What's New at PBA - April 30, 2026
April 30th, 2026
PBA Finishes the Speech and Debate Season Strong with Two Qualifiers and Championship-Level Competition
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.
