Snoopin' Around at Knott’s Berry Farm

Roller coasters met rhetorical flair last Friday as the Gabrielino High School Speech and Debate Team joined hundreds of students from across Southern California for the 4th annual Speech and Debate Day at Knott’s Berry Farm, an event that celebrates speaking excellence in a uniquely thrilling setting.

Hosted inside the iconic Walter Knott Theater, the 2025 edition of the event featured standout student performances, a day of fun at one of California’s most beloved theme parks. Among the featured performers were two of The Screamin’ Eagles most accomplished team members — sophomore Jolie Wang and senior Nathan Li, both of whom took to the stage to deliver powerful speeches that left the audience of peers, coaches, and judges deeply impressed.

The day began early, with the team arriving at Knott’s before the park gates opened. Once inside, the students dispersed across the park to enjoy the rides. From the twists and turns of HangTime to the wooden rattle of GhostRider, the GabSpeech & Debate embraced all the thrills Knott’s Berry Farm had to offer.

For Gabrielino, a school known across the state for its decorated speech and debate program, the day was more than just a chance to enjoy roller coasters. It was a showcase of hard work, talent, and the power of student voices.

“It’s such a unique opportunity,” said one of the team’s coaches.  “For the rest of their lives, every time they come to the park, they can brag about how they performed on the stage in the Walter Knott Theater”.  

Sophomore Jolie Wang, known among her peers for her commanding presence and polished delivery, delivered her Original Prose and Poetry while senior Nathan Li, one of Gabrielino’s most seasoned competitors and this year’s Humor event leader, took the stage with his Declamation.  Both performances were praised by several coaches and team members”

“It was surreal,” Nathan said afterward. “I’ve competed in a lot of tournaments, but standing on a stage like that, with the lights, the sound system, and knowing my team was watching — it was unforgettable.”

“It’s the best mix — I said YES to all the rides,” laughed senior team co-captain Veena Sundaramoorthy, who spent the afternoon chasing coasters with friends. “We go from giving speeches on stage to screaming our lungs out on Xcelerator. It’s a perfect day.”

When the performances were over in the theater, the students were able to take team photos on stage and under the large marquee outside.  And everyone was treated to a very rare opportunity to have their very own meet and greet with Snoopy.

“I looked up saw Snoopy,” exclaimed senior co-captain Lilianna Simpson Castaneda.  “I’ve been to this event all four years of high school and Snoopy has never come in. What a great senior send-off.”

For many students, this event marks the perfect end-of-year celebration — a reward for a season filled with practices, long tournament days, and countless rewrites.

“This is what keeps the team spirit strong,” said one coach. “We don’t just compete together; we bond, laugh, and build memories like this one.”

For seniors like Nathan, it was a bittersweet goodbye to the high school stage. “This program has helped shape who I am,” he said. “Getting to end my senior year like this — performing on stage and riding roller coasters with my team — it couldn’t be better.”

As the sun began to set over Knott’s Berry Farm and students made their way back to their buses, there was a shared sense of pride among the team. They had spoken with clarity, courage, and conviction — and the Screamin’ Eagles soared into the sky, quite literally.

With the 2025 competitive season wrapping up, GabSpeech & Debate is looking forward to the National Championships this summer In Iowa.  

AI assisted in creation of this article

Screamin’ Eagles On Fire At the Hottest Tournament of the Year

By Gwendolyn Chu and Ximena Mercado

Just after returning from a highly successful State Championships, the Junior Varsity and Novice Screaming’ Eagles competed at the Southern California’s Debate League Novice Champs Tournament on May 9th and 10th. The debaters competed at La Cañada High Friday Afternoon, and Gabrielino hosted the speech tournament on Saturday. 

At Novice Champs, the Screamin’ Eagles put in the work to make sure they are memorized, in time, and have the proper blocking. This tournament allows for students to experiment with new events and play around with what works.  Junior, Joaquin Paulson-Moore, switched from Original Oratory and Dramatic Interpretation to Informative and Humorous Interpretation! Novice Champs provided an opportunity for speakers to completely switch it up and to grow and reflect as a speaker. 

The debaters had a great time at La Canada High School on Friday night.  After three rounds of debate, the team headed home and prepared for the Speech portion on Saturday.   And the heat.  The Saturday portion of the competition was the hottest Novice Champs Tournament this millennium.

With the first round beginning at eight Saturday morning, competitors headed to their first rounds. “It was really fun just experimenting with what worked with my scripts and doing things differently every round, especially because it's my first time doing them at a tournament!” stated Junior Varsity, Emily Mai, who competed in Public Forum, Declamation, and Dramatic Interpretation at Novice Champs. “I wasn’t really nervous because at that point, I was just trying to have fun in 100 degree weather.” Emily Mai was the champion of Declamation and placed 3rd with Public Forum along with her partner, Ryan Phung. 

Despite the hot temperatures, our Eagles soared high.  After three preliminary rounds, our Varisities unravelled colorful posters revealing who broke to finals. The top seven in every event make it to the final round. By the end, we had a staggering 48 of our JV and Novice Screamin’ Eagles make it to the finals of Novice Champs.  Gabrielino won seven of the 12 events!  Way to go Eagles!  Congratulations to Emily Mai (DEC), Sophia Sanchez (DI), Bart & Carl (DUO), Nathan Perez (HI), Trenton Nam (INFO), Classic Bob (IX), Amy Liang (POI) for winning their events. 

Every competitor truly exemplified what it means to be a member of this speech team through their hard work and dedication. Humorous Interpretation Event Leader and Captain Veena Sundaramoorhty comments on these Eagles’ dedication, exclaiming, “I'm so proud of how hard they worked this year. I know the work they had under their belt helped them do great this weekend.”

The team ended the 100 degree day with over 200 team points and won the tournament for the 28th straight year. 

Now, 23 of our Screamin’ Eagles will represent Gabrielino High School at the National Championship in Des Moines, Iowa for the 29th year in a row! Good luck Eagles!

State Championship Tournament in Los Angeles

By Jojo Scannell 

As the calendar turned from April to May, The Gabrielino Speech and Debate Team stood outside their school with the luggage, and speech gear ready to leave for the California State Championships.  When the buses pulled up, The Screamin’ Eagles piled their informative boards, POI binders, and freshly pressed suits into the back a yellow school bus and made their way to Culver City to compete in the 2025 California State Championships. 

After dropping off the debate coaches and lone debater, Aaron, the buses drove to the hotel.  It had been 16 years since the State Championships were last in Los Angeles.   And that time, back in 2009, was also at Culver City High School.  

Once everyone got into their hotel rooms, they had to get food and start preparing for the start of the Speech portion on Saturday morning.  From running lines with coaches, to full run throughs, Gabrielino speech was steadily preparing for the competition ahead. Elizabeth Peng (Freshman, Dramatic Interpretation) recalls, “[The day before] was hectic. People were doing their hair while they were getting coaching and then everyone was just switching out between coaching, but it was really fun, and it got me hyped up and excited for the next day.” 

At the team dinner, there was an amalgamation of meals, different for each hotel room.  GabSpeech sat together in the hotel lobby to watch each other perform. State tradition is for a handful of competitors, chosen by the coaches, to get the chance to perform their speech for the team. These performances are a celebration of the work that those competitors had put into their speech throughout the year.  

There were two surprises the night before the competition. As competitors were getting ready to sleep to save the energy for the day to come, two alternates who came on the trip to learn and support their teammates, Elyse Luo (Junior, National Extemporaneous) and Alessander Melgarez Diaz (Sophomore, Humorous Interpretation), were bumped into the tournament due to last minute drops.   With barely 12 hours of preparation, they were both going to compete alongside their teammates the next day.  

“I was not going to compete originally, so I was watching the extempers practice, and then suddenly I got a call from one of the coaches saying I was in the tournament.  I thought he was pranking me, but it turns out I was in the tournament, and all the extempers and I celebrated, and then I had to go prep.” explains Luo.

The morning of May 3rd consisted of smoothing down stray hairs, sealing meticulously applied makeup with setting powder and spray, and once more piling 42 competitors onto the bus that would take them to Culver City High School, where they would compete at the highest level California has to offer. 

The tournament itself was buzzing with energy, “It was really high energy, we were all supporting each other, and when the extempers weren’t prepping we went to go see other people speaking in other [event] patterns, it was a really supportive atmosphere.” describes Natalia San Lucas (Junior, National Extemporaneous).

The team’s determination shined at the championship.   After three preliminary rounds on Saturday 24 of the 42 qualifiers qualified for the semi-final round.  11 broke to the final round, and senior Aaron Situ came home brandishing a first place trophy in Lincoln-Douglas debate. The team's collective effort at the State Tournament delivered a rank of the third best program in all of California; the teams highest ranking since 2017 (2nd). The Screamin' Eagle were named the number one school in the southern two thirds of California, and the top public school program in the entirety of California. It was the 5th year in a row, and the 20th time in the last 25 years the team has been the top program in the southern half of California.

“It was cool that it was in Los Angeles,” said one of the Gab coaches.  “As the team was walking to the bus, we saw so many parents who were able to come and see the students and cheer on the kids.  You don’t have that at most state tournaments.”

Another coach quipped, "we have an amazing group of seniors. They were freshmen when they all came back from Covid banishment. They have been excited and hard working all four years of high school."

Even beyond the team’s successes, the students themselves were the embodiment of support for one another. From cheering teammates on in final rounds, to telling jokes in hotel rooms, the Gabrielino Speech and Debate community shines brighter than any first place trophy.

The team now shifts its attention to the Southern California Debate League’s Novice Championships next weekend taking place at Gabrielino!   

Way to go Screamin’ Eagles!!!

Extemp Excels as 24 Screamin’ Eagles Named All-State

After yet another incredible showing at the California State Speech Championships, Gabrielino learned two dozen of their members were named All-State.

Extempers dominated the team.  In United State Extemp (USX), Senior Sofia Villagra was named to the first team along with junior Natalia San Lucas and senior Matt Tafoya.  In International Extemp (IX), junior Carter Mak was named First Team, senior Issac Chan made the second team and sophomore Cathryn Abrishami was named an honorable mention.  

“To get 6 extempers on the All-State Team is incredible,” commented one of the Screamin’ Eagles’ coaches.  “It is a testament to how hard they’ve worked all year long and for the juniors and seniors, how hard they have worked since joining our team.”

Other students earning recognition State Champion Aaron Situ was first on the team after winning the State Championship in Lincoln Douglas Debate.  Kara Mak who lost the State Championship on a tie-breaker was also named to the 1st team.  

The second team included senior Shawn Cheng in Declamation (DEC) and juniors Archie Lia in Drama and Valerie Leung in Advocacy.  Sophomores Jolie Wang in Original Prose & Poetry and Oliver Li in Program Oral. Interp. (POI) were also included in the second team.

 Honorable Mentions were led by a trio of students in POI: freshman Cali Sadsad and seniors Veena Sundaramoorthy and Chenlu Yang.  Seniors Gabby Sanchez (Advocacy), Nathan Li (DEC), Jojo Scannell (Drama) and Ximena Mercado (DEC) were also named Honorable Mention along with juniors Cedric Hua (Informative) and Kayley Thai (Drama).  The team was rounded out by sophomore Rachel Yip in Humor.  

Over the past 29 years, almost 500 Gabrielino Speech Team members have been named to the California All-State Teams.  Way to go Screamin’ Eagles!!!

Aaron Makes Debate History With Championship

By Shawn Cheng

When I told Aaron I’d be “glazing” him up in this article, he replied casually, “Is it glazing if it’s true?” At first, the remark seems silly until you remember he’s Aaron Situ, the California State Champion in Lincoln-Douglass debate, an event where confidence is crucial for crafting a persuasive argument. Looking back, I realized Aaron’s lightning-fast response revealed not only confidence, but wit and charisma, making him one of the strongest debaters in Gabrielino Speech and Debate history.

Earlier this month, our team sent 42 state qualifiers to the 2025 California State Tournament in Culver City, Los Angeles. This year’s tournament was held unusually late, and it would be an understatement to say that tensions were high: some were cramming for AP exams, some were meditating during Brawl Stars matches, and others were eating lots of Jersey Mike’s sandwiches. For Aaron, he had already made his way to the state quarterfinal round last year, so this year, he was determined to go farther.  

After his debating four opponents and in front of 8 judges in the four preliminary rounds, Aaron’s record was 6-2.  He would be seeded 4th in the octo-final round of the final 16 debaters.

Aaron won “Octos” on a 2-1 decision (2 of the 3 judges affirmed Aaron won the round).  And he quickly found himself in the exact same spot he was in last year, competing in the State Quarter Final Round.   However, the result would not be the same this year.  Aaron won the Quarter-Finals on a 3-0 decision.   

Almost immediately, the semi-final round took place and in a blink of an eye, Aaron found himself debating a student from an elite all-boys school in the Silicon Valley area.  Semis and Finals both have five judges in the round.  Four adjudicators said Aaron won.  And just like that, Aaron became Gabrielino’s first ever competitor to make it to the State Final Round of Lincoln Douglas Debate.  

Several hours after the final round concluded, Aaron was brought out on the stage of the Culver City High School’s auditorium.   Standing next to his final round opponent Aaron learned after a 4-1 decision, he was the 2025 California State Champion in Lincoln Douglas Debate.  

To anyone who knows Aaron, his victory came as no surprise. He placed seventh at state last year, and preparing for his state tournament further honed his skills. Whether working directly with coaches, competing in nearly every tournament, or turning Mr. Facher’s AP Lit class into a high-level debate on whether AI should be allowed in schools, Aaron prepared meticulously for this moment. Though he may not have convinced Mr. Facher, he won over the rest of the state (and the class) with his sharp reasoning.

Congratulations to Aaron Situ, our 2025 State Champion in Lincoln-Douglas Debate.  He is Gab Speech & Debate’s 25th State Champion.   As one coach put it, “I think Aaron is simply better than the rest of his competition.” We couldn’t agree more. Aaron, your relentless dedication and passion shone through every round, and we can’t wait to see the heights you’ll reach at nationals, college and beyond.

photo courtesy of CHSSA

Fight for Nationals at Last Chance Qualifier

By Liliana Simpson-Castaneda

For seniors, prom is one of the most exciting nights of the year. Students book hotels dedicated to the process of getting ready—doing elaborate hair-dos and intricate makeup looks. But for four seniors on the Gabrielino Speech and Debate team, booking a hotel the day of prom wasn’t for the purpose of getting ready; it was for the chance of going to the National Tournament.

During the last weekend in April, 25 members of the Gabrielino Speech and Debate team competed, virtually, at the NSDA Last Chance National Qualifier. Last Chance is an online tournament where students from across the country compete for the opportunity to go to Nationals. 

The speech portion of the tournament, which consisted of between 90 and 220 competitors in each of the eight events, began with the first two rounds on Friday and concluded on Saturday with rounds 3 and 4, quarterfinals, semifinals and the final round.  

The 4 seniors competing at Last Chance—with the help of the Gabrielino coaching staff—were able to book a hotel conference room for Friday, April 25th: the same day as prom. This hotel was just 15 minutes away from the venue where the dance would be held. 

“We were packing up everything and getting ready the moment our (2nd) round ended. It was a little all over the place but we managed to… get dressed and make it to prom on time,” said Gwendolyn Chu (Senior competing in Dramatic Interpretation).

Although none of the seniors were able to qualify through the NSDA Last Chance Qualifier, this experience exemplifies the resilience and problem-solving skills that are learned through speech and debate. It demonstrates how the push for excellence is never ending, even when a tournament is the same day as senior prom.  The coaches knew the events were on the same day, but not at the same time and found a way to give the seniors a chance to do both, if they wanted.

“Last Chance let me perform my drama for the last time. It made me realize just how far I’ve come and how much I’ve improved,” said Ximena Mercado (Senior competing in Dramatic Interpretation).

At Last Chance, competitors had to make it through two days of intense competition. On April 25th, there were two preliminary rounds after school on Friday. The next day, there were two more prelim rounds and 2 to 3 elimination rounds, depending on the number of competitors in each event. That meant some eagles competed in as many as 5 rounds on Saturday.

“I get really motivated and ready to compete before tournaments. That’s how I stayed focused through Last Chance,” described Bling Bling Lau (Freshman competing in National Extemp). 

Of the 25 members, 5 placed in the top 16 of their respective events, qualifying to Nationals. Each event had well over 100 entries. Junior Cedric Hua qualified in Informative. Junior Kayley Thai qualified in Dramatic Interpretation. Juniors Zach Tang and Jaslin Situ qualified in Duo Interpretation. Sophomore Cathryn Abrishami qualified in International Extemp. 

“The tournament is made to be stressful since it’s a qualifier and I had never performed online before with my visual aids. So when I qualified, I felt happy and relieved,” said Hua.

The NSDA Last Chance Qualifier has provided a special opportunity for Gabrielino Speech and Debate to send a larger team to Nationals. The 5 qualifiers from Last Chance will join the 17 other members of the Gabrielino Speech and Debate team that are headed to Des Moines, Iowa for the National Tournament. 

“At first I felt nervous, but as Last Chance progressed, I realized I was really proud of how far I came,” stated Thai. “I’m so excited to be able to see other speeches and build bonds with other people going to Nationals.”

In total, Gabrielino will be sending 23 competitors to Iowa this June. This is the largest team Gabrielino has ever sent to Nationals. Once there, students will compete in events with over 250 competitors, attempting to make it all the way to the top. The team will also hope to be named a School of Excellence for the 18th straight year, which is given to the top 20 schools at the National Tournament. 

Good luck Screamin’ Eagles!

17 Going to Nationals

By Peyton Ong

“Everyone was nervous. I mean, it’s Nat Quals. But you could tell that everyone was equally as excited--these are all people who are genuinely passionate about what they’re about to say.”

Cedric Hua, a junior and varsity team member, offered his perspective as to how he and the rest of the team felt on the precipice of the National Qualifier Tournament. In order to make it to the National Tournament, speakers must earn third place or above at the National Qualifier, or Nat Quals.  32 Screamin’ Eagles attempted to earn their spots to the highest level of competition possible. Team members have been preparing for the competition for weeks, dedicating themselves to extra practice and almost entirely reworking speeches.  

The tournament kicked off on Friday, March 7th. Events competed during one of two time slots, pattern A or B. Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Original Oratory, and Program Oral Interpretation (POI) began right after school and made up pattern A. Humorous Interpretation, Informative Speaking, International Extemporaneous and National Extemporaneous kicked off shortly after as pattern B. 

Team members had a chance to bond as they crammed into the speech classroom to get ready. They found solidarity and a moment to breathe within the mess, as everyone was equally anxious for the two days ahead of them. 

Pattern A completed 2 preliminary rounds on the first day of the tournament. Carter Mak, a competitor in International Extemp, explained his first-round experience. “It was a super nervous atmosphere, since you knew everyone was going in with the goal to beat you. They’re visually stressing out. But I realized that I needed to calm down because everyone was making everyone else nervous and making this positive feedback loop of nervousness.”

Although the first day of Nat Quals wrapped up a little after dark, the Screamin’ Eagles never let themselves be taken out of competition mode. The second day of the tournament would begin when the sun rose. Upon the arrival of the next morning, pattern B competitors crowded in the speech room to get their hair and makeup done. After they left to enter their second preliminary round, pattern A competitors filed in to get ready. Everyone’s final preliminary round came quickly after and then came the wait for semifinals. The top 12-16 competitors (depending on the number of people entered) in each event would advance to semifinals. 

Almost every one of The Screamin’ Eagles advanced to their semifinal round, now needing to place within the top six competitors to make it to the final round. Those who didn’t advance had the chance to watch their competition and teammates. Whereas their preliminary rounds were dependent on the views of two judges, team members who advanced to semifinals were now speaking in front of three judges, the competitors in the round and several more spectators.

Semifinals passed almost too quickly for some, and it was time to await the announcements for final round competitors. The top six individuals (or pairs) of each event would compete one last time in front of five judges. If they earned first, second, or third place, they would be officially Iowa bound. 

22 Eagles advanced to the final rounds, much to the joy of the team. They now had to face competing in front of the largest crowd of the tournament, consisting of the five judges, their competitors (either still in the tournament or eliminated in a previous round), and their eventmates. All finalists had the same goal: make it to the top three. Spectators from the rounds described it as the most charged round of the tournament, with all competitors bringing the most energy, volume, and emotion possible. 

Before they knew it, the team was again thrown into a tense waiting period as the finals results were tabulated. Roughly two hours elapsed before final decisions were made, giving the Screamin’ Eagles valuable time to relax and reflect on their performances thus far. While all team members were filled with anticipation, many also carried the anxiety of whether or not their hard work would be able to carry them to Iowa. These speakers had been working hard for five days a week, but the preferences of tournaments are impossible to predict. The outcome was heavily dependent on the five judges in their final round, but the lack of even a single point could determine whether or not they would be attending the National Tournament. Then the announcement finally came--it was time for awards.

When the awards ceremony had concluded, there were 14 GabSpeech members who were officially Nationals bound. Congratulations to Josephine Scannell, Rachel Yip & Jolie Wang, Keilani Lee & Jordan Luu, Veena Sundaramoorthy, Marco Cisneros-Farber, Carter Mak, Isaac Chan, Kara Mak, Chenlu Yang, Oliver Li, Natalia San Lucas, and Aaron Situ! These team members will travel to Iowa this summer to compete at the National Tournament.   GabSpeech was also named Speech Quals Tournament Champions as it has been for each of the 20 years the award has been in place.  

However, the Nationals Team was not yet finalized. 

Nat Quals Debate took place the following weekend, only spanning one Saturday. The tournament followed the same structure as Nat Quals Speech, with three preliminary rounds, semifinals, and a final round. A handful of competitors from Nat Quals Speech were in attendance at Nat Quals Debate such as Aaron Situ. Situ qualified in U.S Extemporaneous at Nat Quals Speech, but was entering Nat Quals Debate in Lincoln Douglas Debate. League rules regulate that qualifying in a debate event takes precedence over speech. If Situ qualified in Lincoln Douglas, his spot in U.S. Extemporaneous would go to the next runner-up. 

Situ took home 1st place at the tournament and will be attending the National Tournament this summer competing in Lincoln Douglas. He will be accompanied by teammates Matthew Tafoya & Joaquin Vivar (Public Forum, 2nd Place).   Because of the great showing in both speech and debate, the Screamin’ Eagles won the East Los Angeles District Championship for the 17th time.  

And let’s not forget senior, Sovia Villagra has already qualified for the National Championships because of her top 14 finish in America last summer. 

That makes the number of total national qualifiers for 2025 to 17. All of our nationally qualified are still working hard to prepare for the competition, although the team is still unfinalized. The Last Chance tournament in April will give Screamin’ Eagles, as the name implies, a last chance to qualify for the national tournament. 

Best of luck Screamin’ Eagles.  

The Time’s Ticking 

By Addyson Diep

Back-to-back tournaments. The Southern California Debate League’s State Qualifying tournament in debate took place the weekend after the speech competition. Those in speech had another chance to qualify for the 2025 State Championships, but this time, in debate.

The tournament was at La Cañada High School, where the Eagles got the chance to qualify in their debate event if they did not qualify in their respective speech event. The weeks leading up to the big day were stressful and busy. Not only did the Eagles have to prepare for their speech events, but they also had to work on debate simultaneously. Just as the debaters were intensely watching the time on their stopwatch, the time was counting down for this last qualifying tournament. 

In some cases, Eagles may qualify for both their speech and debate event. Senior and Debate Event Leader, Aaron Situ qualified in both United States Extemp (USX) for speech and Lincoln-Douglas (LD) for debate. Due to the state’s rules, you can only qualify for one event, which forced Situ to drop his USX. “I was very nervous because we were debating a new topic that I hadn’t competed with before, so I didn't know what to expect. For most of my high school career, I've been focusing mainly on debate, because I like it more as an activity. But compared to Extemp, I want to go as far as I can in LD, especially coming up in seventh last year. So I'm trying to go back this year and win it all.” 

The tournament was exhausting. Compared to speech, debate was entirely different. There were no specific, set number of rounds, and continued with eliminations until there were only the qualifying spots left. This meant that the tournament could’ve been going all day long with no set end. From the many hours dedicated to researching both the negative and affirmative sides of a topic, to the endless rounds of practice debating, it would have all paid off. 

Competing in the Public Forum Debate, or PUFO, was a team of Joaquin Vivar and Matthew Tafoya. The two headed into the tournament with a strong and confident mindset. They debated many different opponents arguing the merits of artificial intelligence in the education atmosphere.  The Vivar and Tafoya duo, also known as “Mattquin,” made it all the way to the final round, but lost and thus failed to qualify for the State tournament in PUFO. However, they are the first alternates to go to Culver City if a spot opens in their event.  Vivar states, “I enjoyed debating as usual. Our opponents made interesting arguments that we took note of and learned from. Despite the upsetting results and the fact that we were one off was disappointing, but I had fun nevertheless.”  

The qualifying tournament proved difficult. Aaron Situ was our only qualifier in debate for the State championship that will take place in Culver City. Despite the disappointing results, the Eagles have taken this as a learning experience and are striving to work even harder from here on out. 

And no one puts it better than Oliver Li, who also competed at State Quals Debate, “Whenever you hit rock bottom, you have to get back up. And that’s what we’ll all do now. Get back up and try again.”

Good luck to Aaron Situ who will be representing Gabrielino High School in Debate. We are immensely proud of you, Eagles. We are rooting for you! 

Stating Our Journey

By Addyson Diep

One final tournament. From the beginning of the year, seniors were told, “This is your last Icebreaker. This is your last Gab Gab Gab. This is your last Fall Varsity.”  But it wasn’t until the Southern California Debate League’s (SCDL) State Qualifying tournament for speech that this would be their last guaranteed official chance to perform and give their speeches during their high school careers.

That last opportunity came this past weekend. Being one of the biggest competitions of the year, there was immense pressure on the Screamin’ Eagles. This determined if the Eagles’ time was up for performing their current speeches in cases for the Novice or Junior Varsity, or last time performing at all for the seniors. Qualifying for the State Championship tournament would mean that they would get one more chance to perform, which would take place in Culver City. 

Being the first time the team has taken a bus to a school this year, it was filled with both excitement and anxiety. Arriving at Gabrielino before the sun rose, the Eagles made their way down to Schurr High School where they would compete and win their 28th consecutive SCDL Championship title. 

Novice and freshman Dylan Nea felt the intense pressure competing at his first ever State Quals. “It was nerve-wracking. However, being able to perform with my duo partner, Chase, helped me be more confident and enjoy each performance.” Competing at his first state qualifier was no feat, but being able to rely on a Varsity helped him overcome his nerves and ultimately qualify for State. “I had high expectations for myself. I wanted to qualify for state and I’m really happy my hard work paid off and the results showed that.” 

To secure their spot in the State Championship tournament, competitors must be in the final round and place at least 7th, 6th, or 5th, depending on the event. The arduous and exhausting competition began at sunrise and ended well into the night, marking the longest league competition of the season. The meet consisted of three prelim rounds, a semi-final round, and a final round.

Sophomore and Program Oral Interpretation (POI) event leader Oliver Li explains, “State Quals is always one of the hardest tournaments of the year. Building up to the meet, you can feel tensions and nerves in the team. Nothing is guaranteed. For the team, we did what we were supposed to do, and getting the results was a big sigh of relief.” 

As each round ended, the team met back at their designated spot. The nervousness the team felt before was now gone as the day went on. From eating the spam musubis event leaders made for their event, to the small talk about how everyone’s round went, the team was having fun and enjoying the moment. The tournament was filled with excitement and laughter. 

The anticipated State Qualifying competition was an emotional rollercoaster. Senior Team Co-Captain Jojo Scannell described with a heavy heart of what could’ve been her last tournament saying, “It was super emotional and not just because I got to perform my last script or qualify in my first event, but also being able to see the freshman I worked with all year long qualify for the State Championships. It was a great send off to my league years in Speech and Debate.”

The team’s extensive hours of endless practice paid off. From the total of 38 Screamin’ Eagle Qualifiers, the respective events Program Oral Interpretation (POI) had a total of 5 state qualifiers, and Extemp (both United States and International Extemp) had 8 qualifiers. Even more impressive, Dramatic Interpretation (DI) swept 1st through 4th (all Screamin’ Eagles) and Declamation (DEC) took 1st through 3rd.  And for the 28th straight year, GabSpeech secured their title as the league’s best earning a massive total of 257 points. 

And to all those who did not qualify, sophomore Oliver Li says that “it’s only up from here. Everyone hits lows in their career, and with those will come the motivation to propel them to reach new highs. You just have to keep going.” 

Great job Eagles. We are so proud of you. Good luck at the State Championship!

photo by Blua

Sovia is Superior at Spring Debate

The Eaton Canyon fire forced the Southern California Debate League to postpone the Spring Debate Tournament until February.  Sadly, the new date conflicted with Gabrielino’s prior commitment to participate in the Stanford University National Invitational; however, two of the Screamin’ Eagles did venture to Schurr High School for the league’s second varsity debate tournament of the year.

After four preliminary rounds and an elimination round, Senior Sofia “Sovia” Villagra emerged as champion of Lincoln Douglas Debate.   She was able to pair the win with her 2nd place finish at the league’s Fall Debate tournament to earn an automatic birth in the 2025 California State Championships.  

Villagra piled up a 10-0 combined record from both tournaments and she won all but one of the  judges’ ballots.  “I really enjoy debating,” the four-year senior said.  “I’m really excited to get to compete at the State Championships.”  

She won’t have to wait long or go very far, the State Championships are in Culver City in May.

Congratulations Sovia, our first qualifier for State, 2025.

file photo by Peyton Ong

Success at Stanford Invite

By Peyton Ong

The Stanford University National Invitational Speech and Debate Tournament , one of the few online tournaments of the year, was the last tournament before the highly anticipated four-week State and National Qualifier Tournament Season. While a couple team members decided to compete from home, the majority of Screamin’ Eagles spent the day occupying various classrooms on the Gabrielino Campus. The opportunity to have such a large performance space was experienced differently by members of the team; some felt that it aided their focus, while others noticed and were impacted by the lack of a physical audience.

Jaslin Situ & Zachary Tang (Varsities, Juniors), champions of Duo Interpretation at this tournament, were able to effectively utilize the larger space for their performances. Their event requires more blocking (movement/object acting) than others, and Situ gave some insight as to how their performances played out. “Our Duo requires a lot of space,” she said, “it was a little tricky since there’s tables and chairs and desks you have to move around, and you have to keep in mind that there’s only so much the camera can see.” 

Situ and Tang weren’t the only team members who felt limited by the virtual gaze of their devices. Owen Dowell (Varsity, Junior) also felt negatively about the computer’s restrictions. “You can’t feed off of people’s energy; there’s no way to really tell or see their facial expressions because the only thing you can see is yourself,” said Dowell. “I performed my oratory, and usually in-person judges are nodding or making eye contact, they can signal whether or not they understand. It’s sort of like a shot in the dark with virtual tournaments. Are they picking up what I’m putting down, or are they just listening to how I deliver it?” 

Thankfully, none of our Screamin’ Eagles seemed to face technical issues during this tournament. Dowell recounted his experience with a previous tournament where tech troubles hurt his performance. “I was performing in Last Chance [a virtual tournament which is a literal last chance to qualify for the National Tournament], and I didn’t realize that my microphone was blowing out during the entire thing. The sensitivity kept rising, to the point where a little whisper would just make this awful loud noise. I didn’t even figure it out until the fourth round.” 

Evangeline Chen (Freshman, Novice) stated that “having an entire classroom to yourself was super fun, it’s different because you’re by yourself and the only thing you can really do is speech. It forces you to lock in and I felt super focused at this tournament.”

The team was extremely thankful for the opportunity to compete against over 3300 students from over 360 schools from 40 different states.  “The team doesn’t compete at this tournament if it was in person,” one team official said.  “The bus and hotel costs would have been over $15,000. We don’t have that kind of money in our program.”  

“It was really cool,” commented one student.  “The parents brought in pizza and snacks for us so we could eat all we wanted, meet new people on our huge team and hang out in between the rounds.”

After the four preliminary rounds, The Screamin’ Eagles advanced 28 students to the quarterfinal round, 20 to the Semi-Finals and 15 to finals. Senior Ximena Mercado was the Champion of Declamation and juniors Jaslin Situ and Zack Tang won Duo Interpretation. In addition to trophies, Stanford awards all champions of varsity events a wonderful gift from the fellow Silicon Valley Area resident, Apple.  This year, Ximena, Jaslin and Zach each received Apple AirPods.  

Team members are gearing up for one of the biggest tournaments of the season: the State Qualifier tournament will be happening later this month, where we will find out which of our Screamin’ Eagles are headed to the State Tournament in May!

Chillin’ Out at Spring Novice 

By Peyton Ong

The Screamin’ Eagles’ stretch of speech & debate tournaments continued this weekend at the Spring Novice tournament. Being one of the last tournaments before the state qualifier, novice and junior varsity (first or second year) team members were able to use the opportunity to refine their speeches. Spring Novice tends to lean towards being a more relaxed tournament, with no final rounds and no numerical rankings.  Instead, the top speaker earns a medal, the top ranked 10% of each event earn Superior, and the top 11-20% earn Excellence.

Team members arriving at South Pasadena high school were welcomed with bitterly cold weather, although the chill was soon forgotten as competing members got in their practice “round zeros”. The newly paired Kristy Cai (JV, Junior) and Nathan Perez (JV, Sophomore) could be spotted running their new duo, which they had impressively prepared only about a week before the tournament. Before long, pairings had been announced, and competitors were off to their rounds.

Novice Jayla Tran (Freshman), competing in her first year of Dramatic Interpretation, shared about her rounds and experience. “This tournament was definitely an opportunity to practice my speech, but this tournament was fun for me as well! One of my judges complimented my outfit, and I figured out how to hold longer eye contact.” 

Ryan Phung (Novice, Freshman) shared similar sentiments. “My drama round was super relaxed, the other competitors and judges were really nice and I felt at ease.”

Varsity Screamin’ Eagles weren’t absent from the tournament; some came to watch their fellow teammates and give them feedback on their speeches. Persephane & Peonie Hoang attended, and were able to spectate the rounds of some newer speakers. “We were super proud of all our novices and JV’s, and the first years who have grown so much from the beginning of the year!” they stated. 

The atmosphere inside and outside of rounds felt almost serene, compared to the hustle of qualifier and varsity tournaments. Novices and JVs had the opportunity to bond with their peers and upperclassmen without the stress of making it to the final round. Teammates could be spotted eating together, debriefing their rounds, or simply chatting in between rounds. 

Overall, Gabrielino Speech & Debate walked away with 14 champions! Congratulations to Emily Mai, Archie Lai, Chayse Hoang, Luke Christensen, Amy Liang, Nathan Perez & Kristy Cai, Aubrey Salaz, Gordon Zhen, Silver De Leon, Carl Aaron Lu and Bart Tran.  Extra Congrats to freshman Cali Sadsad who won both Program Oral Interp and Dramatic Interp

The Team now ramps up to compete at the Stanford University Invitational this coming weekend.  

Way to go Screamin’ Eagles

Spring Varsity Win Nets Two Legs

By Peyton Ong

January marks both the beginning of the year, and the beginning of an intense stretch of tournaments for the Screamin’ Eagles. Kicking off the cavalcade of competitions is the Southern California Debate League’s 2025 Spring Varsity tournament. Spring Varsity can be considered as a part two to the Fall Varsity tournament in December, where competitors have the opportunity to complete their auto qualification to the State Tournament. 

The team went into the tournament with 12 “legs”, or 12 chances to automatically qualify. A Screamin’ Eagle needs 2 legs, one earned at Fall Varsity and the other at Spring Varsity. They can be earned by winning first or second place, but a competitor needs at least one first place leg to complete a set. If a speaker fails to complete their set, the leg is lost and they must attend the State Qualifier tournament in late February. 

Going against 23 other schools and over 500 entries, the Screamin’ Eagles needed to go into the competition with high passion and energy.  They only had two preliminary rounds to make their performance count. Owen Dowell (Junior, Varsity) said that the minimal rounds “made Spring Var a little scary, but in a fun way. One bad round can mean that you get knocked out and don’t get to compete for the rest of the day. I saw everybody bring their A+ game to this tournament because of that.”

GabSpeech had over 70 entries advance to the semifinal round. Chenlu Yang (Senior, Varsity) advanced to the semifinals of Program Oral Interpretation, and gave some insight on her experience. “Semis was a learning experience for sure. I didn’t get much feedback from my judges, but I picked up some things from the competition. I was also really proud to watch my teammates compete and see them advance!” 

Finals were posted via posters around 3pm, and the entire tournament crowded around the small sheets. 25 Screamin’ Eagles had advanced to finals. Every team member who didn’t break piled into the final rooms to watch and support their teammates, and learn from the best speakers of the tournament. The seven top speakers in each event finished performing around 3:30 time, and then began the anticipation filled wait for awards. “In between finals and awards I was actually kind of chilling out.” said Cathryn Abrishami (Sophomore, Junior Varsity). “My goal for this tournament was to break finals, and I hit that goal. I felt accomplished and that I really gave a good performance, and the idea of my placement didn’t really affect that.”

Awards finally began as the sky began to darken, and Screamin’ Eagles waited with bated breath to learn who completed their legs. Sophomores Rachel Yip and Jolie Wang completed their leg in Duo Interpretation, automatically qualifying them to the State Tournament! Gabrielino won five of the 12 events, brought home 25 individual trophies and took 1st place, overall at the tournament with over 200 points.   It was the 25th year in a row, GabSpeech won Spring Varsity.   

Screamin’ Eagles aren’t out of the running yet; the State Qualifying tournament will occur in February, giving them another chance to make it to State. The team is working hard in preparation, also getting ready for the Spring Novice tournament this weekend and Spring Debate in two weeks.  

Chase Ong (Junior, Varsity) gave his thoughts on the outcome of the tournament. “This was a prime example of how speech is always going to be subjective. You never know what a judge will be looking for, and every round is like performing for a completely new audience. And it’s not like you can change your speech in the middle of a tournament. The only thing you can do is give the performance 100%.”

25 Straight at Fall Varsity

By Peyton Ong

This weekend, the Gabrielino Screamin’ Eagles gathered at Mark Keppel High School for the first time in almost 30 years to attend the Southern California Debate League’s Fall Varsity Speech Tournament. As they awaited the announcements of the first round pairings, team members went through their practice “round zero”, talked with friends, and discussed both their hopes and anxieties of the competition. 

SCDL Varsity tournaments are opportunities for competitors to earn “legs”, two of which are needed to auto qualify to the state tournament in May. Legs have specific criteria: they can only be earned at the two league varsity tournaments held this school year, they are only earned by the champion and second place winners of each event, and you must have at least one first place leg in order to auto qualify. The pressure was on for Screamin’ Eagles who wanted to have a guaranteed spot for May. 

Owen Dowell (Varsity) explained his feelings on the stakes and pressure of the tournament: “I went into this tournament kind of nervous and really wanting to earn a leg, and before rounds started I found myself focusing on all the things that could go wrong or what I would do if I ended up not getting the rank I wanted. But then I realized that (mentality) was literally my O.O [Original Oratory speech]; it’s about how we tend to focus on the negative, and that’s exactly what I was doing. I needed to just focus on one performance at a time, and get through the tournament.” 

Round one began around 8:00 A.M, although the official start of the tournament sparked some feelings for senior and team co-captain, Kara Mak. “Fall Var didn’t feel real; it dawned on me that this was my LAST Fall Var. The energy felt different to me, but I didn’t let it affect my performance.” The three preliminary rounds lasted for about an hour and a half each, and Mak stated in between rounds, she debriefed with teammates, had some food, and opportunities to bond with the underclassmen. 

Valerie Leung (Varsity) shared similar experiences, and also gave her thoughts on the tournament. “It was interesting because I got to see a lot of new speeches, and I was able to learn from all of them. It’s early in the year so there’s still work to do, and with everything I was able to take away from the tournament I think I can definitely improve.” 

Final rounds were announced around 2:15 P.M, with an impressive 39 individuals from Gabrielino advancing to the top seven competitors in each of their events. In an even more awesome feat, both the Declamation and Duo final rounds were composed entirely of Gabrielino speakers.  Of all the speakers at the tournament, the top seven were all part of GabSpeech.

Senior Isaac Chan (Varsity) advanced to the final round of International Extemporaneous. “I didn’t expect to break, since everyone in my third round was really tough competition.” stated Chan. “It was my first time breaking at Fall Varsity in all my years in speech. I had a lot of fun at this tournament, I went in with a good mindset and I cooked.”

Awards were announced around 4:30 P.M, and the team anticipatedly waited to see who was able to score a leg. The Gabrielino Screamin’ Eagles had a total of 13 team members earn legs at the tournament, and 2 members earned legs in each of their two events. Congratulations to Oliver Li (Program Oral Interpretation, Spontaneous Argument) and Chase Ong (Humorous Interpretation, Duo Interpretation) for earning legs in both of their events!  

GabSpeech won six of the 12 events offered.  Kara Mak (senior) won Original Oratory, Shawn Cheng (senior) won Declamation (OI), Gabriella Sanchez (senior) won Original Advocacy, Oliver Li (sophomore) won Program Oral Interp (POI/TI).  Junior Chase Ong won Humorous Interp.   Chase also teamed up with freshman Dylan Nea to win Duo Interpretation.

Gabrielino took home first place in the entire tournament out of 21 schools after racking up 194 total points.   The second place team had 33.  It was the 25th straight year Gabrielino has won this particular meet. 

The Screamin’ Eagles now take an extended break until after the holidays, when the spring tournaments begin to roll around. The next tournament will be the Southern California Debate League’s  Spring Debate in January. 

“The L.A Dodgers are morally obligated to provide recreational services to families that have been displaced by construction.” In the wake of their 2024 World Series win, the L.A Dodgers 

were a subject of this year’s Fall Debate tournament. Dozens of our Screamin’ Eagles spent the weekend of November 1st and 2nd at Alhambra High School, going up against over 20 other teams from the Southern California Debate League,  

Jennifer Quach (Varsity) and Andrew Lai (Varsity) were the recipients of the Dodgers Debate question, competing in Parliamentary Debate. Pairs are given a question, and then allowed 20 minutes to prepare an answer. “I think when we got that question, we were kind of confused since we had no idea what it was about.” said Quach. “After doing some research, we were able to form a case that the city of Los Angeles was responsible for displacing people to build the Dodger stadium. The city wanted the stadium to be built, and they were the ones who forced people to vacate the land so that they could sell it to the Dodgers. The team wasn’t responsible for the displacement.”

Great Day at Gab Gab Gab Invite

By Peyton Ong

Gabrielino High School was bustling with activity on the morning of October 12th, hosting a soccer practice, volleyball competition, and the GabGabGab Invitational Speech and Debate tournament. Over 400 competitors and 100 judges from 20 schools traveled from as far away as San Diego to compete with our very own Screamin’ Eagles. The invitational is the first opportunity for Eagles to perform the speeches they have been working on all year. For some new members of the team, it was their first time ever performing a speech of their own. 

The tournament offered varsity and novice categories of all 11 California High School Speech events: Declamation, Dramatic Interpretation, Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Humorous Interpretation, Impromptu, Original Advocacy, Original Interpretation, Original Oratory, Original Prose & Poetry (OPP), and Program Oral Interpretation (POI). 

Due to the volume of events and competitors, the timeslots of the three preliminary rounds were forced to be staggered. For Samantha Wang (Novice), Round 1 of OPP began around 8:00 A.M, followed almost immediately by her POI round at 9:45 A.M. 

“Since I was in two of the smallest events of the tourney--novice OPP and novice POI--I performed with the same people every round, besides the judge, which would change.” stated Wang. “I think this made it easier on me, since I was less anxious to perform in front of people who've already seen me perform before. Hopefully in the next tournament, there will be more people in OPP and POI, because I'd enjoy being able to perform for more people!”

As is present with many tournaments of senior year, a bittersweet sense filled in the air for Ximena Mercado. Mercado has been a part of the team for all four years of her high school career. 

“I treated every round as if it were my last, which allowed me to bring out my passion.” said Mercado. “Throughout the day I felt a little nervous about the results but honestly, it was fun because I enjoy showcasing my speeches and spreading a message to the audience.”

Final rounds and their competitors were announced around 3:00 P.M, and began around 3:15. Mercado gave her feelings on her final round: “What made this tournament memorable was my final round of Declamation. I believe I gave my strongest and most passionate speech in that round. Additionally, the message in my dec was one that a judge resonated with and it made me feel accomplished and proud that I was able to tell somebody's story. After all, Declamation is an event where you give a voice to the voiceless.”

Awards were presented around 5:30 P.M, and the Screamin’ Eagles walked away with 50 awards and 7 champions! Congratulations to all of our finalists! 

The Screamin’ Eagles have a long break, before competition season ramps up with Fall Debate in early November. 

photo by Meggie Nguyen

Icebreaker Kicks Off 2024-25 Speech & Debate Season

By Peyton Ong

The 26th annual Icebreaker tournament set sail this Saturday at Gabrielino High School. In honor of National Talk Like a Pirate Day, which typically falls within the same week of Icebreaker, our 2024 Gabrielino Speech and Debate captains could be seen sporting tricornes and scarves while manning the sails. Icebreaker is the first (unofficial) tournament of the year, meant to give novice (first year) Screamin’ Eagles a taste of what a real tournament might feel like. Each new member of the team is given a varsity or junior varsity partner to compete with, either chosen by them, a coach, or assigned randomly. 

Instead of entering into singular specific events, competitors go through three rounds; Improvisational Duo, Spontaneous Argument (SPAR), and, arguably the most loved and hated, Character Spontaneous Argument. 

The first round of Icebreaker began at 8:30 A.M with Improvisational Duo. Competitors are given a prompt and a minute to prepare a humorous speech based on it. 

“Me and my partner’s prompt for the Improv Duo round  was a New Year’s Eve party, on doomsday.” Says Warren Situ (Novice). “I was a little intimidated because it felt like everyone else knew what they were doing, but I had a lot of fun working with my partner.”

Icebreaker is unique in many ways, such as being one of the only competitions to be manually tabbed. Instead of having one designated judge decide the rankings for the round, every group is ranked by their peers in the same room. Their rank of the round is determined by the six scores they receive from the other competitors. These scores are recorded on paper ballots, which are then handed off to a team in the tabroom. A handful of off duty Screamin’ Eagles and our captains then entered the scores one by one into an algorithm which tabulated the totals of every round. An hiccup in the code that didn’t account for extra competitors briefly halted operation before thankfully being resolved by one of our alumni. Thanks Sunny D! 

Round two began around 9:30 A.M with SPAR. An argument was presented to two groups, who were either affirmative or negative with the opinion of the argument. 

Natalia San Lucas (Varsity) and her partner embraced the low stakes of the tournament: “My partner and I decided to just have fun. We were on the negative side of the argument that nighttime is better than daytime. Icebreaker was a great bonding experience. I loved hanging out with my novice and getting to know her better!”

The final round of Icebreaker began at 11:30, being an identical format from the second round with the addition of a character prompt. Competitors now had to argue for their side while embodying valley girls, cats, and pop stars. 

“Me and my partner were negative on the argument that chess was the superior sport, as soap opera stars.” Says Audrey Ng (Novice). “I didn't know what a soap opera was at first. It was really fun watching other people. It was probably the round that was the most fun to watch, since everyone gets the hang of things and some people get really into the character that they’re playing.”

Stanley Ho & Calileann SadSad earned 4th place overall, and Divine Mckenzie & Brayden Tran won 2nd! Congratulations!

Novice Ryan Phung gave his final thoughts on the tournament: “Icebreaker was amazing! We got to meet with a lot of people. Everyone around us was so kind, before every round we were talking, joking around, and getting to know a bit about each other. It felt like the entire thing went like a flash. I wish all tournaments could be this laid back and just fun. I'm looking forward to the next tournament!” 

The first competitive tournament of the season is the Gab Gab Gab Invitational, on October 12th.

photo by Peyton Ong

Sofia "Sovia" in Semis

Since going from first place to last after the final round of United States Extemp (USX) at the 2023 East Los Angeles National Qualifying Tournament 15 months ago, junior Sofia Villagra has been on a mission. “Sovia”, as the team calls her, placed 6th at the ‘23 California State Championships the following month.  She then qualified for the ‘23 National Championships at the last chance online tournament the following week. And she has been “locked in” ever since.

“I really was just focused on making every round better than the last,” the junior and Extemp Co-Event Leader.  “In between rounds, I was even reading up on the news and the next topic area. I've gotten so much help from my coaches and our alumni. I was trying to make them proud."

In Phoenix last summer, Sovia competed with almost 300 other students in her event and ended up placing in the top 40 advancing to the National Octofinal Round.  This year, after winning her debate event at both league varsity tournaments this year she went on to qualify for both the the State and National Championships in USX.  

After the six preliminary rounds of competition in Iowa, Sovia gave two more speeches in the octofinal rounds, two more in quarters and two more in the semi final rounds.   After 12 speeches in 12 rounds, Sovia earned 8th place at the tournament, just two places shy of being on the final round stage.

“Round 12 was one of the best speeches I’ve ever seen her give,” said one of the Screamin’ Eagles coaches.  “Round 11 was good, but round 12 was out of this world.”   Sovia added, “I really enjoyed being able to make so many people laugh. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that much of a reaction as I did in semis and I’m so happy to be able to make politics funny and comprehensible.”

Sovia becomes the 9th Screamin’ Eagle to make it to the Semis, the top 14 in America.   This is also the 4th year in a row, GabSpeech has had someone in the Semis or Finals.   

By qualifying for The National Semi-Final round, Sovia has now automatically qualified for the 2025 National Championships next summer. “I’m beyond excited to come back and have even more fun next year,” the junior exclaimed.  “And I’m glad to have opened up another spot (for an additional student to qualify for Nationals in the East LA District) in USX.”

Way to go SOVIA!!!!  We are so proud of you.

Screamin’ Seniors Soar

By Peyton Ong

The Class of 2024 had a remarkable four-year run at Gabrielino.   They were in vittural zoom classes for their entire freshman year.  Their sophomore year saw them compete in speech tournaments entirely outside.  And now, they have graduated in somewhat normal circumstances.

This year’s Screamin’ Eagles Seniors excelled in competition and in the classroom. Ten of our senior Screamin’ Eagles were named 2024 Academic All Americans! These Academic All Americans (AAA’s) have worked hard throughout their high school career to attain a 3.7 cumulative GPA and accumulated over 750 competition points as recognized by the National Speech and Debate Association.  Team Co-Captains Thao Le and Garrison Chan lead the group of honorees along with Ava Doron, Kate Hamamoto, Anson Law, Ashley Lau, Sophia Pu, Sherry Shi, Christopher Torres and Kailey Trinh. 

Fellow Team Co-Captain, Emi Naito, was selected as one of two seniors to at graduation. Naito is a four-year Screamin’ Eagle and has been in the State Finals or Semi-Finals in three different events during her time at Gabrielino (Oratory, Declamation and Original Prose & Poetry). 

Naito was the first GabGrad speaker to ever use a prop.   She brought her houseplant, Steve to the podium with her and compared the growth and challenges the Class of 2024 had to plants.   Her inspirational message of continued growth and what is required for that growth were incredible words for the seniors to take with them into the real world.

The final chapter in the Gabrielino book for three of our seniors will be the National Championships later this month.   Seniors Bryanna Quach, Lindsey Wong and Ashley Lau will be traveling with 15 of their younger teammates to Iowa to compete against the very best speakers in America.

We are incredibly proud of seniors.  You have been an amazing part of our team for so long.   We are really sad to see you go, but so very excited to watch what awesome things you do in the years to come.   Don’t forget your team!!!!  

Congrats Seniors

The Force is Strong At Novice Champs

By Peyton Ong

The newer Gabrielino Speech and Debate team members attended the Southern California Debate League’s Novice/Junior Varsity Speech Championship Tournament on May 3rd and 4th.  The debaters competed at Arcadia High School Friday afternoon and Gabrielino hosted the speech portion on Saturday. It was the fifth tournament Gab has hosted this school year and they made sure everyone understood what may The Fourth be with you, meant.

Novice Champs is an opportunity for Screamin’ Eagles to have fun instead of being at a high-stakes tournament like the state or the national qualifiers. Competitors like Chase Ong say that it’s one of the most relaxing and fun meet that the team attends all year long.

The speech tournament pattern consisted of three preliminary rounds, and a final round consisting of the top seven competitors in each event. As the competition fell on May 4th, parent volunteers designed the theme to revolve around Star Wars. May the force be with all of our boosters and volunteers who gave us their time and energy! 

Novice Champs is the only tournament where finalists are announced in a less traditional manner. Large, colorful banners adorned the catwalks of the buildings surrounding the quad, listing the names of the finalists from each event. 39 of our JV and Novice Screamin’ Eagles broke into their final rounds, including twin siblings Cathryn Abrishami and Andrew Abrishami. 

“Novice Champs was really fun. I know we all worked really hard to get our scripts ready, and I wholeheartedly believe we did a great job. I myself, along with my brother double broke in our two events!”

Gabrielino was the overall tournament champion out of the 20 schools in attendance for the 27th year in a row. 

The Screamin’ Eagles now turn their attention to getting ready for the National Championships next month in Iowa.   Way to go Screamin’ Eagles

Photo by Bianca Lua

Speech Showcases Their Passion, Pride

By Sophia Pu

The Gabrielino High School Speech and Debate team hosted its annual Gabrielino Screamin’ Eagle Showcase on May 10 and 11 in the Gary E. Goodson Theater. The Showcase lasted from 7 to 9 p.m. on both nights and featured eight performances each. Admission was free.

Friday’s setlist featured seniors Zoe Nimpoeno and Christopher Torres, junior Sofia Villagra, and sophomore Cedric Hua before the intermission. After intermission, the team’s seniors, accompanied by parents and other adult supporters, were recognized on stage along with an announcement of their post-graduation plans. There was also a surprise performance from a duo from Roosevelt Elementary School.

“Cedric’s was really funny,” said sophomore Sophia Sanchez. “It was my kind of humor because it was kind of cringe, but at the same time really entertaining. I’m a really big vocals, singing kind of person, so it was a topic I was very interested in.”

The second half of the show had performances from senior Sherry Shi, juniors Josephine Scannell and Kara Mak, senior Nicole Diep, and freshman Oliver Li.

 “Jojo’s was really, I don’t even know how to put it into words,” Sanchez stated. “She got the emotions for the character and for Judy Garland down perfectly. You could genuinely see the raw emotion of the character she was trying to play, and on top of that, her word choices and the movements she was doing all just made sense to the point where I was just really interested the entire time.

In the first half on Saturday, sophomores Jaslin Situ and Zachary Tang, juniors Chenlu Yang and Marco Cisneros-Farber, and senior Kate Hammamoto performed. After Yang’s speech, which is on the lasting effects of mass shootings, there was a special shoutout to Brandon Tsay, the man who stopped the Monterey Park shooter, who was in the audience Saturday night.

"Brandon Tsay is a huge hero," said one audience member. "His brave actions saved so many lives that night. He has a busy media and appearance schedule yet he came here tonight just to see Chenlu's speech about shootings at public events. The stories these young people share really do reach a great amount of people."

After intermission, 8th grade students on the Jefferson Middle School Speech and Debate team were recognized on stage, along with their coach, Alison Hussar. The second half featured junior Gabriela Sanchez, followed by seniors Emi Naito, Ashley Lau, Bryanna Quach, and Lindsay Wong.

“[Bryanna and Lindsay’s] was very emotional, I even cried,” said junior Kelly Muñoz Rios. “I think it was really impactful because I’m also going through the same situation as well, and it reminded me that I shouldn’t be sad, and I should cherish every moment with my family member that’s going through that.”

The speeches ranged across genres, from humorous, to dramatic, to informative, to advocacy. Some speakers, such as Hua, Mak, Sanchez, and Naito, write their own speeches. Others make existing scripts their own, while Cisneros-Farber and Villagra have only 30 minutes to prepare their speech beforehand. 

“It’s a roller coaster of emotions that you get to feel while watching the performances,” described Torres. “It’s a bunch of stories that you get to watch.”

Showcase was a chance for those not in Speech and Debate – friends, family, faculty, and more – to witness the diversity of Gabrielino Speech and Debate and what it is known for.

“Everybody on the Gab Speech team is very talented and dedicated,” said Cisneros-Farber. “So to be chosen to do Showcase means that you are representing the team and you have to put your best foot forward for the team.”

The event’s purpose was to raise team spirit, inspire prospective team members to join, and provide an overall entertaining, celebratory show.

“Personally, I saw a Showcase and that was a big factor in me staying in speech,” Quach shared. “I think Showcase is a lot more about highlighting all our hard work, not just ourselves, but as a team collective. […] It just shows people that we have stories to tell and to listen to us a little bit.”

For those performing, Showcase is meaningful because it allows them to show friends and family the product of their hard work.

“I practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, [and now] I could just show my dad what I do in that time,” Mak stated. “I want [middle school spectators] to look at me and be like, ‘Oh, I want to be like her one day’ or like, ‘I want to do the event she does one day.’”

Showcase was also an opportunity for the speakers to spread the messages of their pieces outside of the competition setting, to a larger audience. Many of the students have personal connections to their topic.

“It hits closer to home because it’s something that I’m really passionate about, something that’s about my family,” said Torres, whose state championship-winning Program Oral Interpretation pieces together several texts to convey one message about migrant farmworkers. “I hope people will take away much more respect and appreciation for the work that Latino farmworkers do.”

Many other speakers handle heavy topics like Torres’, including Shi and Yang’s speeches on gun violence and Quach and Wong’s duo on terminal illness. Others are more lighthearted, including Hua’s informative speech on vocals or Naito’s original about a crazy classroom.

“I definitely did feel a connection to the script, especially seeing as it is about sisters and I have a lot of siblings in my family,” said Nimpoeno, who acts out voices and characters in her Humorous Interpretation of the play “She Kills Monsters” by Qui Nguyen. “I hope that [the audience] can see how fun speech can be […] even if you look a little silly doing it."

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

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