As Harker prepared for the holiday break, first graders spread some cheer on the afternoon of Dec. 13 at the annual Grade 1 Holiday Show, directed by lower school music teacher Carena Kay. Students gathered on the stage at the Bucknall Theater to sing a collection of tunes celebrating the holiday season, including classics such as “Frosty the Snowman” and “Winter Wonderland,” as well as “Spin a Little Dreidl,” “Cold Snap” and others.
About halfway through the show, a group of grade 1 dancers performed a special routine, choreographed by Jessalyn Espiritu. Between songs, students performed amusing vignettes that also served as segues from one song to the next.
Last month, lower school chess enthusiasts Omya and Vyom Vidyarthi – grades 1 and 4, respectively – had stellar showings at the Los Angeles Open chess tournament run by the Continental Chess Association. The siblings took first place in the mixed doubles team competition, winning $600. In individual competition, Omya tied for first place in the Under 1200 rating section to win a $250 cash prize and Vyom took second place in the Under 1850 rating section to take home $600.
The most recently available ranking data shows that Omya is ranked seventh nationwide among girls age 7 or younger and No. 72 overall among players age 7 or under. Vyom is ranked No. 23 in the nation in the age 9 category.
Congratulations to these two great competitors and wishes for continued success!
Instrumentalists and vocalists greeted the arrival of winter with a series of spirited performances at this year’s Lower School Winter Music Concert, held Dec. 1 at the Bucknall Theater. Music teacher Louis Hoffman led the Lower School Orchestra, which kicked off the concert with a rendition of Handel’s “La Rejouissance” and later offered a rollicking rendition of “Jingle Bell Rock.” The Lower School Jazz Ensemble, also directed by Hoffman, trotted out its versions of Sonny Rollins’ “St. Thomas” and “Mr. PC.” The Toni Woodruff-conducted Lower School String Ensemble contributed a lovely medley of Beethoven pieces and a performance of “Joust” by Richard Meyer. Directed by Kellie Binney-Smart, the Bucknall Choir performed a series of seasonal tunes, including the Brenda Lee favorite “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
As a special treat, the middle school’s Grade 6 Orchestra, directed by Dave Hart, and middle school vocal groups Vivace and Dynamics, directed by Maryloie Espinoza, made special appearances midway through the program.
In mid-November, Grammy-nominated Ghanaian musician and activist Rocky Dawuni visited lower school history teacher Tobias Wade’s fourth grade class. Students learned about various aspects of Ghanaian culture, including a board game called oware, a popular dish known as fufu and kente cloth, a type of silk important to Ghana’s history and culture.
“All of the students loved the visit,” said Wade. “They were really enamored by Rocky and even persuaded him to sing for us.”
Dawuni, whose brother is the chief of the Konkomba tribe of northern Ghana, also answered questions about the role of the chief in a democratic society and the daily lives of children.
“Overall, it was a great opportunity for the students and myself,” Wade said. “It really opened their eyes to a whole world around them.”
Grade 5 students recently enjoyed a three-day trek through the Marin Headlands, taking in the natural beauty of the northern Bay Area. Elementary Division Head Kristin Giammona sent the following write-up from the trip.
We are having a spectacular time on the trip. It is currently 72 degrees and sunny. We could not have asked for better weather. All of the children are currently out hiking on the trails and experiencing gorgeous views of San Francisco and the bay. Some groups went to the lighthouse, and other groups hiked up Hawk Hill. I am sure everyone will sleep well tonight.
Yesterday, we arrived at 11:45 a.m. and had lunch by the ocean. All of the groups ventured out to the beach, and some groups did lab work yesterday. We all went on a night hike to the beach to experience a special treat the children can share with you. We also had a great dinner with mac and cheese, pulled pork, carrots and an elaborate salad bar.
This morning we had croissants, blueberry muffins, scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, yogurt and cereal. We are definitely well fed. The children are looking forward to tonight’s dinner and a fun campfire.
The children have been a delight, and they are fortunate to have this experience.
The fall sports season was a huge success! We had more than 300 participants in grades 4-8.
We are very appreciative of all the parental support we received this season. So many parents stepped up to provide snacks and support for the coaches. We also appreciate the hard work and dedication of our athletes and coaches.
Here are the final West Bay Athletic League standings, team records and award winners for the lower and middle school fall sports teams.
Varsity A (Grade 8) Flag Football: Finished in fourth place in the WBAL at 2-6, 6-8 overall. Team awards went to Srinath Somasundaram (MVP), Nicholas Coulter and Marcus Anderson (Eagle), and Rosh Roy (Coaches).
Varsity B (Grade 7) Flag Football: Finished in fourth place in the WBAL at 3-3, 4-7-1 overall. Team awards went to Richard Amarillas (Eagle), Dezi Johnson and Marcus Page (Coaches).
Junior Varsity A (Grade 6) Flag Football: Finished in third place in the WBAL at 2-4, 4-4 overall. Team awards went to Rohan Gorti (MVP), Drake Piscione (Eagle), and Dylan Parikh and Tyler Beede (Coaches).
Junior Varsity B (Grade 5) Flag Football: Finished in fifth place in the WBAL at 1-4. Team awards went to Om Tandon (MVP), Kai Stinson (Eagle) and Vivek Nayyar (Coaches).
Intramural (Grade 4) Flag Football: Team awards went Liam Jeffers (MVP), Nathan Wilcox (Eagle) and Ori Muramatsu (Coaches).
Varsity A (Grade 7-8) Softball: Finished in a three-way tie for first place in the WBAL at 5-1, 6-1 overall. Team awards went to Alaina Valdez, grade 8, and Hunter Hernandez, grade 8 (MVP) and Renee Page, grade 8 (Eagle).
Junior Varsity A (Grade 4-6) Softball: Finished in first place in the WBAL at 5-1, 6-1 overall. Team awards went to Saira Ramakrishnan, grade 4 (MVP), Katelyn Abellera, grade 6 (Eagle) and Ariya Reddy, grade 6 (Coaches).
Intramural (Grade 4-5) Softball: Team awards went to Charlotte Folk, grade 4 (MVP), Elisa Grothe, grade 4 (Eagle) and Cecilia Yang, grade 5 (Coaches).
MS cross country: Team awards went to Anna Weirich, grade 8 (Top Runner), Arya Maheshwari, grade 8, and Bayden Yazalina, grade 8 (MVP), Olivia Guo, grade 8, and James Pflaging, grade 8 (Eagle) and Arianna Martinelli, grade 6, and Clarice Wang, grade 7 (Coaches).
First place finishers:
Grade 7-8 boys team (Seal Point Meet): Arya Maheshwari, Bayden Yazalina, Ray Wang and James Pflaging, all grade 8; and Saurav Tewari, grade 7,
Grade 8 boys team (Hallmark Park Meet): Arya Maheshwari, Bayden Yazalina, Ray Wang and James Pflaging, all grade 8.
Anna Weirich, grade 8 (Rolling Hills Meet, John D. Morgan Park Meet).
Grade 7-8 boys team (Harker Meet): Arya Maheshwari, Bayden Yazalina, Ray Wang and James Pflaging, all grade 8; and Dawson Chen, grade 7.
Grade 6 boys team (Harker Meet): Rupert Chen, Siddharth Selvakumar, Markus Zhang, Bora Koyuncuoglu.
Rupert Chen, grade 6 (Harker Meet).
LS swimming: Team awards went to Sriteja Kataru, grade 4, and Keren Eisenberg, grade 4 (Eagle), and Andrew Au, grade 5, and Shayla He, grade 5 (Coaches).
MS swimming: Team awards went to William Zhao, grade 7, and Chloe Affaki, grade 8 (Eagle) and Evan Bourke, grade 8, and Simren Kochhar, grade 7 (Coaches).
Late last month, storyteller and frequent Harker guest Jim Cogan made an appearance at the lower school, regaling the students with his upbeat and animated performance style. Cogan told stories at two separate assemblies, one for students in grades K-3 and another for grades 4 and 5. As in years past, several of the tales he shared were from Native American and African cultures, including the Inuit yarn of a boy whose selfishness leads his community to go hungry, and a story from Ghana about a girl who teaches her adoptive family about the importance of compassion.
As always, the audience of students and faculty greatly enjoyed the performances and tales of kindness. “Jim is fantastic at tailoring his stories to the character trait that is the emphasis for all the students,” said lower school librarian Kathy Clark.
In early October, two Harker fifth graders traveled to Philadelphia to compete in the Junior Championship Squash Tournament. Riya Navani, grade 5, won the girls U11 championship and Varun Fuloria, grade 5, came in sixth. Navani and Fuloria were among the top 32 squash players from 16 states to compete in divisions ranging from U11 through U19. Congratulations, Riya and Varun!
This article originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.
Read the full Eagle Report in Harker News, with team statistics, and player and coach interviews, at http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7ER.
Boys Volleyball
Boys volleyball started off the season losing eight of its first 10 nonleague games, but dramatically turned things around when they started league play, winning a league title with a perfect 10-0 record and qualifying for CCS. All told, they ended their season with a 16-12 record.
Boys Tennis
It was an exciting year for the boys tennis program. Competing at the California Tennis Classic in Fresno early in the season, the Eagles went 1-2, but there was more to this weekend than just numbers. After winning the division 4 championship in the tournament last year, the Eagles were moved up two divisions to face some of the best teams in the state. Their sole victory came against defending section champ Clovis West, proving that they could play with the big boys. The team then finished the season in third place in the WBAL, which produced a CCS berth. Their season ended in the next round of CCS as Gunn High defeated Harker 5-2.
Swimming
The 2016 swim season was full of amazing individual and team achievements, and led to many All-League selections. In addition to their prowess in the pool, both the boys and girls swim teams were CCS scholastic champions with a 3.5441 and 3.8451 GPA, respectively. “We had a very committed core who were encouraged by their improvements,” said coach Tania Chadwick. “By the end of the season it was great to see swimmers come together showing their team unity and camaraderie as they supported each other during practice and meets.”
Softball
The Harker softball team started the year on fire as it went 4-0 in its first four games, winning each game by an average of nine runs! The Eagles would finish the season tied for fourth in the WBAL with a 6-10 overall record. Read the full Eagle Report in Harker News, with team statistics and player and coach interviews, at http://wp.me/pOeLQ-7ER.
Girls Lacrosse
It was a tough season for the girls lacrosse team as team members played their hearts out through a 2-18 season. In addition to being a CCS scholastic champion, leading all CCS girls lacrosse teams with a 3.9098 GPA, the team also received many All-League awards.
Baseball
The varsity baseball team ended its season with a 9-13 record, but the future looks promising for this team. With only three graduating seniors on a 19-man roster, a solid core of players will return next year.
“Even though we will only have one senior next year, we’ll have eight to nine juniors, all of whom will be beginning their third year on varsity,” said coach Mike Delfino. “So, we’re definitely optimistic about the next few years. I am proud of the efforts each of the players put into the season. These guys worked hard and steadily improved as the season went along.”
Boys Golf
What a year for the boys golf team! They were WBAL champs for the third consecutive year and enjoyed a second-straight undefeated season, which included 22 consecutive league wins. They had a second place finish at CCS, third place finish at NorCals, and sixth place at state. Read the full story on the boys golf team.
Track and Field
It was one of the best years in Harker history for the track and field team! Every meet seemed to produce multiple personal and/or school records. At the WBAL finals, the Eagles had 14 season bests, and five athletes earned trips to the CCS championships. Junior Niki Iyer had a particularly stellar season; read more about Iyer, here!
Lower, Middle School Spring Athletes Finish Strong
By Theresa “Smitty” Smith
It was another great season for lower and middle school athletes!
VA (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Diana Melendez and Stephanie Coleman, finished as league champs in the WBAL with a record of 7-1. Team awards went to Emily Cheng, grade 8 (Eagle), and Julia Yusupov, grade 7, and Lauren Beede, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B team, coached by Xiaofeng Foret, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 5-2. Team awards went to Rachel Abellera, grade 8 (MVP), Hannah Grannis, grade 7 (Eagle) and Anvitha Tummala, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (Grades 7-8) Girls Volleyball: The Varsity B2 team, coached by Josh Miller, finished in sixth place in the WBAL with a record of 3-4. Team awards went to Anu Selvaraj, grade 8 (MVP), Aria Wong, grade 7 (Eagle) and Ayla Tanurhan, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVA (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Tina Mai, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-4. Team awards went to Tara Ozdemir (MVP), Leyla Artun (Eagle) and Sarah Leafstrand (Coaches).
JVB6 (Grade 6) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Sarah Bell, finished as league champs in the WBAL with an undefeated record of 6-0. Team awards went to Michelle Liu (MVP), Emily Tan (Eagle) and Elizabeth Shchegrov (Coaches).
JVB1 (Grade 5) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Ellie Pereria, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Claire Chen (MVP), Shea Bryden (Eagle) and Lexi Nishimura (Coaches).
JVB2 (Grade 4) Girls Volleyball: The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by Sydney Voss, finished in ninth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-6. Team awards went to Kate Grannis (MVP), Margaret Cartee (Eagle) and Masha Velikhovskaya (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Volleyball: Team awards went to Emily McCartney and Maggie Yan, both grade 4 (Eagle), and Emma Cai, Ceren Erdogan and Cecilia Yang, all grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Maria Maldonado.
VA (Grade 8) Boys Volleyball: The Varsity A team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished as league champs in the ADAL with an undefeated record of 8-0 and an overall record of 9-0. Team awards went to Jeffrey Kwan (MVP), Vedanth Sundaram (Eagle) and Vance Hirota (Coaches).
JVA (Grades 6-7) Boys Volleyball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Pete Anderson, finished in second place in the ADAL with a record of 6-2. Team awards went to Marcus Page, grade 6 (MVP), Avery Young, grade 7 (Eagle) and Sujith Pakala, grade 6 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 7-8) Baseball: The Varsity A team, coached by Jeff Paull and Matt Arensberg, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-4 and an overall record of 2-4. Team awards went to Nicholas Coulter (MVP), Marcus Anderson (Eagle) and John Lynch (Coaches), all grade 7.
JVA (Grades 6-7) Baseball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich and Richard Amarillas, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-3-1 and an overall record of 0-5-1. Team awards went to Richard Amarillas, grade 6 (MVP), Chirag Kaushik, grade 6 (Eagle) and George Wehner, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVB (Grades 4-5) Baseball: The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Dan Pringle, Randy LeGris and Kristian Tiopo, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 2-4. Team awards went to Frederick Hoch, grade 5 (MVP), Tyler Beede, grade 5 (Eagle), and Wyatt Cote, grade 5, and Ashwin Kuppahally, grade 4 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Water Polo: The Varsity A team, coached by Ted Ujifusa and Allie Lamb, finished with a WBAL record of 0-5 and an overall record of 1-6. Team awards went to Cassandra Ruedy, grade 8, and Bayden Yazalina, grade 7 (MVP), Anna Arnaudova, grade 7 (Eagle) and Chloe Affaki, grade 7 (Coaches).
VA (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity A team, coached by JP Fruttero and John Fruttero, finished as league champs and tournament champs of the WBAL with a record of 7-0. The team also finished as league champs of the MTP with a record of 4-0. In the MTP playoffs, Harker lost 5-4 to Kennedy in the finals. The Eagles finished the season with an impressive 13-1 record. Team awards went to Mihir Sharma and Ramanand Vegesna (MVP), Simar Bajaj and Gina Partridge (Eagle), and Jack Hansen, Bryan Wang and Rachel Broweleit (Coaches), all grade 8.
VB (Grades 6-8) Tennis: The Varsity B team, coached by Matt McGee, JP Fruttero and John Fruttero, finished as league champs and tournament champs of the WBAL with an undefeated record of 6-0 and an overall record of 8-0. Team awards went to Fonda Hu, grade 7, and Shika Tseitlin, grade 6 (MVP), Dawson Chen, grade 6 (Eagle), and Alexander Liou and Dhruv Saoji, both grade 6 (Coaches).
This story originally appeared in the summer 2016 Harker Quarterly.
Grade 5 students received a warm send-off at a touching promotion ceremony held in the late afternoon on June 1 in the lower school gymnasium.
Members of the Class of 2023 officially ended their time as lower school students during the ceremony, which opened with a recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance by class president Alexander Lan. Kristin Giammona, elementary division head, then greeted the students, parents and faculty in attendance and congratulated the students on this exciting next step in their academic careers.
The grade 4-6 dance group Dance Fusion, directed by Gail Palmer, delighted the audience with a performance to the song “Dancing on the Ceiling.” Following that, a slideshow recapping the school year was shown before the excited students walked up to receive their promotion certificates. Kellie Binney-Smart, lower school choral music teacher, led the newly promoted students in the songs “Stand By Me” and the “The Harker School Song,” after which incoming middle school ASB president and rising grade 8 student Jason Lin gave a speech welcoming the newest middle schoolers. Binney-Smart then offered a heartwarming send-off to the class.
Giammona closed the ceremony with a final farewell. The students and their guests then enjoyed a reception featuring a “Class of ’23” cake and other treats.