| PBA Finishes the Speech and Debate Season Strong with Two Qualifiers and Championship-Level Competition
Dear readers of the What's New,
I will announce the big news first: PBA senior Maddie Wright was declared the state champion in Original Oratory at the state championship tournament of the Hawaii Speech League held at Punahou School on Saturday, April 18 at approximately 7:07:40 p.m.!
| I say “approximately” because I only have video evidence of the announcement of the students placing 6th through 2nd place in that event. Because Maddie and I were the last Dragons standing on the Punahou campus at that time, I was the videographer documenting the champions announcement. The coach of the student declared champion has the honor of bestowing the championship trophy to his or her student, so the moment the emcee declared the excellent Parker School OO competitor received 2nd place, I knew I needed to run down the flight of stairs to grab the trophy and present it to Maddie. | 
| Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to carry my phone down with me. The speech and debate championship tournaments are a grind. Maddie, freshman Aleigha Jackson, and I met at Punahou at around 7 a.m. earlier that day. Aleigha had a rocky start in her first round and needed to regroup. Maddie’s “dark night of the soul” round came in the second, when she felt she hadn’t given her best. Fortunately, teammate and co-captain Amy Yoshida dropped in with chocolate chip cookies, sausage rolls, hugs and fist bumps to power the girls up again and we carried on. | | | Though Aleigha narrowly missed qualifying for the championship round, I am super proud of her for being the first double qualifier in Dragons Speech and Debate history in Informative Speaking and Novice Lincoln Douglas Debate. I spent two straight weekends with that young woman! Maddie, on the other hand, continues the fabulous tradition of PBA speech and debate champions and national qualifiers, following in the footsteps of Naho Umitani ’22 and Riho Umitani ’25, who qualified once and twice respectively. If I get the chance, I will upload a recording of Maddie performing her state championship speech, “The Oppressor’s Playbook,” a satirical “lecture” that exposes how authoritarian regimes rise to power by | deliberately fostering public vulnerability, seizing key institutions, and uniting citizens through propaganda and scapegoating. Winning the championship required polish, stamina, and adaptability, as Maddie needed to interpret the audience reactions of 14 judges across the full day of performance competition. Those chocolate chip cookies were very good, Amy Yoshida! This has been a banner month for Maddie in what has been an outstanding senior year. On Tuesday earlier this week, Maddie anchored season 17, episode 15 of HIKI NŌ “The Distance We’ve Come.” (Those wanting to get a sense of Maddie’s talent can stream the episode at their convenience at this link: https://www.pbshawaii.org/the-distance-weve-come-hiki-no/.) I was also proud to co-emcee the 20th Annual Taiko Festival with her. Girl’s got chops. She is also a state champion. So congrats to Maddie and her family – she looks forward to attending Smith College in Massachusetts next fall! Maddie and the other members of PBA’s Class of 2026 have one week of academics left with us. I can tell you, we are savoring the moments. I invite you, dear reader, to finish your reading of this edition of the What’s New at PBA. We have more great news of student accomplishments, and an invitation for those of you who might like to celebrate the upcoming Commencement Exercises for the graduating class. I really love the work I get to do, and hope a few of you have some time to witness our school’s unique rites of passage at the Baccalaureate on Friday, May 15, 5:30 p.m. at the Hondo of the Honpa Hongwanji Mission of Hawaii and the Commencement on Sunday, May 17, 4 p.m. at the Moanalua Performing Arts Center. Warmly,
Josh Hernandez Morse
Head of School | | Dragon Spring Sports Update
Dear readers of the What's New,
The spring sports season is coming to an end and we have a lot to be grateful for. PBA freshman Eli Yagi had an amazing first year in PAC-5 Track & Field, making the ILH intermediate championships and placing 6th in the relays event. He then moved up to the junior varsity ranks to join fellow Dragon, 10th grader Jonah Edelman.
Focused on distance running, Jonah competed in the 1500m throughout the season and also raced in the 4x800m relays. The preliminary rounds of the ILH JV Championships were yesterday, and Jonah and Eli helped their relay team qualify for the finals! The final will take place Thursday at Kamehameha Schools. Go Get Um Dragons!
| Next up, we head to the surf. In its inaugural season, ILH Surfing saw fierce competition in three different disciplines, shortboarding, longboarding, and bodyboarding. PBA junior Noah Salerno competed in three of the four season contests in both shortboard and longboard divisions. Senior Liam Antipala competed in both the longboard and bodyboard divisions, narrowly missing the qualification into the ILH Championships in the longboard but earning a spot in the bodyboard division. At the ILH Championships that were held in head-high-to-overhead waves at Bowls, Liam made it to the finals where he put on a tactically strong performance to take first place. With the victory, Liam secured his place in the history books as the first ever ILH Boys Bodyboarding Champion. | 
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Liam and I head to Maui today for the HHSAA State Surfing Championship this weekend being held at Ho`okipa Beach Park.
Golf was also a sport that saw PBA Dragons participating during the spring. Senior Jack Poiani successfully wrapped up his golf career in the division 2 ranks with a final season of competition on the links. Jack’s family is a big reason PBA continues in ILH Golf to this day. Senior Zac Robertson capped off his final year with an amazing run in the open division. He shot a season low 83 at Coral Creek and consistently represented PBA with respect and humility. Zac will take his love for golf and dirt biking to the mainland next year as he pursues a degree in Construction Management at Cal Poly.
I love seeing student athletes grow and develop through sports. Athletics is an extension of the classroom and provides critical opportunities for students to learn time management, resilience, accountability, humility, and teamwork. I strongly encourage all PBA families to consider athletic participation for their child for next school year. With four alumni competing at the college level, and several league champions, including our newest in surfing this year, PBA has a great legacy of sports participation in the ILH. Simply put, PBA needs more student athletes, and many of our students would benefit from participating in sports. Mahalo. Go Dragons!!!
Loren Otake
Athletic Director | | 
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CLOSED: May 7, 2026 at 1:30 PM,
May 8, 2026 | | |
