonsiri. “I hope I do well since it’s my first time qualifying.” 

   

Public Forum is a partnered event formatted with two to four minute speeches. Debaters introduce their arguments in constructive speeches, ask questions during crossfire, and rebut their opponents. Three duos competed: junior Isaac Chan and senior Garrison Chan, juniors Matt Tafoya and Joaquin Vivar, and sophomore Jayden Phung and senior Anson Law. 

    

“I wanted to finish strong and also focus on the community aspect of Speech and Debate,” said Vivar, who placed seventh with Tafoya.

   

At the qualifying tournament for speech events on March 8 and 9, Gabrielino qualified 12 people to the national championships.

   

Interpretation events present a piece using voices, physical acting, and facial expressions to act out characters and tell a story.

   

Four Gabrielino students competed in Humorous Interpretation: freshman Rachel Yip, who placed fourth, sophomore Chase Ong, who placed fifth, junior Veena Sundaramoorthy, and senior Kailey Trinh, who placed sixth. 

   

Junior Jojo Scannell placed third for Dramatic Interpretation, which seeks to evoke feelings of grief. Sophomore Kayley Thai, junior Ximena Mercado, and senior Alexa Pedroza also competed in the event. 

   

“The way I always looked at it was displaying a message for someone who can’t do it themselves,” said Scannell. “Hearing my name get called had me in a state of disbelief, with everyone there too it was awesome. It was really incredible, and there were a lot of tears.” 

   

Duo Interpretation is a partnered event where pairs act out speeches that range from comedic, to whimsical, to dramatic, all without props, physical contact, or eye contact. Gabrielino took two of the three spots for this event, with seniors Bryanna Quach and Lindsay Wong placing first and sophomores Jaslin Situ and Zachary Tang placing third. Seniors Christopher Torres and Kate Hamamoto placed sixth.

   

“I was honestly really scared that we weren’t gonna make it because my duo partner and I got our script the week before,” stated Wong. “It was a lot of long practices, we stayed until ten p.m. the day before the qualifiers, but we are very grateful to get to perform.” 

   

Program Oral Interpretation (POI) is an event that allows advocacy for societal issues through a script made up of several different sources. Competitors in POI use a black binder for creative visuals. Junior Chenlu Yang placed first. Li, Torres, who placed fourth, and Sundamoorthy, who placed fifth, also competed in POI.   

   

“I was really nervous because I wanted my fellow teammates to place with me,” stated Yang. “For Nationals, I just want to see more performances and learn from them.” 

   

Unlike interpretation events, public address events do not incorporate acting. They are self-prepared and self-written, focusing on informing and persuading the audience.

   

Competitors in Original Oratory (OO) aim to inspire action to change negative societal behaviors. Junior Kara Mak placed first in the event, with senior Ashley Lau placing second. Senior Ava Doron and junior Lilianna Simpson-Castaneda also competed in OO.

   

“I convinced myself that this was my last round,” stated Kara. “I didn’t go in specifically to win, but I went to do my best. It was pretty cool that I qualified.” 

   

Informative Speaking, also known as Expository, allows speakers to educate their audience on a wide range of topics with the unique addition of visual aids. Sophomore Cedric Hua placed second, with sophomore Victoria Chou and seniors Ashley Lau and Ava Doron also competing in Expos. 

   

“I spoke about singing and it was very silly, which is what I think got me so far,” stated Hua. “There were some really strong speeches in the final round, I was really excited because I wasn’t expecting a qualification.” 

   

In extemporaneous events, speeches are prepared 30 minutes before the round rather than pre-written. International Extemp (IX) focuses on global events, while National Extemp (NX) centers around domestic issues.

   

In IX, junior Marco Cisneros-Farber placed third and senior Garrison Chan placed sixth, with Carter and Isaac also competing

   

“This is my first time qualifying for Nationals,” stated Cisneros-Farber. “I was runner-up three times last year. It was unreal, I still don’t really believe it, like ‘are you sure?’ but I’m excited. I want to do as best as possible and make it to the semis so I can auto-qual for next year.” 

    

In NX, juniors Aaron Situ and Sofia Villagra placed second and third respectively, with sophomore Natalia San Lucas placing fifth and Tafoya also competing. 

   

“I didn’t really expect to qualify for Nationals,” stated Situ. “It was a big shocker since I never placed in the top three for league tournaments.”

   

This article originally appeared in the Gabrielino newspaper, The Tongva Times

Read more of their awesome stories HERE

 

Screamin’ Eagles Qualify Over 30 For State Championships

By Peyton Ong

 

After all the practices, novice and varsity tournaments and the invitational meets concluded, it was time for the qualifying season to begin.  The first two weekends were for; The Southern California Debate League’s State Qualifying Tournament / League Championships to determine what competitors would advance to the 2024 California High School Speech and Debate Championships later this spring at Clovis North High School.  Screamin’ Eagles have poured their hearts into their speeches leading up to the pinnacle of the season.

 

The first weekend focused on the Speech events.  Every speech faced its potential last performance, and the inclusion of semifinals and final rounds meant that competitors could be eliminated as soon as preliminaries. 124 Eagles arrived at Schurr High School on the morning of February 24th with one common goal: to make it to the top. Every event takes the top six competitors to the state tournament in March unless someone automatically qualifies during one of the varsity tournaments, in which case the event would take the top five.

 

“I feel stressed but not really? It’s more bittersweet because this is my last guaranteed time performing.” said Thao Le (Varsity, Team Captain) “This is a high-stakes tournament and there’s going to be a lot of people hungry to make it to State, including me.”

 

Seniors faced both the pressure of the day and its bittersweet undertones. As this was the last tournament of the season (not including National Qualifiers, which only allows teams to enter around 30 competitors) and their last year of high school, this was potentially their last time performing on the team.

 

“I am happy that I ended my senior year strong and gave my last speech the goodbye it deserves.” said senior Zyra Dango.

 

Eagles entered their preliminary rounds at around 8:00 a.m., after getting in a practice round/“Round 0”. Freshman Rachel Yip breezed through her preliminary rounds, making her Humorous Interpretation semi-final round later that day. “Prelims were funny and interesting, giving me new ideas to incorporate into my future speeches.  What was fun during the rounds was how I got to make a lot of people laugh while giving my speeches, which made this tournament even better.”

 

Freshman Julie Bauzon also expressed her feelings on her preliminary rounds: “I genuinely think this was one of the best performances I've had this entire year. I don't know if it was because of the high level of competition or the realization that this would be the last time I performed the speech I'd worked on for eight months.I was finally able to see some impressive speeches in my event and it honestly gave me the energy boost to try and hammer through speech again next year.”

 

Semi-finals were posted late to the online posting site, Tabroom, causing the 82 Eagles that made it to have to scramble to their rounds. All of varsity member Kyle Tang’s energy went into his semi-final Humorous Interpretation round. “I can only describe semis as an energy explosion. Pump that energy to the max and pay with your voice being scratchy tomorrow. I definitely felt like it was the best way for my speech to go out and I put my all into that performance. After all, there's no point saving when you might not get to use what you saved!”

 

Varsity member and junior Josephine Scannell voiced her nervousness preceding her semi-final round: “Since I did not break in my Drama, my POI [Program Oral Interpretation] was my last chance at being able to qualify for State, so I knew I had to bring it. I had a lot of strong performers in my round, so I was careful to match their energy. While I have a lot more to work on to get ready for State, that tournament was one of the first times I felt truly confident in my POI.”

 

Older members of the speech team also got to witness their underclassmen go through the tournament. Senior and varsity Lindsay Wong explained “Going into semis, I was more nervous than usual but also incredibly proud of all the Gab duos that made it. It was gratifying to look at the duo semis breaks and see that 9 of the 14 duos were from our school.”

Kara Mak (Varsity, Junior) entered her final Informative round, feeling the pressure at full force. “I needed to give this INFO round my all. It was my best performance of the day and the most fun. I would’ve been proud of myself regardless of the result because the performance in itself was rewarding: that’s what matters.”

38 Screamin’ Eagles advanced to their final rounds, and the tension was felt by every person watching. The energy and volume were explosive as members took their last shot at qualifying. The Humorous Interpretation and OPP rounds could be heard from outside the building, and Dramatic Interpretation tugged at the heartstrings of every individual in the room, just to name a few.

 

At around 7:00 pm, all competitors gathered in the school’s theater and anxiously awaited the announcements of who qualified, and who didn’t.  After the awards, GabSpeech had secured 30 spots for the State Championships.  However, a few of those spots were to the same people.  When a competitor qualifies for the State Tournament in both of their events, called double-qualifying, they are required to announce at the end of awards, from their seat in the audience, which event they will take to State  and which event they are dropping. In total, Gabrielino had 5 double qualifiers: Cedric Hua (Declamation and Informative), Kayley Thai (Declamation and Dramatic Interpretation) Kate Hamamoto (Duo and Informative), Christopher Torres (Duo and Program Oral Interpretation), and Oliver Li (Duo and Program Oral Interpretation). When a double qualifier drops an event, it puts one eliminated competitor back into the running for State.

 

Oliver Li is competing with his Duo in the State Tournament, along with his partner Nicole Diep.

Christopher Torres and Kate Hamamoto, a duo, unanimously decided to drop their Duo and compete with their POI and Informative, respectively. This brought Jaslin Situ & Zachary Tang into the six Duos that will go to State.

Kayley Thai is competing with her Drama and her spot in Declamation was given to Violet Magallanes.

Cedric Hua is competing with his Declamation and his spot in Informative was given to Victoria Chou.

Rachel Yip qualified in Humourous Interpretation after a state qualifier from another school resigned their spot.

 

After all the “double qualifiers” are sorted out, the team awards were announced, and for the 27^th straight year, Gabrielino Speech & Debate was the 2024 Southern California Debate League Champoins.

 

On the second weekend, March 2nd, our debaters attended the State Quals Debate at La Canada High School. Screamin’ Eagles competed in Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas Debate, and Congress. Sophia Pu (Junior, Event Leader) states she “was very proud of our team at State Quals, as Matt and Joaquin went very far. It really showed the fruits of our work this season, since we don't always break people that far.”

 

After a long day of debating, debate event co-leader Aaron Situ qualified for State in Lincoln Douglas Debate.

 

In total, The Screamin’ Eagles have 31 students going to the State Championships later this spring in Fresno.  Congratulations to all of our State Qualifiers, and to every Screamin’ Eagle who went out and competed.

 

 

Tabroom Crashes But Screamin’ Eagles Fly On

By Peyton Ong

Novice and Junior Varsity Eagles had the chance to compete in one last tournament before they enter the State Qualifier tournament on February 24th. The Southern California Debate League’s Spring Novice tournament is meant to give newer competitors the chance to get accustomed to performing their speeches in real rounds or to polish them up before the big tournament. However, an unprecedented obstacle appeared just after Spring Novice began. 

Tabroom, the website used to facilitate all NSDA tournaments, had a nationwide crash immediately after the first round ended. Tabroom is used to distribute ballots, which tells competitors which classroom they are competing in, what judge is in what room, the order of speakers, and most importantly, rankings of the speakers in a room. Competitors waited for a little over an hour before tournament officials announced that the competition would continue to the second round with no rankings. 

Eagles expressed mixed feelings about the downing. Novice Nana “Banana” Huang says “Spring Novice was pretty fun though the statewide crash for Tabroom was kind of a bummer. The rounds were disappointing because they made us go twice for the same people and judge. I felt that they could at least switch the judges.”

Novice Wenbo Bob Li says “Spring Novice was pretty fun. Ignoring the Tabroom issues, the tournament had good pacing and scheduling. The later Extemp[erous Speaking] speakers got delayed by up to thirty minutes and the prep times were long but otherwise, it ran smoothly.” 

Tabroom connections were restored around the end of the second round, as was the competitive status of the tournament. Second rounds were considered void and placings would hinge on rankings in third and first rounds.  

Silver Leon (Novice, Original Prose & Poetry, and Original Oratory) says “Despite the Tabroom crash, the tournament was very fun and interesting and a good motivator for State Quals. I entered in OO and OPP and it was very interesting to see other people's speeches and how other Gab kids are doing.” 

As the Tabroom ballots could not be automatically processed due to the absence of a second round, no winners were declared for any events. Originally, winners of Spring Novice were to receive a small stuffed rabbit keychain (in addition to the traditional medals awarded in memory of their victory), as the jackrabbit is the mascot of Long Beach Polytechnic, the host school of Spring Novice.

Due to the lack of a true winner, two individuals from each competing school were sent to choose two rabbits to bring back to their school. Sent to receive the rabbits were Gabrielino coaches Meggie Nguyen and Bianca Lua. 

Teresa Wong (Senior, Humorous Interpretation & Original Interpretation) expressed her final thoughts on the tournament, including a haiku. “I feel like spring-semester novices didn't get the full tournament experience. But had a fulfilling experience socially. The HI folks never fail to make me wheeze uncontrollably, inside and outside rounds -- I enjoyed myself, and that's what mattered to me.”

Way to go Screamin’ Eagles

 

 

Three Screamin’ Eagles Auto Qualify For State Championships

By Peyton Ong

Spring Varsity is often one of the most high-stakes tournaments of the year, as it is the last opportunity for all competitors to “gain legs” and automatically qualify for the State Tournament. On January 27th, the Gabrielino Eagles arrived at Montebello High School with determination written on their faces. Fifteen team members already had one “leg” from the Fall Varsity tournament in December. Each one would require a ranking of first or second in their event to bypass the State Qualifying tournament. 

Emi Naito (Team Co-Captain, Original Prose and Poetry) entered the tournament with anticipation, as she won first place during Fall Varsity and was aiming for her second leg. “For starters, since people work on their speeches throughout the school year, the competition is much greater compared to the Fall Varsity tournament”, says Naito. “During the tournament, that realization hit and it was very nerve-wracking, but also very impressive to see how much people can improve over just a few months.”

Varsity Kate Hamamoto entered her Expository Speaking round with “a good wake up call because in the first round I wasn’t very awake, having a day off before a tournament threw me off a little bit.” Hamamoto explained. “Spring Varsity was a different type of tournament because the inclusion of semifinals can throw people off, but we were adapting pretty well. I was excited for everyone that had a leg and cheering them on during the entire tournament.”

Co-Captain Kailey Trinh also expressed excitement for her teammates during the tournament. “It was really fun seeing new speeches especially in HI. I got inspiration after watching them. Although the competition was tough, it was overall a good tournament.” 

Hamamoto continued to elaborate on the aftermath of the day. “Eagles were more motivated to perform. Given our results from Spring Varsity, we know what we have to work on for State Quals.”

The Screamin’ Eagles had three team members successfully get their second leg! Congratulations to: Sherry Shi (Varsity Original Interpretation), Emi Naito (Team Captain, Varsity Original Prose and Poetry), and Christopher Torres (Varsity Program Oral Interpretation)! Eagles are still locked in as they continue to prepare for the State Quals tournament, taking place on February 24th.

 

 

 

Spring Debate in the Cold

By Peyton Ong

 

Despite the cold cloudy weather, the spring season for speech and debate has arrived for the Gabrielino Eagles. The first debate tournament of 2024, The Southern California Debate League’s Spring Debate Tournament took place on January 20th at Schurr High School, and Screamin’ Eagles woke up at 6 a.m. to pouring rain. “The tournament was super fun, and we had a blast when it wasn't super cold or pouring on us.” Said Marco Cisneros-Farber (Junior, Varsity Debater). “Luckily, most of the rain hit when we were in rounds, but we still had to dress warm!”

Freshman Cathryn Abrishami entered her first Spring Debate excitedly: “Round through round I learned more and more from my opponents, some information which I could use in my next round. I felt confident going into each round with this newfound information and even point of view. After all, while winning is fun, learning is, and should always be the main goal.”

Varsity Debater Sophia Villagra says “I was excited going into the first round because the topic was super interesting,” says Villagra. “I got to learn a lot about the Middle East, and I was also running an international relations theory that was fun to talk about and explain.”

Senior Sophia Pu (Varsity) explained, “I don't get too nervous going into competition anymore, but there was a level of anticipation about how far our preparation would take us and a really strong drive to do well.” Pu would place 5th in Public Forum along with Cisneros-Farber as debate partners. 

For Sofia Villagra, the Spring Debate was a chance to auto-qualify, or “gain legs”, for the State Championship Tournament. Villagra had taken home second place during Fall Debate, and winning first in this tournament would guarantee her a spot at the state meet in April.. When it comes to strategy, Villagra said “I think the biggest thing I took away was that I need to chill... the more I chill and focus on being conversational and real, the more fun it is and the better I can think of arguments.” 

A hard decision had to be made as the Screamin’ Eagles moved into their final rounds. “There are 4 preliminary rounds at Spring Debate, the top 8 debaters break to a finals seeded final round.,” explains Aaron Situ (Varsity Debater, Junior).  

The league employs a hard pairing with the number 1 seed facing number 4 (2 vs 3, 5 vs 8, 5 vs 6).  Sophia and Aaron were paired against each other.

Situ explained, “knowing that Sofia had a 2nd place leg from Fall Debate, we, as a team, wanted to maximize her chances of getting the 1st place leg to auto-qualify to state. Therefore, instead of having us debate the final round, it was collectively decided that we would do a walk-over. Put simply, I ‘forfeited’ the round and had all three judges give the winning ballot to Sofia. Had we debated, there would be the possibility of me winning, and thus not giving Sofia any chance of auto-qualification.”

Villagra came away with first place in this debate, meaning she is heading straight for the State Championships. Congratulations Sofia!

Next for Eagle Debaters comes State Quals Debate, the tournament that determines whether or not a competitor will join Villagra at the State Speech and Debate Championships in Fresno later this spring.. “From here on out, we're going to be working on cross-examinations, identifying the key issues in the debate, and getting work done on time,” explained Pu. “I'm really grateful that everyone seems to want to improve after Spring Varsity, which as an event leader, is all I can ask for.”

Congratulations to Sofia Villagra (1st Place, League Debate), Aaron Situ (4th Place, League Debate), Sophia Pu & Marco Cisneros-Farber (5th Place, Public Forum), Anson Law & Jayden Phung (9th Place, Public Forum), and all of our Eagles who debated in this tournament! The Gabrielino Speech team now faces Spring Varisty on January 27th, another opportunity for team members to gain legs. 

 

Novice and JV Speakers Give Thanks

By Peyton Ong

 

The Gabrielino Speech team started their Thanksgiving break with a bang, almost sweeping the 2023 Fall Novice tournament. Novices and JV Eagles, first or second-year team members, had a chance to compete against other schools at their experience level. Among the over 300 competitors our newest Screamin’ Eagles walked away from the tournament with champions in nine out of fourteen events!

Valarie Leung (Sophmore, JV) and Cedric Hua (Sophmore, JV), headed to a classroom for their first expository (EXPOS) round of the day. “My first round felt a little awkward as I hadn't performed my Expos in front of an audience since GABGABGAB.” Says Hua. “It was nice when people laughed at my jokes. I think that I had a decent amount of energy during the round, though I could definitely improve my pacing and flow.”

 

photo by Mark Christensen

 

Eagles Eclipse Competition at GabGabGab

By Peyton Ong

 

On October 14th, GabSpeech hosted the 2023 Gabrielino Screamin’ Eagles Invitational Speech Tournament, or GAB GAB GAB for short. Most of the team arrived around 7:30 a.m., but dedicated Eagles, such as Co-Captain Garrison Chan (senior), arrived early to set up the campus for the 19 other schools that would soon be arriving. Garrison’s fellow Team Captain, Thao Le, could also be spotted helping Gab’s female competitors; armed with a can of hairspray and a stack of bobby pins, braiding many of the traditional “hair crowns” Eagles wear at every speech tournament. 

The tournament took place during a “ring of fire” solar eclipse, creating odd light and crescent-shaped shadows in its wake. When they weren’t busy setting up their visual aides, rehearsing introductory hooks for exempt, or practicing their popping and blocking, team members were able to view the solar event in between rounds. Competitors in Informative Speaking were gifted a bag containing blackout glasses, which they shared with their peers to allow everyone to view the eclipse.

First rounds are often considered the most flawed of the day, as GHS warms up and gets out their nervousness. However, Theresa Wong (senior) didn’t let tournament jitters get to her. “When we were debriefing with the other OI [Declamation] people, a lot of them were really nervous [about their first round], but my first tournament ever was Spring Varsity, and this seemed easy compared to it. I was prepared and memorized and knew what I was doing, and I came in with the mindset of doing well.”

In between rounds, all schools could refuel at the concessions table, run by the Gabrielino Speech Boosters, parents, and members of Interact Club. Thank you to all our volunteers for helping make the day run smoothly! 

After competing in his second round of Novice HI (Beginner Humorous Interpretation), freshman Hodrain Liu felt “I did good because I was able to make my characters really expressive, and the nervousness of the first round was gone. I was also a lot more awake during my second round.” Many other Eagles felt the same way, and their second rounds were substantially better than their previous ones. Perhaps the solar phenomena served as good luck, as the eclipse peaked around this time. 

Third rounds went by in a flash, and GabSpeech eagerly awaited the release of the lists of finalists in each round. It had been almost six hours since the beginning of the tournament, and many competitors were tired after putting out their best performances. Crocs and Birkenstocks were not uncommon sights throughout the school. However, there was an exponential spike in energy and volume as the finalists for each round were informed of their status. Cheers around campus from finalists and their peers. Almost every competitor joined the scramble of people rushing to final rounds, as spectators and performers.

Finalists Jaslin Situ & Zachary Tang (Varsity Duo Interpretation, sophomores) felt the pressure of being surrounded by the best competitors of their event but pushed through the nervousness and gave their best performance of the day. Gabrielino duos Oliver Le & Nicole Diep (freshman, senior), Thao Le & Allyson Lau (seniors), Lindsay Wong & Melinda Do, and Jaslin & Zachary spent a couple of moments reflecting on their round, before returning to the Gabrielino tables outside to wait for awards.

It was clear that rings weren’t the only things on fire at the competition; Gabrielino entered the 22-event competition with 19 other schools, and walked away with 12 champions! Congratulations to Kaylyn Thai, Nicole Diep, Oliver Li, Elyse Luo, Rachel Yip, Karina Vargas, Archie Lai, Natalia San Lucas, Kara Mak, Nox Leunberger, Andrew Lai, and Chris Torres on winning first place in their event, and a job well done to every Eagle who competed! 

Gab continues to work hard and improve their speeches to prepare for the first league tournament of the year, Fall Debate (or “Fallhambra”) occurring in early November.

 

 

 

 

Icebreak-ARG Is a Swashbuckling Success

by Peyton Ong

 

Friendships were born, memories were made, and the speech room looks like it got hit by a hurricane. It must be Icebreaker time! 

On September 16th, 2023, the annual Icebreaker tournament was held at Gabrielino High School. As always, Icebreaker marks the beginning of speech season. Novices and experienced members of the team partner up and spend the day competing in a tournament of three rounds: Improvisational Duo, Spontaneous Argument (SPAR), and Character SPAR.

 

Character SPAR seems to be the favorite category performed by Gabrielino Students. JV Screamin’ Eagle Ryan Leung and Novice Houdrain Liu enjoyed the acting that was necessary for the debate. “Icebreaker was really fun and welcoming to the novices.” Leung said. Liu says that “Icebreaker was entertaining, and a good way to introduce people to speech, plus it’s a way to learn from and about your opponents.”

Again this year, the pirates was the theme leading up to the annual National Talk Like A Pirate Day on September 19th.  

Amongst the five schools at the competition (Arcadia High, San Marino High, Crescenta Valley High, Alhambra High, and Gabrielino) and about 400 competitors, senior varsity member Kaylyn Thai and her partner sophomore newcomer, Archibald Lai, were the top award winning duo team from Gabrielino.

The Icebreaker was, once again, a great start to a long and exciting speech and debate year.

 

 

 

Sunny D Gives 100% as National Semi-Finalist

Nicknames are certainly a part of the Gabrielino Speech and Debate History.   There may not have ever been one that has had more broad appeal than “Sunny D”.  Sure, they named a beverage after him, but having your nickname called at your school’s senior awards night and at the National Speech and Debate Championships is much greater than getting zero royalties from an orange drink that contains less than 1% orange juice.

After his four years as a huge part of GabSpeech, Gabriel “Sunny D” Sundaramoorthy has left an incredible mark that will last for generations to come.

During the online covid experience, Sunny D once entered two different tournaments, in two different states on the same day.  He performed 18 speeches on one Saturday in November.  He even gave one of his debate speeches in one state during his extemp prep time in another state.

The lore surrounding Sunny only grewa when everyone came back from quarantine.  Rumor has it that Sunny D once accepted the School of Excellence Trophy for Gabrielino.

Some say, Sunny D can do it all.   Some disagree.  “My sister says I can’t do interp,” Sunny jokes.  “But I talk about Joe Biden and Donald Trump.  Those two characters are just like two old guys arguing at the local donut shop at 7am.  That’s humorous interp right there.”

It is only fitting that Sunny D was the farthest advancing Screamin’ Eagle at the 2023 National Speech and Debate Association National Championships.   After giving 12 speeches, he fell just short of The Finals and was awarded 13th place in all of America in United States Extemporaneous Speaking.  He became the 12th entry from Gabrielino in Extemp to make it to the National Semi-Final round.

Since there have been 11 others from GabSpeech who have made it to the Semis of Extemp, it must not be that difficult.  Think about this:  Sunny was one of the three National Qualifiers this year from the East Los Angeles County District out of about 50 or so students who compete locally.   There are over 100 districts across America.  Each one sends between 1 to 4 students.  There were almost 300 students in Sunny’s event who had qualified for the Championships.  Sunny placed higher than all but 12 of them.  

The three-time National Qualifier took his previous experiences at Nats to make his mark this year.  “I didn’t make it past prelims the first two times.” the senior and GabSpeech co-captain stated.  “ So I worked really hard and had great coaches and teammates helping me.  This week has been a great experience and a fun ride to semis.  I’m sad to have my speech career come to an end but I’m thrilled it happened this way surrounded by my speech family.”

One of the Screamin’ Eagles coaching staff said of Sunny, “he has been an excellent captain and a fantastic competitor.   He loves this team.  There will be a huge hole when we get to the first day of school and Sunny and his fellow captains aren’t in my office.  It’ll be tough.” 

Sunny D may not have quite the lore of Billy The Kid or Paul Buyon - yet.  But the history of The Screamin’ Eagles will not be complete without the stories of Gabriel “Sunny D” Sundaramoorthy: The guy who gives 100% effort, not the drink that only gives you 1% juice.

Congrats National Semi-Finalist Sunny D

 

 

Seniors Speak at Graduation

It’s good to get back to normal.   Once again, the Garielino graduation was held, in person, at the world famous Santa Anita Racetrack.  And once again, the Screamin’ Eagles seniors were giving speeches at the ceremony.  Very normal, but very special.

With a backdrop of the incredible San Gabriel Mountains, the Screamin’ Eagles led their

classmates in their final high school event.

Team Co-Captain Gabriel “Sunny D” Sundaramoorthy gave one of the most memorable Flag Salute Speeches in recent years.  The United States flag has been around for well over 200 years and Sunny

D paid exceptional tribute to such an integral part of the American education system.

Standing just a few feet from the actual racetrack that has seen breathtaking performances from legendary horses, GabSpeech member Rachel Young used her time behind the podium to link the incredibly unique four years of the Class of 2023’s high school journey to the four turns at Santa Anita. 

A journey that started out normal and went to zoom school back to hybrid and then slowly back to normal has been an one of a kind experience for everyone involved.  The Screamin’ Eagles seniors and the rest of their class faced the challenges and changes of the world with great pride and honor.  And they upheld past traditions and created new ones.

Great job seniors.   We wish you all the best!!!!  

Photos by Mr. Yuhadi Sundaramoorthy and Mrs. Sharon Liu