Congrats to Anna Weirich, grade 11, who had a great showing at the state cross country finals over the weekend, finishing 19th out of the top 212 D4 girls runners in California.
Boys Basketball
The boys basketball team went 2-1 on its road trip to Hawaii over the break. The Eagles started the week with a win over Seabury Hall 55-49 with Jack Connors, grade 12, leading the way with 15 points. Then the boys dropped a 51-53 matchup with King Kekaulike as Arjun Virmani, grade 11, led the scoring with 17 points, adding seven rebounds and four steals. The Eagles finished their trip with a 61-42 win over Maui High with Connors and Virmani each scoring 14 points. Prep2Prep had a short write-up on the trip: http://www.prep2prep.com/feature.aspx?ArticleID=28600. The boys begin competing at the James Lick Tournament on Wednesday.
Girls Basketball
The girls basketball team dropped all three games during its trip to Maui last week. In their first contest, the Eagles were defeated by Seabury Hall 26-70 with Gianna Chan, grade 10, and Sara Sullivan, grade 12, each scoring six points. The girls then fell to King Kekaulike 32-56 as Maria Vazhaeparambil, grade 11, led the scoring with seven points. In their final game against Maui High, the girls were defeated 24-67. The Eagles are back in action on Dec. 11 as they host Pioneer.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team opened its season with a 3-2 win over Saratoga last week. The Eagles travel to Monta Vista on Tuesday before hosting Santa Clara on Thursday.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer season opener was postponed last week, so the Eagles will make their 2019-20 debut on Wednesday as they host Harbor, followed by a trip to Independence on Friday.
Natalie Vo, grade 11, and Claire Chen, grade 9, represented the Eagles this week at the state girls golf finals at Poppy Hills. Vo finished 46th and Chen competed for the top spot all day, finishing in a tie for seventh shooting a 2-over-par 73. Great job ladies!
Cross Country
Good luck to Anna Weirich, grade 11, who will compete at the state cross country finals in Fresno on Nov. 30.
WINTER SPORTS
Girls/Boys Basketball
The girls and boys basketball teams will open their 2019-20 season on the road – in Hawaii! The Eagle teams each have three games scheduled during the Thanksgiving week on the island of Maui. Both teams have their home opener on Dec. 11 as the girls take on Pioneer and the boys face off with St. Thomas More.
Girls Soccer
The girls soccer team opens its season on Monday at Lynbrook. The first home game of the year is on Dec. 4 against Harbor.
Boys Soccer
The boys soccer team travels to Saratoga on Tuesday to open its season with the first home game on Dec. 5 against Santa Clara.
By Gianna Chan, grade 10, DECA director of communications
Over 50 students traveled to Anaheim in early November for California DECA’s first Fall Leadership Development Conference (FLDC), giving new members a closer look at three DECA industry clusters in a noncompetitive environment. As the students’ first official DECA conference, they learned the basics of the various tracks offered: leadership, hospitality and entrepreneurship, and had the opportunity to listen to leaders in the business world reflect on their entrepreneurial journeys.
“FLDC’s various tracks provided a pathway for students to become familiar with some of DECA’s clusters and demonstrate growth as leaders,” said Bryan Zhang, grade 11, DECA’s director of written events. “With the conference being the students’ first experience pitching their ideas to fellow competitors, FLDC allowed them to master their presentation skills while networking with people across California. Furthermore, the variety of keynote speakers taught the attendees about resilience and personal development through engaging activities and meaningful anecdotes. Overall, I think FLDC was an enriching experience for both seasoned veterans and novices of DECA.”
At the opening session, students were introduced to the conference theme, “Leadership Wins Championships,” and heard keynote speaker Jake Kelfer, author of the bestseller “Elevate Beyond,” discuss his career journey and life lessons.
“FLDC was very well run and gave me many new opportunities to learn from mentors and speakers,” said Lexi Nishimura, grade 9. “During the conference, I also got to bond with my chapter and make new friends in my track group.”
Later, students assembled with their respective tracks for a testing session and an introduction to the field. Through teamwork activities, members met other California DECA members and laid the groundwork for their final presentation with their groups.
On Saturday morning, attendees gathered for the morning session, where speaker Scott Mathie, founder of Nix Your Limits, talked about Walt Disney’s leadership and creative problem-solving skills. Then, the students transferred into their track groups to learn key concepts for their respective clusters and begin working on their final presentations.
The entrepreneurship track brainstormed ideas for a business proposal, while the leadership and hospitality tracks learned basic terminologies and leadership styles. Students then went out to lunch in Anaheim before reconvening in the afternoon to polish and practice their presentations.
“As the first conference of the year, FLDC was an incredible experience for kids to learn about DECA,” said Mahi Kolla, grade 12, co-chief executive officer of Harker DECA. “The conference provided students a great introduction to the different clusters, especially as each track was based on a competitive event that DECA offers. Our members’ creative presentations impressed me and showed how many highly skilled future DECA competitors and emerging leaders are within our chapter.
“The keynote speakers were also some of the best I’ve seen so far and gave attendees invaluable advice on leadership and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the conference allowed our members to bond with each other, and I think the balance between fun and learning created an amazing first DECA experience for our chapter,” Kolla added.
On Friday, RHYTHM – a youth outreach organization formed by the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus – visited Harker’s middle and upper school campuses, where it performed at a pair of assemblies, joined by middle school librarian Bernie Morrissey. The 50-man chorus sang a variety of songs from its repertoire, including George Michael’s “Freedom” and “If You Were Gay” from the musical Avenue Q. In between songs, members of the chorus shared their personal stories about growing up feeling different because of their orientation, providing valuable lessons about love, acceptance and building a more inclusive community.
RHYTHM coordinator Mitch Galli visited Harker the previous week to work with middle and upper school vocal groups as well as each campus’s Gender and Sexuality Alliance (GSA). Each assembly included a special performance of The Judds’ “Love Can Build a Bridge,” featuring Harker singers and students reading aloud hopes, written anonymously, for greater inclusivity in schools and communities.
The CCS cross country finals were held this weekend, and Harker was represented by the girls cross country team and Rigo Gonzales, grade 9. Gonzales finished 61 out of 119 Division 4 boys runners, and the girls team ended the season with a sixth place finish in D4. But the story of the day was Anna Weirich, grade 11, who took first place in the D4 girls race, bringing home the first girls CCS cross country title in school history. Weirich finished 47 seconds ahead of the second place runner and will travel to Fresno on Nov. 30 for the state championships.
Girls Tennis
Last week, the girls tennis team finished its season with an amazing CCS run. The Eagles defeated Salinas 6-1, No. 3 seed Cupertino 4-3 and No. 6 seed Menlo Atherton 4-3 to make it further in CCS than any other Harker tennis team (boys or girls) in school history. The girls eventually fell to St. Francis 2-5 in the semis, but had an amazing year finishing with a 15-3 record.
Girls Volleyball
The historic girls volleyball season came to an end last week as the team was defeated in the first round of NorCals 0-3 by Central Catholic. Congrats on a great season Eagles!
Girls Golf
Natalie Vo, grade 11, and Claire Chen, grade 9, will travel to Poppy Hills on Tuesday to compete at the state championships. Good luck ladies!
Last week, the girls volleyball team dominated in its run through CCS as it defeated Pacific Grove, Harbor and Sacred Heart Prep all 3-0 on its way to the D4 CCS championship. This is just the second CCS team title in Harker history! The Eagles were bumped up to D2 for the NorCal tournament and will travel to Modesto to face off with Central Catholic on Tuesday night.
Girls Golf
Last week, the girls golf team had its best finish in Harker history as it ended the season with a fifth place finish at the NorCal Regionals. Although the team season came to an end, Natalie Vo, grade 11, and Claire Chen, grade 9, each shot a 3-over-par 75 and qualified for the state championships that will be held at Pebble Beach on Nov. 19.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team defeated ND Belmont 7-0 in a WBAL playoff match last week. The win helped push the Eagles into CCS where they open at Salinas High on Monday.
Cross Country
The cross country team competed at the WBAL finals last week and, for the first time since 2015, the girls team qualified for CCS with Anna Weirich, grade 11, leading the way with a third place finish in the girls varsity race. Rigo Gonzales, grade 9, placed 14th in the varsity boys race and qualified as an individual for CCS. The CCS finals will be held on Saturday at Crystal Springs Cross Country Course.
Scholastic Teams
Each season, CCS honors the teams that produce the highest GPA in their specific sport. For the fall season, Harker boys cross country (3.953) and football (3.554) each finished with the highest GPA in their sports, and boys water polo (3.670) finished third. Congratulations to our amazing student athletes!
Krish Mysoor, grade 8, had a record-setting weekend in debate, placing first at the Damus Hollywood Invitational, hosted by the Harvard-Westlake and Notre Dame schools in Los Angeles, Nov. 2-4.
Mysoor is the only eighth grader in memory to take first place at a varsity national qualifier to the Tournament of Champions (TOC). TOC-designated tournaments are considered to be the most challenging debate tournaments because they attract the most competitive schools from multiple states. The topic for the event was whether or not the United States ought to eliminate subsidies for fossil fuels.
Students who reach a certain level of elimination-round success at two of those events are invited to compete at the most elite varsity championship at the end of the year. It is extremely rare for a middle school student to even reach early elimination rounds at TOC tournaments, let alone to have a perfect preliminary record and then go on to win five elimination rounds in a row. The team is very proud of his outstanding accomplishment.
Lincoln Garrett, the head debate coach of the University of Kentucky, which hosts the Tournament of Champions, noted of Mysoor’s accomplishment, “That is incredible. To go from learning the activity a short while ago to winning a competitive tournament is remarkable.”
Mysoor is known for his hard work and being a great teammate. His remarkable success has attracted quite a bit of attention from the national debate community. Go Harker speech and debate!
As part of the business and entrepreneurship department’s CareerConnect program, and thanks to the generous support of the Constellation Research organization, four upper school Harker students attended the annual Constellation Research Conference on Tuesday at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay.
The event is a three-day innovation summit and executive retreat with one-on-one interviews with marketing visionaries, “executive exchanges, fireside chats and disruptive technology demos,” according to its website. Attendees included leaders from Arby’s Restaurant Group, CBRE Group, Estée Lauder, Spotify, Symmons Industries, The University of Texas System and the U.S. government.
Students had the opportunity to hear from amazing panelists and speakers including the “Father of the Internet,” Vint Cerf, among others, on the topic “Inside Exponential Business Models – From Post Digital Divide to Winner Takes All Networks.” Cerf spoke at Harker in 2013; read about it in Harker News.
There also was a great social luncheon where students were able to network with thought leaders around the world (see pictures attached), noted Juston Glass, teacher in the BE program, “and it was overall an amazing experience for the students to take part in this exclusive, leading-edge, professional experience/conference.”
Last week, the girls golf team stayed red hot as it took third in CCS and will head to the NorCal regionals on Monday. Natalie Vo, grade 11, led the way for the Eagles, shooting a 72 and finishing fifth in CCS. A top three finish at NoCals would send the girls to the state finals later this month.
Girls Water Polo
The girls water polo team dominated the early rounds of the SCVAL Tournament as it defeated Cupertino 17-1 and Wilcox 11-1 before falling to Santa Clara 3-8 in the finals. The Eagles ended their season with a 20-4 record.
Girls Volleyball
The girls volleyball team ended the regular season with a 3-0 win over Castilleja, improving its record to 18-8. The Eagles earned the No. 3 seed in the D4 CCS playoffs and will host Pacific Grove on Tuesday night.
Boys Water Polo
In the SCVAL Tournament, the boys water polo team defeated Fremont 11-5 before falling to Santa Clara 5-10. The Eagles then fell to Cupertino 12-13 in their final match of the tournament. The boys finish up the year with a 17-12 record.
Girls Tennis
The girls tennis team takes on Notre Dame Belmont in a WBAL playoff on Tuesday.
Cross Country
On Friday, the cross country team heads to Crystal Springs Cross Country Park for the WBAL Finals.
Football
The final football game of the season was cancelled at El Molino due to the air quality caused by the fires. The Eagles finish the year with a 1-5-1 record.
Students filled Nichols Hall earlier today for this year’s Service Fair, where student-run organizations, as well as representatives of local and national organizations, answered questions about the many community service opportunities available. Mainstays including Harker’s Key Club and National Honor Society were present, as were organizations such as MusiCodes, which utilizes the arts as a means to teach and foster interest in computer science among local youth.
“We wanted a way to combine the two, because we think it’s much easier to code and form associations with it if you introduce a musical aspect,” said junior Michelle Si, a MusiCodes co-founder. Participants in MusiCodes workshops build small pianos, which Si said is “more engaging because it’s hands-on, but also the kids really enjoy it because it’s something that they’re very familiar with.” In the past year, MusiCodes has expanded its reach to include at-risk and foster youth.
Another participating organization, New Visions of Tomorrow, founded in 2013 and run by students from several area schools, works with visually impaired youth in the area. “We do fundraising as well as enrichment activities and we work very closely with Vista Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired,” said senior Jin Tuan, a co-president of the organization. Members of the organization have hosted art workshops and museum visits and have volunteered at local sporting events to raise funds for the Vista Center.