The Harker Eagles varsity softball team (4-3 overall, 1-1 in league play) won a WBAL Foothill Division game 6-0 against the Alma Heights Christian Eagles (0-4, 0-1) on March 20. There were several highlights during the game played on Harker’s home diamond, and they were all provided by Harker pitcher Alison Rugar, grade 11.
Rugar’s lead-off home run was all the offense Harker would need to defeat Alma Heights. However, Rugar’s performance on the mound would eclipse what turned out to be the game-winning hit. She dominated the visiting team by pitching an 18-strikeout perfect game. Sixty-five percent of Rugar’s pitches were strikes, and she averaged 3.9 pitches per Alma Heights batter. The perfect game was preserved by Rugar cleanly fielding a bunt to throw out an Alma Height batter and Harker shortstop Ashley Del Alto, grade 11, snagging two line shots. Perfect games don’t happen without great catching, and Laura Thacker , grade 10, was solid behind the plate.
When the 21st Alma Heights batter swung and missed on a 1-2 count, there was no fist-pumping or leaping off the mound. Rugar jogged to the Harker dugout and thanked her teammates for their help in Harker’s winning effort. Harker coach Raul Rios awarded the game ball to Rugar after it was signed by the Harker players.
Rugar is currently leading the WBAL Foothill Division in home runs (two), and she has recorded 89 strikeouts for the 2012 season. Her overall GPA is 4.23 and she is a top flute player in the award-winning Harker Orchestra.
Harker’s Junior Eagle coed football summer camp is a great way for students from any school in grades 4-8 to improve as players and as team members. Campers will be placed in groups based on age and skill level, and the camp will comprise two sessions per day. The first session will help students improve their skills by participating in speed and agility drills as well as offensive and defensive drills. Students will have the choice of focusing on one team position or learning a variety of them. In the second session, teams of students will play a minimum of five games each day, and a championship team will be declared by the end of the week. The second session is available separately, but students must be enrolled in the first session to be eligible for the second session.
Ron Forbes, Harker’s sports performance coordinator, will serve as head coach during the program. In a career spanning 15 years, which has included stints at Stanford University and the University of Florida, Forbes has coached Olympians, professional athletes and national champions in a wide variety of sports.
Students in grades 5-6 will participate in non-contact sessions. Grades 7-8 will participate in full-contact drills with appropriate gear. The first camp will be held July 23-25, and the second camp will take place July 26-27. Each day, the first session runs from 1-4 p.m., and the second session from 4:30-7:30 p.m. For more information and to register for this program, please visit http://summer.harker.org/page.cfm?p=2381.
Two dozen students took the qualification exam for the International Linguistics Olympiad and five qualified for the next round. In addition, last summer, junior Erik Andersen was named a member of the United States’ team which competed in Pittsburgh, Penn. Anderson, whose interest in linguistics began in grade 8, said, “The problems in the invitational rounds are more difficult and require the participants to explain their answers using linguistic theory.” His sixth place finish automatically qualified him to continue to compete in the North American Computational Linguistics Olympiad events, most recently in an open round which was held last month for the first time at Harker, in Nichols Hall. The other five qualifiers are Nitya Mani, grade 9; Katie Siegel, grade 12; Rahul Sridhar, grade 10; Ramya Rangan, grade 12; and Kevin Zhu, grade 10, and all will go on to compete against the top 149 students in North America for slots on the final team.
Harker’s summer basketball program is an ideal opportunity for boys in grades 5-8 and girls in grades 5-9 to develop their skills on the court in a fun, nurturing atmosphere. Students will work on fundamental defense and offense, shooting, rebounding, ball handling and more from Harker’s experienced coaches. Team strategy, fitness and endurance will also be incorporated for a well-rounded program that emphasizes teamwork and individual growth as well as basketball skills.
Boys coach Butch Keller, who serves as Harker’s upper school division head, has been coaching basketball for 25 years, winning 19 conference or league championships, in addition to winning numerous awards and achieving an overall record of 511-137. Most recently, he led the boys to a historical break into the upper brackets of CCS playoffs. Coaching the girls will be Alfredo Alves, who last year led the Harker girls varsity team to 20 wins and the first playoff win in Harker girls basketball history.
This program will be held at Harker’s middle school campus, and all students will receive a ball and a camp T-shirt. The boys program runs from June 25-30, and the girls program runs from July 9-13. Previous organized basketball experience is preferred. Visit Harker Summer Sports pages to find more information and register for this program.
Harker’s coed Elite Soccer Camp summer program offers students aged 9-16 a variety of opportunities to improve their skills in a professional environment with individual instruction tailored to each student’s needs. The program will feature a challenging curriculum with daily activities such as Futsal, psycho-motor training, large-goal games and full- and half-court games. Students will also receive visits and listen to talks by professional and college-level players.
The program will be held at Harker’s upper school campus on Davis Field and led by Harker varsity soccer coach Shaun Tsakiris, a veteran of four NCAA tournaments, member of the 1997 U.S. National Team and winner of UCLA’s MVP Award in 2000. He later joined the United Soccer Leagues Professional Division, and played for the Rochester Rhinos from 2002-06.
The three sessions of the program will take place June 18-22, July 9-13 and July 23-27. Each session runs from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.
All students in this program will receive a soccer ball and a camp T-shirt. To find more information and register for this program, please visit our Summer Soccer web page.
Girls lacrosse had a close game against Bella Vista yesterday, but lost 15-17. Harker scorers were: Michelle Douglas, grade 11 (six); Wendy Shwe, grade 11 (five), Tiphaine Delepine, grade 11 (two); and Hannah Bollar, grade 9 (two).
Boys tennis lost to state power Menlo yesterday and face another strong team today, Monta Vista. Harker is now 2-3 overall, 2-2 in league.
The Harker Concert Series season came to a close on March 17 with a distinguished string quartet, who ran a master class with orchestra students and then performed to a full house in Nichols Hall auditorium.
The Afiara String Quartet is a Canadian group with impressive résumés: the foursome have degrees from Juilliard, Peabody, New England Conservatory, San Francisco Conservatory and Mannes College among them, and are clearly each highly accomplished musicians. Put them together, and the result is a tightly knit, focused yet relaxed ensemble that interprets music as though it were coming from just one bow.
Beethoven’s “String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95” was the first piece, a work historians place as the last of his “middle” period before he embarked upon the last works he would write, the Late Quartets. In the hands of the Afiara Quartet, this piece was aggressive, passionate and full of extremes, just as one wants Beethoven to be. Violist David Samuel and cellist Adrian Fung had a chance to show off the rich sonorities they coaxed from their instruments in some melodic interplay, and the group bobbed and swayed in perfect physical harmony as they dug into the dramatic piece, executing flawless transitions between tempi and movements.
The quartet’s second piece was a commissioned work by Samuel’s Juilliard buddy Brett Abigaña, a 32-year-old rising star in the classical world. This “String Quartet No. 2” was written in 2010, and seemed perfectly designed to highlight each member of the quartet’s musicianship and virtuosity. The piece appeared built around ostinato figures – accompaniment lines that repeated over and over while others built melodies around them. The first movement, “Psalm,” was hauntingly beautiful, with the dissonant ostinato provided by the two violinists, Valerie Li and Yuri Cho. Two of the movements ended with just a single player fading away into nothingness, leaving the audience spellbound and silent, waiting for the next movements to begin. The piece ended in a flurry of scalar passages, performed absolutely in sync and with clarity and precision that were truly spectacular. This piece was a wonderful mixture of modern atonality and lush melodies, and it was a treat to have such a positive glimpse of classical music’s future.
After an intermission, which included green food in honor of St. Patrick’s Day provided by Harker’s catering team, the group performed a string quartet of Dvořák’s. The Bohemian composer is known for infusing his work with nationalistic folk songs, and it didn’t take much imagination to hear such themes here. Interestingly, it was the first quartet Dvořák composed after returning from a trip to the United States; one wonders how much American influence found its way into this lovely piece. The third distinct genre of the evening, this piece received the same flawless interpretation as the others, showing Afiara’s comfort with various styles.
It is truly a learning experience for students and the community alike to witness such a seamless meeting of the minds amongst members of a small ensemble like the Afiara String Quartet. Kudos to Harker music teachers Chris Florio and Dave Hart, co-directors of the Harker Concert Series, for bringing a professional quartet of such remarkable skill to play in our own house.
Students who enjoy swimming will have a chance to further their interest with Harker’s Aquatics Discovery summer program, available to students aged 7 to 12. Dedicated, experienced swim coaches will help students build fitness both in and out of the water, as well as offer them a wide variety of aquatic activities, such as competitive swim instruction, snorkeling and water polo.
The program, which runs from June 18-21, is headed up by Harker swim coach Ron Usher, who also coaches boys junior varsity water polo. His method employs fun games and activities that teach every student valuable swimming skills. Formerly the head aquatics coach at Foothill College, a post he held for 10 years, Usher has taught everyone from beginners to national champions. This coed program will take place at the Singh Aquatic Center at Harker’s upper school campus, and all students will receive a camp T-shirt. Students who wish to participate in this program must be able to swim 25 yards.
Harker will offer a beginners’ water polo program this summer for students in grades 4-8 looking to learn more about the sport. The coed program will teach crucial skills necessary to compete, such as water and dry land conditioning, treading water, passing and shooting. To be eligible for the program, students must be able to swim 25 yards.
Ted Ujifusa, who directs the program, has been coaching water polo for nearly 40 years, and is the only coach in CCS history to lead two different public high schools to championships. He will be working with Allie Lamb, a 15-year water polo veteran, and swim coach Ron Usher, who has worked with every level from beginners to national champions.
This program will be held at the Singh Aquatic Center at Harker’s upper school campus, and runs from June 25-29, from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. each day. More information and registration are available at the Harker Summer Camp water polo pages.
Grade 3 history students spent a Friday in early February dressed up as historical figures for the yearly Dress for History Day. Students as well as teachers arrived dressed as historical versions of cowboys, miners, Native Americans and more.