Harker News Online thanks Dan Molin, Greg Lawson and the staff of Winged Post/Talon for updates and information in this story.
Final Update: Feb. 29, 2012
The boys basketball team pushed their game to the end Tuesday night at Menlo as they went down 68-44 to Sacred Heart Prep in semifinal play. Senior Vik Jain had a team high 13 points and fellow senior Stephen Hughes added 7. First quarter scoring was slow, ending up at 19-6, with Harker already fighting to stay in the game; the half ended 52-21 and the rest of the game was of that ilk, ending with a loss for the team but a win for the school over all with this historical break into the upper brackets of the playoffs.
“On behalf of the boys, the athletic department would like to thank the large, raucous Harker crowd (which out-numbered Prep’s crowd) in attendance as well as the entire school community for their support,” said Dan Molin, athletic director. “It was another great Harker High School event last night; those in attendance thoroughly enjoyed the competitive atmosphere. Great job to senior Zach Ellenberg for leading the student-body cheers!” Go Eagles!
Update: Feb. 27, 2012
The boys basketball team made history Saturday as they defeated Soquel High School in the CCS quarterfinals 62-59 in front of a large supportive Eagle crowd at Menlo School. This marks the first time in Harker basketball history we’ve qualified for the semifinal round which will take place Tuesday versus league rival Sacred Heart Prep 7:15 at Menlo School. The boys mentioned the fan support was a significant factor in assisting with the victory, so please come support your basketball Eagles as they try to qualify for Friday’s finals at Santa Clara University.
Special to Harker News Online from Greg Lawson
Update: Feb. 24, 2012
The boys varsity basketball team won last night, 61 to 43, in CCS round two play. Harker trailed at the end of the first quarter, 15-13, and then went on a consistent run that made the score 60-35 at one point. Junior Spenser Quash came off the bench to pour in 16 points to lead all scorers. Junior Nikhil Panu had 15 points and six rebounds, and senior Stephen Hughes played a marvelous game at the point and scored 12 points and dished out seven assists. So the boys move on to play Soquel Sat., Feb. 25, at Menlo, to see if they can improve on their 17-8 record. Game time is 2:45 p.m. Harker fans turned out for the earlier game – a good mix of parents, students and teachers – but the team can really use support on Saturday! There is a required charge for CCS games: $8 adults, $3 students. Click here for the bracket.
Girls lost a heartbreaker at Sacred Heart Prep, 53-49. Harker led at the half and the score was tied at the end of three quarters but the second-seeded Gators proved too much for the Lady Eagles in the end. Junior Daniza Rodriguez led the way with 19 points. Sophomore Nithya Vemireddy added 11 points and 15 rebounds to the cause, and junior Priscilla Auyeung had nine points, seven rebounds, and five assists. The Eagles finish their season with a 17-10 record.
Posted Feb. 23, 2012 By Dan Molin
Boys basketball had a successful break earning one of the most significant victories in Harker hoops history as they defeated previously unbeaten and first-place Pinewood on their home court and senior night. The 68-62 victory was a significant factor in attaining a very respectable number seven seed in the CCS tournament and a first round bye. The boys will host Stevenson School at 7 tonight at Blackford in the second round of CCS. There is a required charge for CCS games: $8 adults, $3 students. Click here for the bracket.
Girls basketball also had an outstanding break earning a huge victory over Mercy-Burlingame 41-39 in the WBAL Tournament. Mercy had previously beaten our girls twice in the regular season but our Lady Eagles came through when it counted most. The victory earned our girls the right to play five-time state champion Pinewood the next night, which we lost but prepared our girls well for the CCS tournament. In the first-round CCS game Tuesday our girls defeated Greenfield 57-38, behind 21 points and nine rebounds from Nithya Vemireddy, grade 10. The girls travel to Sacred Heart Prep tonight, Thursday, for a second round matchup. Click here for the bracket.
Please congratulate and send good luck wishes to wrestlers Darian Edvalson, grade 10, and Corey Gonzales, grade 9, for qualifying to the CCS tournament this Friday and Saturday at Independence High School. Edvalson in the 160-lb weight class and Gonzales in the 106-lb class qualified by placing fifth in the league tournament.
The children gathered for a recent assembly on kindness at Harker’s lower school campus closed their eyes in unison, listening for something they had never heard before: the sound of a smile.
“Show me a smile … keep your eyes closed … hear how a smile sounds,” instructed one of a group of student mentors from Harker’s upper school. Standing on stage before their younger peers, they laughed along with their enraptured audience, who immediately broke out in a chorus of giggles while trying to smile, eyes shut tight.
It was all part of Harker’s continued effort to have upper school students serve as mentors for the lower school children. The high school students, clad in white T-shirts and jeans, used a silly skit to demonstrate how random acts of kindness, such as a simple smile, are a great chance to reach out and make new friends. This group included sophomores Rohith Bhethanabotla, Arjun Goyal, Vincent Lin and Sahithya Prakash and juniors Neel Bhoopalam, David Lindars, Simar Mangat and Maverick McNealy.
Every year, the elementary school holds a winter assembly tied to a specific theme. This year’s theme – kindness – seemed like a natural fit to unite Harker’s oldest and youngest kids, and an opportunity for positive interaction.
“With the Eagle Buddies mentoring program being such a big success, we got the idea to have the upper school students come out, do some skits, and talk about being kind,” said Joe Connolly, dean of students K-5.
In late March, Paulomi Bhattacharya, Apurva Tandon and Emily Chu, all grade 11, Monica Kumaran, grade 10, and Ayush Midha, grade 9, will travel with science department chair Anita Chetty and upper school biology teacher Gary Blickenstaff to Cambridge University for the first Triple Helix Science in Society Conference.
The conference is held by the Cambridge Chapter of The Triple Helix, a nonprofit organization that publishes scientific articles by university students from all over the world. Harker is the first, and so far only, high school chapter for the organization, and will be the only U.S. high school represented at the conference. The students and teachers will be attending the conference, which takes place April 5, with students from other U.K. private schools, and will have the chance to attend a panel debate, prepare posters to present their own research and more.
Tara Priya (better known to us as Tara Chandra ’06) is hitting her stride as a professional singer! She is #2 in on the Japanese MacDonalds Zip Hot 100 chart this week and just released a new music video. Note: this video contains a bit of strong language and suggestive scenes. We rate it PG-13!
Chandra graduated from Columbia University in economics, political science and music performance in 2008. After spending a brief time in the financial field, she returned to her true passion, music. She recently moved from the Bay Area to Los Angeles, where she is pursuing a career as a singer and songwriter. To read more about her, see our Harker Quarterly article, reprinted in Harker News Online.
At the end of January, The Harker School had a pajama and book assembly at which pairs of pajamas and books were donated to The Pajama Program, who will give them to children living in shelters in the San Jose area.
Before the assembly started, friendship and caring among the Harker students was emphasized by a visit between the Eagle Buddies. Each grade 3 student is matched with a grade 10 “buddy,” and on this occasion, the buddies spent nearly half an hour before the assembly talking and catching up with each other.
The rest of the lower school students then filed in for the assembly. Pallie Zambrano from The Pajama Program came to pick up the donations – 425 pairs of pajamas and 475 books in all – and explained the importance of them, and what they mean for children living in shelters. She told students that Harker has donated more than 1800 pairs of pajamas over the last five years. Following her talk, Butch Keller, upper school division head, performed a lively reading of the book “The Spiffiest Giant in Town,” a story about a giant who gives his clothes to those in need.
The assembly finished off with all the students reading. The Eagle Buddies paired up again for the grade 10 buddies to read to their grade 3 buddies.
Joe Connolly, dean of students K-5, said the event was “lots of fun. It was special to see the interaction between the big buddies and little buddies. The 3rd graders look forward to the times they get to spend with their big buddies. They were so excited all week and they told me they had a great time.”
At the end of January, the upper school Conservatory had its annual WinterSong concert. This spectacular performance features Bel Canto, an introductory choir at Harker for students grades 9-11 known for the many musical genres it explores. Several of these were featured at the show, including musical theater, pop and classical, the last of which was particularly rich this year due to two special guests: Cantilena – Harker’s “all-classical-all-the-time” women’s ensemble – and Camerata – a mixed classical, choral chamber ensemble, who peform essential works in various languages. Each group performed one piece at WinterSong this year, directed by Susan Nace. Between the various groups as well as the solo artist, students from every upper school grade level were represented at this year’s event.
In addition to collaborating with soloists, Bel Canto also joined forces with a few talented instrumentalists. Jennifer Cowgill, Bel Canto’s conductor and the show’s director, was particular enthusiastic about the group’s rendition of “Old Dan Tucker.” She said, “Everyone had a wonderful time singing this American folk song,” which was accompanied by the fiddle and the bass, played by Toni Woodruff and Jeffrey Kwong, grade 12. Kwong and Woodruff also joined Paul Woodruff, a performing arts aide, on two movements from Vivaldi’s “Gloria.”
On a Saturday morning in mid-January, Max Isenberg, grade 12, Ananth Subramaniam, grade 12, and Stephanie Chen, grade 10, along with Evan Yao, grade 12, sat down for the 11th annual Quiz Kids to take on Stuart Hall in the San Carlos studio.
Bradley Stoll, the mathematics department chair, was the one who originally heard about the trivia competition. Though he no longer remembers how he first got students started in it, it’s a long-running tradition now, with houses so packed people can’t always find seats. Stoll cheered the team on to a victory over Stuart Hall – Harker won by a wide margin, and the students had a fantastic time.
Harker’s chapter of the Cum Laude Society brought poet Robin Ekiss to the Nichols Hall auditorium on Feb. 2 to discuss her collection of poetry, “The Mansion of Happiness,” and share the life experiences that have inspired her work.
Sitting at the edge of the stage, Ekiss, who received a Rona Jaffe Award for emerging women writers, explained that the title of her book was inspired by an 1800s board game of the same name. The daughter of a miniaturist, Ekiss was constantly surrounded by dolls, dollhouses and dollhouse furniture as a child, and dollhouses occupied every room in her childhood home. “When you’re a little girl, that’s kind of a super cool thing,” she said, “but when you’re an adult, you realize how incredibly creepy that is.”
Several of the poems in her book use toys and their histories as metaphor, such as “Preface,” containing the lines, “Imagine: a dollhouse in every room/In every room, another room/In every girl, another girl.”
Another poem, “Edison in Love,“ was inspired by the story of Thomas Edison’s dream of creating and mass-producing a doll that could walk and talk, which failed spectacularly. “I wondered what it would take for someone like Thomas Edison, who was so passionate and inventive and interesting, to create something that failed so miserably but still want to do it regardless,” she said.
The Harker public forum debate team has had its winningest year in the history of the program, with a team in the final round of a tournament every weekend it has been out traveling this year. Additionally, Harker has had teams in the top 10 in the nation on www.debaterankings.com in public forum debate for the entire year.
Harker debate began 2012 with a string of impressive performances.
The Barkley Forum at Emory University the weekend of Jan. 28 had 138 entries from all over the country. Frederic Enea and Rohan Bopardikar, both grade 12, were the second seed after preliminary rounds and fellow seniors Aakash Jagadeesh and Akshay Jagadeesh (no relation) were third seed. They met in semifinals after nine rounds of competition. Enea and Bopardikar advanced to the finals as the higher seed and went on to win the tournament.
At the Victory Briefs Tournament at UCLA, Enea and Bopardikar closed out the final round of the tournament with grade 10 students Stephanie Lu and Katherine Paseman, making this the fourth time Harker has won this tournament. Two additional Harker teams made it to the elimination rounds.
At a tournament held at James Logan High School, 132 teams competed. Senior Ishan Taneja and sophomore Jithin Vellian met Aneesh Chona and Anuj Sharma, both grade 11, in the semifinals. Taneja and Vellian advanced to the finals as the higher seed, where they were defeated. Two other Harker teams reached the elimination rounds.
On the East Coast, three young teams advanced to early elimination rounds at the Lexington High School tournament.
Chona and Sharma also won the Myers Park Laird Lewis Invitational in North Carolina, which is one of the top public forum tournaments in the country and included last year’s National Forensics League and Tournament of Champions winners. The duo were one of five Harker teams at the event, with the other four appearing in the elimination rounds. In the Public Forum Challenge, Aakash and Akshay made it to the final round of competition in a challenge-style tournament where 14 teams are invited from throughout the country.
Debate finished 2011 on a high note in two December tournaments; Enea and Bopardikar won the elite Blake Round Robin, while Chona and Sharma reached the semifinals of the Blake Tournament. Three other Harker teams were also in elimination rounds.
Basketball: The Harker School’s boys varsity basketball was busy over winter break, chocking up numerous wins. Early in the break, they defeated Greenfield and Galileo in non-league matchups. The team then went 4-1 at the consolation championship at the Monta Vista Tournament to win it. The team lost to host Monta Vista in an exciting overtime match, and had defeats against Gunderson and Wilcox. The boys had a 7-3 record going into league contests, but then lost to Menlo in front of what Dan Molin, the upper school athletic director, described as, “a packed Blackford gym crowd.” The final score was 52-44, which dropped them to 8-4 overall, 1-1 in league play. “It was a great spirited event as the Knights proved to be a bit stronger this time,” Molin said.
The Harker girls basketball team had a busy break, as well. They competed in the Gunderson Tournament, where they finished sixth, going 2-3 with defeats over Prospect and James Lick, and losses to strong teams from Branham, Oak Grove and Milpitas. Once back from break, the team defeated Capuchino High 53-31 to improve to 7-5 overall. Molin pointed out Daniza Rodriguez, grade 11 (who scored 16 points), Priscilla Auyeung, grade 11 (with 10 points and eight rebounds) and Nithya Vemireddy, grade 10 (with 14 rebounds), for their outstanding performances.
Soccer: The Harker girls soccer team competed in the Garces Tournament in Bakersfield, where they went 1-2 with a win over Arvin and suffered defeats to Taft and Burroughs. Nikita Parulkar, grade 9, was singled out by Molin for her score in the Arvin victory. The team went on to tie Summit Prep with a final score of 1-1. “Apurva Gorti, grade 10, scored for the Eagles, assisted by Julia Fink, grade 10,” Molin said. The girls now have a 3-1-1 league record.
The Harker boys soccer team competed over break, defeating St. Francis-Watsonville with a final score of 4-1 and tying Pioneer High to improve their league record to 2-1-1 overall. After break was over, the boys suffered a defeat to what Molin called “league power” Sacred Heart Prep on Davis Field, making their current league standing 3-2-1 overall.
Wrestling: Freshman wrestler Corey Gonzales continues to impress; Molin reported that he earned his first dual meet victory over Homestead in December in the 106 lb. class, and is now “listed as CCS honorable mention due to his 6-1 overall record.” Molin also noted Darian Edvalson, grade 10, who earned a victory over his Lynbrook opponent recently, along with Vishal Vaidya, grade 9 and Vincent Lin, grade 10, saying they are doing well in their young wrestling careers.