San Marin Speech and Debate

Time to start the process of bidding adieu to our loved and respected senior debaters. It is a BIG group this year, and we are all saddened by the hole they will leave in the club. But here’s what else we know — great adventures, success, and joy are in the future for all of them! They are great people, and they will achieve great things! Here they are wearing their graduation cords and their Dollar Store graduation finery! Oh, and one “pretty normal” photo, as well. Best of luck to Jusim Park, Kourosh Sorkhabi, John Hohman, Aashna Selvaraj, Adam Gurrola, Declan Field and Luciano Kozlenko (sadly, not pictured.) We will miss you!

The team managed to squeeze in a year-end party at Scandia this past week! With AP tests, senior prom, senior awards night, and other May events, it wasn’t easy, but we carved out some time. We had some fun playing miniature golf, hitting the arcade games, and eating our way through the afternoon! It was a nice way to close out the year.

We’re close to saying goodbye to our 2025-2026 debate season. But we’re already looking ahead to the next season. In order to do this, the club has elected a new set of officers. As co-Presidents we have Sophia and Nora Schiltgen, as co-Vice Presidents the team elected Logan Alsterlind, and Moksh Shah. Teaching our team next year about debate will be Debate captains Sharva Banker and Stella Craig. And finally as Publicity officers, we welcome Arnav Lal and Hamza Wadera. It’s a great team, and they are already excited about next year!

San Marin Speech and Debate closed out the season with a fun tournament at El Cerrito High School on Saturday. We are thrilled to announce that the team of Zainab Syed and Dhruvi Gohel, with their great performance, have moved up to the Junior Varsity level! They received one of the coveted painted rocks for which this tournament is well-known! The weather was perfect, and spirits were high as the team closed the book on the 25-26 season! It was a great year with many new members joining the club, and many teams bringing home some BIG trophies. Congrats to all, and big thanks to the parents who judged and drove, to School Fuel and the Frankie Poulos Foundation who generously provided financial support, to our super advisor and coach, and to our great high school! Watch out for us in 2026-2027!

It seems only right that, as Valentine’s Day approaches, the San Marin Speech and Debate Club send Valentine hugs to the two organizations who have supported us in our 2025-2026 season! So to these two special groups, the Frankie Poulos Foundation, and School Fuel, we send a bunch of Valentine’s Day wishes! We are so thankful and appreciative of your support! Thanks for everything!

The San Marin Speech and Debate team was thrilled to learn that they are receiving a $1000 grant from the Frankie Poulos Foundation. We are so thankful for an organization like this one who has so generously given back to the youth of our community. Here’s what they wrote: “In a world increasingly shaped by opinion and misinformation, we believe teaching young people how to debate properly is vital to developing informed, responsible leaders.” Thank you for believing in us and investing in our debaters — and thank you to all who donated to the Foundation and helped make these grants possible. The contributions they have given over the years have been hugely instrumental in building strong, independent future leaders here in Novato! THANK YOU!

The team headed to Santa Rosa JC for the third GGSA tournament last Saturday. San Marin was well represented by 10 teams, and they did a great job. Our Novice team of Francisco Melatoni and Hamza Wadera had a winning record, our JV team of Stella Clark and Aashna Selvaraj were undefeated, and our Varsity team of Logan Alsterlind and Kourosh Sorkhabi also grabbed an “Undefeated” trophy! As we get closer to the State Qualifying tournament, the competition is getting much tougher, but our teams did us proud. We thank the parents who drove and judged so that so many teams were able to compete!

The lights were out at San Marin yesterday, but that didn’t stop our debate team from practicing for this Saturday’s debate tournament! The “show must go on” and so it did as our teams practiced without lights or access to the Internet. We may face adversity but as they say, “We shall overcome!”

Our Varsity squad of debaters headed to the MLK Invitational Debate tourney at James Logan HS last weekend. It is a notoriously tough tournament with lots of different kinds of parli debate being used that our students generally don’t do. The results were EXCELLENT — Sophia and Nora Schiltgen broke into Elimination rounds, and Logan Alsterlind and Kourosh Sorkhabi made it to Octos, the furthest any San Marin team has made it before. And even our teams newest to Varsity all won some rounds. Everyone agreed it was a fun tournament, and they all learned a great deal! That’s always what a coach wants to hear. We also managed to squeeze in John’s b-day celebration! (BTW: Those earning trophies will get them later)

I have been remiss in keeping up with our debate team’s postings. So to do some catch-up, here are some photos from our holiday party. Ms. Laabs graciously hosted, and we had great fun kicking on our vacation. We had our Christmas poppers to pop, delicious food to eat, and a surprise visit by alums Domi, Disha, Teju, and Rayhan!