Huntington Beach High celebrates its Class of 2023

Huntington Beach High started off a week full of celebrating in the Huntington Beach Union High School District.

The Oilers were the first district school to have a graduation this week, and the sun came out in time Tuesday for the 670 seniors of the Class of 2023 to turn their tassels.

Seniors from the baseball team, Brad Gridlinger, Trystan Lucero, Will Bennett, Carson Lane and Dean Carpentier, gather before walking into the Huntington Beach High graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

It is the school’s 117th graduating class.

Huntington Beach ASB President Kate Ellis served as the ceremony’s emcee, while Shiloh Langham, senior class vice president and Model United Nations member, was the senior speaker.

Student speaker Shiloh Langham gets emotional during her speech during the 2023 Huntington Beach High graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

“We lived in the cold grasp of COVID for almost an entire year, causing sophomore year to disappear,” Langham said. “[We were] barely treading water in a sea of ‘an abundance of caution,’ zoning out of Zoom classes and barely making it through. But we picked up the pieces and found perseverance ... making our weaknesses our weapons for success.”

Daniel Bronder of the Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts plays a guitar solo during the 2023 Huntington Beach High graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

But by senior year, things had returned to normal, and Langham also turned to the future during her speech. She quoted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “Our lives begin to end the day that we become silent about things that matter.”

“This begs the question, what matters to you?” she said. “Are you truly doing all you can do? ... We have to keep believing in our hopes and acknowledging our fears.”

Proud graduates Davis Van Dyke and Nathan McCall, from left, walk into the 2023 Huntington Beach High graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)

Members of the Huntington Beach Academy for the Performing Arts — Jasmine Dennis, Katie Nacino, Daniel Bronder, Cooper Hayashi, Jacob Young, Brayden Nguyen and Autumn Factory — entertained the crowd with some tunes before Principal Danny Morris presented the graduating class. It was accepted by HBUHSD Board of Trustees member Bonnie Castrey.

A happy graduate waves to family in the audience as she walks into the Huntington Beach High graduation ceremony on Tuesday.

(Don Leach / Staff Photographer)