Coaches

Mr. Abad is from Lowell's Class of 1976 and has coached the speech and debate team since 2005.

Although he did not compete in high school forensics, his work as a coach has been recognized by the California High School Speech Association, earning the Donovan Cummings’ Service Above Self Award in 2019 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2023. 

Debnil joned Lowell as the head Policy Debate Coach in 2018. 

In his time at Lowell, he has coached teams every year to the California High School Speech Association (CHSSA) State Championship and the National Circuit Tournament of Champions (TOC). He has coached Lowell students to late elimination rounds of both of these tournaments, as well as the National Speech and Association (NSDA) National Tournament.

He is the only person in history to both win and coach the winner of the CHSSA California state championship in policy debate. 

Outside of Lowell, Debnil is helping part time to revive the policy debate team at Stanford.

Scott started coaching Lowell speakers in 2023.

 With 27 years of experience, Scott has coached 4 national champions, 14 national finalists, and innumerable state champions. His students have gone on to having successful careers in medicine, law, and politics, including two national nightly news anchors on CBS and NBC. 

In high school, he competed in Policy, Congress, Extemp, and Oratory. While at UPenn, he did every imaginable event and was 3rd Speaker at nationals.  

Michael graduated from Lowell in 2023 and now researches undersea cables, an interest he developed during his time on our Policy Debate team, particularly while debating the 2022–23 NATO resolution.

 He was named Top Speaker at the MLK Tournament, reached elimination rounds at the State Tournament, Long Beach, and ASU, and qualified to Nationals.