What's New at PBA - January 23, 2026
January 23rd, 2026
Dragons Return from the Big Island and a Great Speech and Debate Tournament
When we touched down in Kona last Friday, I saw the familiar sprawl of lava field and long tufted brown sedge. I returned as chaperone for the Dragons Speech and Debate Team – one senior, two sophomores, one freshman excited to compete in the 2026 Neighbor Island Tournament of the Hawaiʻi Speech League at Parker School.
For the freshman, it was her first neighbor island trip. I looked at her and wondered if she had the same reaction to the landscape I did when I first arrived to the Big Island in 2002, shocked somewhat at what seemed its barrenness, not having experienced the rolling pastures or windswept forests of Kohala, or the lush jungle lowlands of Hilo, or the upcountry coffee pastures, or the active volcano.
