This report was submitted by lower and middle school athletic director Theresa “Smitty” Smith.
Here are the results from our early winter and late winter sports seasons at the lower and middle schools.
Early Winter – Boys Basketball and Girls Soccer
VA (grade 7-8) Boys Basketball
The Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in a three-way tie for second place in the WBAL with a record of 3-3 and went 4-5 overall. The team also took second place in the gold division of the WBAL tournament. Team awards went to Zachary Blue and Om Tandon, both grade 8 (co-MVPs), Brian Xiao, grade 8 (Eagle), and Kyle Leung, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB (grade 7-8) Boys Basketball
The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins, finished in first place in the WBAL with an 8-0 record and went 10-0 overall. The team also took first place in the gold division of the WBAL tournament. Team awards went to Bowen Xia and Rahul Yalla, both grade 7 (co-MVPs), Vyom Vidyarthi, grade 7 (Eagle), and Gary Jin, grade 7 (Coaches).
VB2 (grade 7-8) Boys Basketball
The Varsity B2 team, coached by Randy LeGris, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a 2-5 record. Team awards went to Reza Jalil, grade 8 (MVP), Rayan Arya, grade 7 (Eagle), and Leo Sobczyn and Nikhil Chadha, both grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Boys Basketball
The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 5-1 record and an overall record of 7-2. The team also finished in second place in the gold division of the WBAL tournament. Team awards went to Brennan Williams (MVP), Topaz Lee (Eagle) and Rishaan Thoppay (Coaches).
JVB6 (grade 6) Boys Basketball
The Junior Varsity B6 team, coached by Raul Rios, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record. Team awards went to Ethan Leelanivas (MVP), Alejandro Cheline (Eagle) and Ritik Raman (Coaches).
MS Intramural Boys Basketball
Team awards went to Daniel Schwartz, grade 7 (MVP), Krish Goenka, grade 6 (Eagle) and Daniel Miao, grade 6 (Coaches). The team was coached by Adam Albers and Ron Paranada.
JVB1 (grade 5) Boys Basketball
The Junior Varsity B1 team, coached by Karriem Stinson, finished in a two-way tie for second place in the WBAL with a 6-1 record, and an overall record of 8-2. The team then took first place in the WBAL tournament. Team awards went to Kai Nishimura (MVP), Brandon Labio (Eagle) and Raj Akunuri (Coaches).
JVB2 (grade 5) Boys Basketball
The Junior Varsity B2 team, coached by Spring Wang, finished in sixth place in the WBAL with a 3-4 record. Team awards went to Benjamin Leafstrand (MVP), Zack Weng (Eagle) and Yash Belani (Coaches).
JVC (grade 4) Boys Basketball
The Junior Varsity C team, coached by Karriem Stinson, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-3 record. Team awards went to Jackson Yue and Luca Chan (Eagle) and Reid Bardin (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Basketball
Team awards went to Vidwat Shekar, grade 4 (MVP), Jaden Cao, grade 4, and Ian Lee, grade 5 (Eagle), and Avi Gupta, grade 4, and Shamik Khowala, grade 5 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tobias Wade and Walid Fahmy.
VA (grade 7-8) Girls Soccer
The Varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood, Hannah Grannis, Dini Wong and Morgan Smith, finished in sixth place in the WBAL with a record of 1-5. Team awards went to Kate Grannis, grade 8 (MVP), Claire Anderson, grade 7, and Layla McClure, grade 7 (Eagle), and Margaret Cartee, grade 8 (Coaches).
JVB (grade 5) Girls Soccer
The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Colleen Campbell and Brittney Moseley, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 5-1. Team awards went to Ava Zarkesh and Chelsea Xie (Eagle) and Heather Wang (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Soccer
Team awards went to Maya Horan, grade 4 (MVP), Sofiah Jalil, grade 4 (Eagle), and Sasha Gupta, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Colleen Campbell and Brittney Moseley.
Late Winter – Girls Basketball and Boys Soccer
VA (grade 7-8) Girls Basketball
The Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 7-1 record, and finished 8-1 overall. They were to play in the gold division championship game of the WBAL tournament prior to the season being suspended. Team awards went to Anjali Yella, grade 8 (MVP), Isabella Lo, grade 7 (Eagle) and Kate Grannis, grade 8 (Coaches).
VB Girls Basketball
The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins, finished in first place in the WBAL with an 8-0 record, and finished 9-0 overall. They were to play in the gold division championship game of the WBAL tournament prior to the season being suspended. Team awards went to Alicia Yan, grade 6 (MVP), Claire Yu, grade 6 (Eagle) and Ria Kohli, grade 7 (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Girls Basketball
The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, finished undefeated in third place in the WBAL with a 5-2 record and finished 5-3 overall. Team awards went to Iris Wang (MVP), Kimaya Mehta (Eagle) and Kira Bardin (Coaches).
MS Intramural Girls Basketball
Team awards went to Shreya Vemulapalli, grade 6 (MVP), AJ Hacigumus, grade 6 (Eagle), and Ella Guo, grade 6 (Coaches). The team was coached by Raul Rios, Adam Albers and Rob Moore.
JVB (grade 5) Girls Basketball
The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Ellie Pereira and Joycie Kaliangara, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 4-3 overall record. Team awards went to Finley Ho (MVP), Ava Zarkesh (Eagle) and Chelsea Xie and Jessica Chen (Coaches).
JVC (grade 4) Girls Basketball
The Junior Varsity C team, coached by Spring Wang and Emily Pereira, finished in first place in the WBAL with a 5-0 record. Team awards went to Jillian Chen (MVP), Sophie McGrath (Eagle) and Maya Horan (Coaches).
LS Intramural Girls Basketball
Team awards went to Sasha Gupta, grade 4 (Eagle) and Julie Chen, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tobias Wade.
VA (grade 8) Boys Soccer
The Varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood, Hannah Grannis and Michael Pflaging, finished in fifth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-8. Team awards went to Alex Guo (MVP), Ryan Barth (Eagle) and Chase White (Coaches).
VB (grade 7) Boys Soccer
The Varsity B team, coached by Brighid Wood, Morgan Smith and Ron Paranada, finished in third place in the WBAL with a league record of 2-2-1, and an overall record of 4-2. Team awards went to Ruhan Sahasi (MVP), Vyom Vidyarthi (Eagle), and Bowen Xia and Aarav Borthakur (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Boys Soccer
The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Brighid Wood and Dini Wong, finished in third place in the WBAL with a record of 3-5. Team awards went to Stanley Chen (MVP), Cyrus Ghane (Eagle) and Krish Nachnani (Coaches).
JVB (grade 5) Boys Soccer
The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Colleen Campbell and Oscar Flores, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a record of 3-2-1. Team awards went to Vladimir Shchegrov (MVP), Ayden Grover (Eagle) and Rohan Goyal and Mason Brooks (Coaches).
LS Intramural Boys Soccer
Team awards went to Teodor Arnaudov, grade 4, Shridhar Chaware, grade 4, and Sudhith Gondipalli, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Karriem Stinson and Dominic Flocchini.
Congratulations to all our athletes and coaches for a great winter season!
Yesterday, the lower school held its annual pajama assembly to commemorate the end of another successful pajama and book drive. Every year, third graders coordinate the collection of pajamas and books to be donated to the Pajama Program, which then delivers the items to children living in shelters and temporary housing. The drive was established in 2007 when Rishi Narain ’16, then in the third grade, was inspired by seeing the Pajama Program promoted by Oprah Winfrey. This year’s drive collected 213 pairs of pajamas and 377 books.
Students celebrated by wearing their pajamas to school and gathering in the gym with their favorite books. Third graders in attendance were joined by their grade 10 Eagle Buddies, who also brought books to share with their younger friends. After some appreciative words from the Pajama Program’s Bay Area chapter president, Pallie Zambrano, upper school division head Butch Keller took his place on the stage to read a pair of children’s books to the audience.
Last week, the annual grade 5 show brought together a cast of 132 for a humorous, musical retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic short story, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” The show featured singing, dancing and instrumental numbers, and many of the performers also took on additional responsibilities, such as working on the tech crew, costume assistance and set photography to help make the production a success.
Last month, two Harker students were recognized in a New Year’s greeting card contest held by the Japan Information and Cultural Center at the office of the Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco. Third grader Momo Matsui-Disini received the Judges’ Award in the elementary division and sixth grader Jaden Chyan earned the Creative Award in the middle and high school division. These and the other New Year’s cards (“nengajo”) submitted for the contest – more than 540 in all – will be viewable through Feb. 20 at the Japan Information and Cultural Center at 275 Battery St., Suite 2100, in San Francisco.
In November, Harker fifth graders Aaron Luo, Brandon Labio, Nathan Yee and Trisha Shivakumar won the Champion’s Award at the NorCal First Lego League robotics qualifying tournament. The team received the award for having top performances in all areas of the competition, including robot design, project and core values. The team’s performance also earned it a spot at the NorCal regional tournament.
Another team of Harker fifth graders — Ava Zarkesh, Ivanya Sadana, Risa Chokhawala and Urvi Singhvi — won the Judges Award and the ‘Rising Stars Award’ for setting an example for other teams and producing a solution for two very different problems while adhering to the competition’s core values.
The team later competed at the FLL NorCal Peninsula Championships, where it won the Robot Design Award. The award is given to a team whose robot performs consistently well in areas such as efficiency, durability and challenge missions.
On Friday, 10 lower school students were featured at the California Kindergarten Association’s Young Children’s Art Exhibit, held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Santa Clara. First graders Brayden Ching, Violet Santana, Jane Tang, Ethan Wang, Angela Zhang and Emily Zhao, and kindergartners Serena Du, Caroline Liu, Khushi Monga and Katy Wang had artwork on display at the event, which has showcased the works of Pre-K, kindergarten and grade 1 students since 1989.
This story originally appeared in the Fall/Winter 2019 issue of Harker Magazine.
Lower school P.E. department chair Jim McGovern is a sports guy. If you ask him about his favorite memories, meaningful moments or what famous person he’d like to dine with, he’ll reveal his sports obsession (and for the record, that’s the 1980 gold medal U.S. hockey team/Dwight Clark’s “The Catch”/S.F. Giants 2010 World Series win; playing on a team that beat Alexi Lalas’ indoor soccer team; and Bill Walton). McGovern’s Harker family also includes some real family – teachers Michelle Anderson and Pete Anderson are his sister and brother-in-law. Harker Magazine learned some other fun facts about this San Jose native; though raised in California and Oregon, he now lives less than a mile from where he was born. Read on!
What one piece of advice would you offer anyone who asks? Laugh often – seek out opportunities for it.
What are you obsessed with? Sports movies of all kinds: “Field of Dreams,” “Major League,” “A League of Their Own,” “American Flyers,” “The Winning Season,” “Hoosiers,” “The Endless Summer,” “Rocky,” “Necessary Roughness,” “The Hammer” – I could go on and on.
What helps you persevere when you feel like giving up? The feeling of being so content when the job is done and done well.
What are you doing when you feel most alive? Riding a breaking wave that keeps going and going, while on a bodyboard or a longboard.
For what in your life do you feel most grateful? Not giving up playing soccer and baseball after I was cut from each of those sports in high school. I went on and played for the better part of 32 years after graduating (and am still playing softball).
What is the greatest accomplishment of your life? Ranking pretty high up there is getting my master’s degree in education.
The lower and middle school fall sports seasons recently came to a close. Check out how each team finished, along with all the team awards.
Middle School WBAL Swim Finals:
The middle school boys took third overall and the girls finished fifth overall.
Grade 6 boys 100-yard medley relay team, second place
Ethan Leelanivas, grade 6, boys 25-yard butterfly, third place
Rajas Apte, grade 7, boys 50 yard freestyle, second place
Adam Pawliger, grade 7, boys 50-yard freestyle, third place
Mirabelle Feng, grade 7, girls 50-yard backstroke, second place
Andrew Au, grade 8, boys 50-yard backstroke, third place
Middle School Swimming: Team awards went to Rahul Sundaresan, grade 6 (MVP), Simon Kirjner, grade 6 (Eagle) and Claire Zhao, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tania Chadwick, Justin Culpepper, Ysabel Chen and Betsy Tian.
Lower School Swimming: Team awards went to Ian Cheline, grade 5 (MVP), Amanda Lee-Shen, grade 4 (Eagle) and Manalee Chowdhury, grade 4 (Coaches). The team was coached by Tania Chadwick, Justin Culpepper, Ysabel Chen and Betsy Tian.
Middle School WBAL Cross Country Finals:
Grade 6 boys team, second place
Grade 7-8 boys team, third place
Grade 7-8 girls team, ninth place
Stanley Chen, grade 6, boys, first place
Brian Choi, grade 6, boys, eighth place
Alejandro Cheline, grade 6, boys, ninth place
Shreya Vemulapalli, grade 6, girls, 24th place
Andrew Smith, grade 8, boys, second place
Veyd Patil, grade 8, boys, seventh place
Layla McClure, grade 7, girls, 41st place
Middle School Cross Country: Team awards went to Stanley Chen, grade 6 (MVP), Brian Choi, grade 6, and Andrew Smith, grade 8 (Eagle), and Eric Zhang, grade 7, and Kaleb Goldin, grade 7 (Coaches). The team was coached by Samantha Salfen, Sara Pawloski and Ron Paranada.
Middle School Golf: The middle school golf team took second place in the WBAL fall tournament. The top Harker golfer was Ryan Zhang, grade 8 (35), followed by Yu Bai, grade 8 (37), Allison Yang, grade 7 (38) and Ashley Mo, grade 6 (39).
VA (grade 8) Flag Football: The Varsity A team, coached by Randy LeGris and Mike Delfino, finished in eighth place in the WBAL with a record of 0-5 and went 0-7 overall. Team awards went to Ryan Barth (MVP), Kevin Bettencourt (Eagle) and Om Tandon (Coaches).
VB (grade 7) Flag Football: The Varsity B team, coached by Tim Hopkins and Dini Wong, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-2-1 record and went 3-3-1 overall. Team awards went to Vyom Vidyarthi (MVP), Bowen Xia (Eagle) and Drew Diffenderfer (Coaches).
JVA (grade 6) Flag Football: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Richard Amarillas, finished in fourth place in the WBAL with a 3-3 league record. Team awards went to Brennan Williams and Rishaan Thoppay (MVP), Topaz Lee (Eagle) and Ritik Raman (Coaches).
JVB (grade 5) Flag Football: The Junior Varsity B team, coached by Karriem Stinson and Tobias Wade, finished in second place in the WBAL with a 3-1 league record and went 4-1 overall. Team awards went to Mason Brooks (MVP), David Kelly and Zackary Delfino (Eagle).
LS Intramural Flag Football (grade 4): Team awards went to Nicky Kerko and Reid Bardin (Eagle) and Ricardo Sanchez (Coaches). The team was coached by Walid Fahmy.
VA (grade 6-8) Softball: The Varsity A team, coached by Adam Albers and Raul Rios, finished in second place in the WBAL with a record of 4-1 and went 4-2 overall. Team awards went to Keren Eisenberg, grade 7 (MVP), Angelina Burrows, grade 7 (Eagle) and Kira Bardin, grade 6 (Coaches).
JVA (grade 4-5) Softball: The Junior Varsity A team, coached by Jon Cvitanich, Megan Regan and Colleen Campbell, finished in first place in the WBAL with a record of 3-1. Team awards went to Raeanne Li, grade 5 (MVP), Keira Kelly, grade 5 (Eagle) and Ameera Ramzan, grade 5 (Coaches).
VA (grade 6-8) Girls Lacrosse: The Varsity A team, coached by Morgan Smith and Hannah Grannis, competed in a number of friendly tournaments and a few solo matches with other schools this season. The team went from six participants last year to more than 20 this year! Team awards went to Kate Grannis, grade 8 (MVP), Abby Lim, grade 7 (Eagle) and Shaina Cohen, grade 6 (Coaches).
Grade 4 students enjoyed a special Diwali celebration today, making lanterns for the annual multiday festival – celebrated in Hindu, Sikh and Jain cultures – that commemorates light as a symbol of virtue and knowledge triumphing over evil and ignorance. In addition to the fun craft activities, the students also enjoyed an assortment of delicious snacks.