the Metro League championship in 2016. The football team made national headlines when they knelt during the U.S. national anthem to protest an allegedly racist verse continued within and police brutality in the United States. Their protest continued for the entirety of the 2016 season. Players on the team stated that they had received death threats and had their car's tires slashed due to the protests. The fastpitch softball team made history in 2019 when they swept the postseason, winning the Metro League championship, Sea-King District championship, and WIAA 3A State Championship. The first time for a Seattle school. They defeated Yelm 10–6 in the championship game. Programs, clubs, and activities Drama In 2005, Garfield's performance of Cabaret won the Outstanding Program and Poster Design award and Special Honors in Educational Impact and Student Achievement from the 5th Avenue Theatre. Subsequent musicals have been unable to enter the 5th Avenue Awards due to scheduling. One of the main draws of Garfield's drama program is its large student-led Drama Club, an important element that is missing from many other local area schools. The Garfield Drama Club produces collections of short one-act plays, and a main stage Autumn Show every year, all of which are directed and produced by current students. The department also performs two teacher-directed shows per year: a Children's Show for local elementary schools, and a Spring Musical. Newspaper The Messenger is Garfield's monthly student-run newspaper. The Messenger has earned awards from the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association: placing in Best of Show in the JEA/NSPA Spring National High School Journalism Conventions and winning its most prestigious honor, the Pacemaker Award, in 1997 and 2006. A column from the paper was reprinted by All About Jazz in 2004. In 2006 and 2007, staff reporters won the NSPA's Brasler Prize. Robotics Garfield has two FIRST Tech Challenge robotics teams: team 4042, Nonstandard Deviation and team 12788, Ultraviolet. Team 4042 was founded in 2009, and received the Rockwell Collins Innovate award at the 2018 West-Super Regional Championship and Washington State Championship, ultimately attending the Houston FIRST Championship in April 2018. Policy debate Garfield is one of two schools in Seattle Public Schools with an active policy debate program. One of Garfield's teams beat Ingraham in the finals of the 2019 season's culminating tournament to become state champions. Music The music program at Garfield High School has won