Eighteen Deer Park High School students were singled out this fall at the school's Breakfast for Champions, a morning ceremony in the high school library that recognizes one student in each of 16 academic departments, plus a Principal's Award and a Teacher's Award. Deer Park Public Schools shared the full list of honorees on Nov. 13, 2026.

The breakfast is a fall tradition at the high school, and it is built around more than grades. According to the district, the students were chosen for a mix of qualities: academic work, leadership, creativity, perseverance, compassion, citizenship and steady effort to do their personal best. Families, teachers and administrators filled the library for the program, which Assistant Principal Garret Noblett opened by welcoming the guests.

The 2026 honorees, department by department

Each department named one student. The district listed them this way:

  • Alternative high school: Amanda Marquez Granados
  • Athletics: Ali Zorakhsh
  • Business: Jose Oliva
  • English Language Arts and Library: Isabella Genao
  • English as a new language: Alessandra Zambrano Cruz
  • Family and consumer science: Marley Witzman
  • Fine arts: Mike Gomez
  • Guidance: Skylar Esposito
  • Health: Avery Freda
  • Math and computer science: Natalia Muller
  • Performing arts: Kaitlyn Mosquera
  • Physical education: Ryan Lallbachan
  • Science: Isabella Sicca
  • Social studies: Ediel Fernandez Paniagua
  • Technology: Jadiel Duran Abreu
  • World languages: Isaac Alvarado

Two more students received the school's top individual recognitions. Christian Myrick earned the Principal's Award, and Dylan Bennett earned the Teacher's Award.

The spread of categories is the point of the event. Students were recognized in family and consumer science, in English as a new language, in guidance and in the district's alternative high school program, alongside the traditional core subjects of math, science and social studies. Physical education, health and athletics each have their own honoree, so the list reaches students whose strengths show up in the gym or on the field as much as in a classroom.

A string quartet set the tone

The breakfast also included live music from four Deer Park students who performed as a string quartet: Amaiyah Elysee on viola, Mikayla Hill and Mikaela Ponte on violin, and Dante Tinoco on cello. The district noted the performance as a musical highlight of the morning, and it gave the school's orchestra students a role in a ceremony that was otherwise about their classmates.

A busy week for Deer Park students

The Breakfast for Champions announcement came the same day the district posted two other student stories. At John Quincy Adams Primary School, first graders honored local veterans for Veterans Day with a concert led by music teacher Diane Saporito. Their program ran through six patriotic songs, including The Star-Spangled Banner, America the Beautiful, This Land Is Your Land and Stars and Stripes Forever, and paired the music with a lesson on service and gratitude toward people who have served. Principal Dr. Lynn Coyle praised the young performers, according to the district.

The district also shared video of the Deer Park Marching Falcons at the Newsday Marching Band Festival, where the high school band performed in October.

Taken together, the three posts follow students from first grade through senior year, from a primary school concert to a regional band festival to the high school library.

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