Grade 5 and grade 12 students hit the turf at Davis Field on Sept. 20 for the first Eagle Buddies event of the year. After pairing up, the students separated into three groups, each taking part in one of three fun activities set up for the day.
One group of buddies had a blast playing a game in which they had to keep several balloons in the air. Each balloon had a topic written on it, such as role model, favorite animal or favorite superhero. At the end of the game, each pair of buddies caught one of the balloons and sat down to discuss what was written on the balloon. Over at the bleachers, buddies put their heads together to create stylish and intricate logos on their name tags. At another spot, buddies ran up and down the field in a classic three-legged race. Groups were rotated through the three areas to make sure every student had the chance to have fun with all the activities.
After the students had spent time at each activity, they all enjoyed conversation over a hamburger lunch on Davis Field.
Cole Smitherman, grade 5, and his buddy, Pranav Sharma, grade 12, had just met the day of the event but had corresponded by mail beforehand. They learned about each others’ favorite books during the balloon activity (Smitherman’s is “Harry Potter,” while Sharma’s is Albert Camus’ “The Stranger”). “It’s really cool just to be able to connect with someone who’s much younger than we are, and how we were once,” Sharma said.
Grace Hajjar, grade 5, has known her buddy, senior Amy Gendotti, since the Eagle Buddies program started in 2010. “When we first met, we were sort of shy and all, because we didn’t know what we liked,” Hajjar said. “So we got to know each other, and it’s been good.”
Gendotti said the program has been beneficial to her because, “I got to go to a lot of events I normally wouldn’t because I don’t have any younger siblings or anything.”
In August, Stephanie Chen, grade 11, received word that she had earned a second place award in the Ayn Rand Institute’s “Anthem” Essay Contest, in which high school students submit analytical essays on Rand’s influential novella. For her effort, Chen won a $500 prize.
Chen, who entered the most recent contest during her grade 10 year, first entered the contest while in grade 9 and was named a semifinalist. She attributed much of her success in her second attempt to her grade 10 English class with teacher Jennifer Siraganian.
Middle School Softball
The team is off to a 3-1 start putting them in first place in league with 3-0 record. The team is led by the strong pitching of Meghan Robertson, grade 6, and timely hitting from Kristin LeBlanc, grade 7 and Marti Sutton, grade 8. Strong contributions have come from Lavinia Ding and Grace Park, both grade 8, and Tiffany Shou, grade 7. The team has received strong catching support from Anika Rajamani, grade 6, and some clutch play from Taylor Lam, also grade 6.
Girls Tennis
Girls tennis went 3-0 this week against CCS-quality opponents, wrapping up their strong showing with a dominant 7-0 victory on the road against archrival Sacred Heart Prep. Co-captain Jenny Chen, grade 12, faced off against Sacred Heart’s number one and walked away with the win in two sets 6-2, 6-2. Dora Tzeng, grade 11, extended her streak of outstanding play by blanking her opponent (6-0, 6-0) despite a lingering shoulder injury which forced her to serve underhand for the match. Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, won in straight sets, giving her an undefeated 8-0 record in September. On her way to a perfect month, Karakoulka lost nary a set.
In doubles matches, each of Harker’s teams captured victories as well – a meaningful rout against a foe in Sacred Heart whose doubles lineups had emerged as some of Harker’s strongest competition. Number one team Sat Prakash, grade 11, and Arden Hu, grade 10, won 6-4, 6-3. Number two team Izzy Gross, grade 9, and Sylvie Dobrota, grade 12, won 4-6, 6-1 (10-8). Finally, number three team Indica Sur, grade 12, and Ariana Shulman, grade 11, won 6-4, 6-4.
The team now stands at 5-0 and is 2-0 in the WBAL. Harker plays Notre Dame next Wednesday and then, on Thursday, has an important showdown with league co-leader Menlo at Blackford.
Girls Water Polo
Girls water polo pulled off a great win a couple of weeks ago against Santa Clara High School; check out the writeup in the Santa Clara Weekly.
After an especially busy back-to-school time for students in grades 6-8 and their families, the middle school’s first annual barbecue afforded an opportunity for them to simply hang out.
Having fun and uniting as a group were the only things on the agenda at the Sept. 15 weekend barbecue, which came on the heels of a range of important events including the middle school orientation, preview event and parent volunteer information breakfast.
During the barbecue, which took place on the middle school campus, there were action-packed activities such as a student versus parent tug of war. Students also chose to play Nerf football, bocce ball, Ping-Pong or just hung out with friends. Meanwhile, there were plenty of hot dogs and burgers flipped on the grill and served buffet-style with tasty side dishes. Dessert was pot luck from families and included a plethora of tempting treats.
According to Jennifer Hargreaves, director of Harker’s middle and upper school volunteer programs, nearly 400 people attended the barbecue, marking a great turnout for this inauguarl event.
“This success was made possible by the grade-level coordinators involved in the planning, as well as the assistance of many parent volunteers who did the heavy lifting, grilling, serving, setting and cleanup,” she said.
Girls Water Polo
Girls water polo went 3-0 at the Sequoia High Tournament last Saturday with wins over Notre Dame-Belmont, Aragon and Sequoia. Freshman Helena Dworak had 21 saves in goal over the three games and Keri Clifford, grade 12, scored 19 goals for the day.
Boys Water Polo
Boys water polo had an impressive victory over Santa Clara last week and take their 2-2 record to Lynbrook tomorrow. Both boys and girls teams host Cupertino Thursday.
Girls Volleyball
Girls volleyball went 5-0 Saturday to win the silver bracket at the Cupertino Tournament. The girls have improved to 10-1 on the season as they host King’s Academy tonight and Santa Clara tomorrow.
Football
Football dropped to 2-2 on the season with their loss at Mills High School Saturday. Senior JP Doherty caught two touchdown passes on offense and recovered a fumble on defense. Junior Sravan Rajathilak caught a touchdown pass for Harker’s first score of the game. Sophomore Keanu Forbes powered through the Mills defense to run for the first varsity touchdown of his career. Please support them Friday night, 6:30 at Cupertino High for the opening of league play.
Cross Country
Wish our cross country runners well this Saturday at Westmoor High.
There was something for everyone at the upper school’s recent club fair, where students perused a range of inviting offerings on display at tables staffed by volunteer recruiters.
Held in the gym during a long lunch on Sept. 12, the club fair served as a “one-stop-shop,” allowing students to sign up for a club or clubs that matched their interests. Among this year’s offerings were the Robotics Club, Japanese Club, Tri-Sports Club (fencing, ultimate Frisbee, four square), the Gay Straight Alliance and the Chemistry Club.
There were also clubs promoting community service and activism including such stalwarts as GEO (Global Empowerment and Outreach), HEART (Harker Environmental and Animal Rights Team) and the Key Club, part of an international high school organization sponsored by Kiwanis International.
According to Kerry Enzensperger, director of the upper school’s community service and activity program, “There are no club meetings until after the fair, so it’s really an official start to clubs for the new school year.”
The Harker School’s lower campus filled with the happy sounds and delicious aromas of an outdoor barbecue during two separate events held to welcome students and their families back to school.
On Aug. 24, Harker’s newest students – its kindergartners – took to the lower school’s playground for their own special, mouth-watering and fun-filled barbecue. That event was followed on Sept. 7 with a larger, combined barbecue for grades 1-5 held on Rincon Field.
At both events students and parents alike enjoyed the warm summer air and friendly atmosphere, as well as tables filled with a range of tasty barbecue offerings, veggie and regular hamburgers, the always-popular hot dogs, chips, and plenty lemonade and water. Many parents also generously brought dessert and fruit which, as one participant happily noted, went faster than the cookies!
At the grade 1-5 barbeque, while the students continued their after-school romp, parents and younger siblings lounged on blankets on the grass in the shade. Administrators, including Chris Nikoloff, head of school; Jennifer Gargano, assistant head of school for academic affairs; Ken Allen, lower school dean of students; Sara Leonard, primary division head; and Kristin Giamonna, elementary division head (Gr. 4-5) all circulated among parents to answer questions and just shoot the breeze on a beautiful, warm, sunny evening.
The barbecues are a recent innovation to welcome new and returning students and families to Harker in a casual, fun, atmosphere.
Harker’s honor council hosted an honor and ethics conference that brought together representatives from the Pacific Collegiate School, San Francisco University High School, Pinewood School and the Bay School of San Francisco to discuss various scenarios and find out what issues schools need to address. The Harker students came up with case studies and presented them to the other schools’ representatives. Case studies included information on tests revealed during conversations between periods, plagiarism and theft of unattended school-related items such as books and calculators.
Evan Barth, dean of upper school students, said the scenarios presented in each case study were primarily used to generate feedback from each school and spur discussion in order to discover the issues that schools were having with ethics violations. “It’s for the students to have ideas to bounce off of each other,” he said.
Middle School
Girls Softball
Harker 7 – Menlo 0! Our dynamic duo of Meghan Robertson and Anika Rajamani, both grade 6, played a great game Sept. 18 against Menlo. Robertson pitched and brings great control and speed to the team; Rajamani is the catcher and is like a wall behind the plate, said Raul Rios, coach. “We had great defensive plays by Marti Sutton, grade 8, Taylor Lam, grade 6, and Grace Park, grade 8. We have a very young but strong team this year; if they stay together and keep playing they are going to be a force to be reckoned with in the upcoming years.” The team is now 2-0.
Upper School
Varsity Football
Varsity football now stands at 2-1, having won Sept. 7 and lost Sept. 14. First, the gridiron guys took down Andrew Hill High School 23-16. One highlight was senior Deniz Celik’s 32-yard field goal which, coupled with quarterback senior Spenser Quash’s pair of second-half touchdown passes kept Harker in the lead to help survive a late Andrew Hill drive. Trailing 16-11 in the third quarter, Quash connected with Adarsh Battu, grade 11, on a 10-yard score to put the Eagles ahead 17-16. Another TD pass, on a screen to Ryan Mui, grade 12, provided insurance and Harker needed every bit of it. The game ended with Hill inside the Harker five-yard line, so a bit closer than desired!
The following week, Sept 14. against San Jose High School, with the score 8-8 late in the fourth quarter, SJHS’ Bulldogs drove the ball 60 yards and kicked a field goal with only seconds remaining to seal the 11-8 victory. Robert Deng, grade 12, scored a one-yard touchdown pass from Quash and Keanu Forbes, grade 10, scored the two-point conversion for the Eagles. The 2-1 Eagles are away at Mills High School Saturday afternoon this week.
Girls Tennis
Girls tennis didn’t lose a set in the Sept. 6 7-0 rout of Fremont, played on Fremont’s home courts. Sophomore Arden Hu, playing #4 singles, had the closest match, and was pushed to a first set tiebreaker before prevailing 7-6, 6-0, making the team 2-0. Then, over the weekend, varsity girls had an excellent performance at the Santa Catalina tournament, winning second place out of 16 teams. The standings were very close, with the team just one win away from tying for first place.
Daria Karakoulka, grade 12, was the #3 singles champion and did not drop a single set throughout the tournament. Number 2 doubles team Chau Nguyen, grade 12, and Izzy Gross, grade 9, won first place and remain undefeated this season with six wins. Katia Mironova, grade 11, was a finalist at #4 singles, and Indica Sur, grade 12, and Ariana Shulman, grade 11, were finalists at #3 doubles. Jenny Chen, grade 12, reached the semifinals at #1 singles, and #1 doubles team Sylvie Dobrota, grade 12, and Hu made it to the quarterfinals. Adding to the team’s total, Sahithya Prakash, grade 11, also reached consolation finals at #2 singles. The girls open league play next week.
Girls Volleyball
Girls volleyball lost to a strong Homestead High team Sept. 12, but rebounded against Fremont two days later in a three-game sweep. Shreya Dixit, grade 10, led the team with 12 kills to make the team 2-1. Sept. 13, the team defeated Saratoga High three games to one to improve to 3-1 on the season. Divya Kalidindi, grade 11, and Dixit had 11 kills each. Sept. 17 the girls hosted Immaculate Conception Academy. They face Pinewood High School tonight so come on out and cheer!
Boys Water Polo
Varsity lost the first game of the Wilcox Tournament Sept. 8-9 against Pioneer, but had solid victories over Willow Glen and Santa Clara 18-10 and 15-10, respectively. Karan Das-Grande, grade 12, scored 11 goals over the three games; Ryan Hume, grade 12, got 10; Eric Holt, grade 10, and Gilad Nilo, grade 12, had six each; Stephan Pellissier, grade 11, had four; and Albert Chu, grade 11, put one in.
The boys went on to a solid 8-6 victory over Fremont Sept. 13 to improve to 5-3 on the season. Hume had three goals, Holt added two. Sean Pan, grade 11, was stellar in goal. On Sept. 18, the boys beat Santa Clara High School 18-11 and they host Wilcox High Thurs., Sept. 20.
Girls Water Polo
Girls water polo opened the season last week with a pair of victories over league opponents. On Sept 11, they defeated Saratoga 9-7; and two days later they worked over Fremont 8-5. Senior Keri Clifford, grade 12, led the way with eight goals over the two games. Sierra Lincoln, grade 12, had 13 saves in goal against Saratoga. The girls then went 2-2 in the Wilcox Lady Chargers seventh annual Girls Varsity Water Polo Tournament over the weekend. In that tournament, Clifford had eight goals in three games, and freshman Helena Dworak had seven saves in a very close loss to Lynbrook.
Scores
Harker-7, SCHS-10, with goals by Anushka Das, grade 10; Clifford, Daphne Millard, grade 12; Anna Levine, grade 12 ( three); and Sonia Sidhu. Eight blocks by Lincoln.
Harker-5, Fremont-2 with goals by Clifford (two), Yanovsky and Levine (two); Lincoln, five blocks.
Harker-8, Lynbrook-10, with goals by Clifford (five), Levine (two) and Sidhu; seven blocks by Helena Dworak, grade 9.
Harker-5, Saratoga-0: Saratoga forfeit.
On Sept. 18, the girls beat Santa Clara High School 8-7 and they face Mountain View High School Thurs., Sept. 20.
Girls Golf
Girls golf lost to Notre Dame-Belmont Sept. 7 at Los Lagos in a non-league matchup 240-231. Kristine Lin, grade 11, led all golfers with a 38. They beat Menlo School Sept. 17 221-232 and Lin earned medalist honors, shooting four over par 38. Senior Jessica Son’s timely career best 42 helped the team notch this very important win. Also contributing her personal best was junior Connie Li with a 50. Freshman Daphne Liang debuted with a steady 47 while senior Patricia Huang shot a 44. Late breaking news: Triumph over Sacred Heart Prep Sept. 18, in a close one, 223-227.
Cross Country
Cross country competed at Toro Park in Salinas Sept. 15, and sophomore Corey Gonzales placed 17th in the varsity boys race. His time of 17:07 is a personal best by 30 seconds on the Toro course; the time is second on the all-time Harker list, and also sets a sophomore school record, breaking the old one by two minutes. Freshman Mary Najibi placed ninth in the frosh-soph race, leading her team to a fourth place finish. Najibi’s time of 22:49 is the third all-time freshman time. Another freshman, Connor O’Neill, ran a 19:55, which is the second fastest freshman time in Harker history.
When the San Jose police department reached out for support of its annual National Night Out crime and drug prevention event, The Harker School gladly accepted.
Held at the Starbird Park in San Jose on Aug. 7, National Night Out was an opportunity to participate with many other neighborhoods across the country in celebration of the nationwide effort sponsored by the National Association of Town Watch and co-sponsored locally by the police.
This year marked the 29th anniversary of the program, with more than 37 million people across the country participating.
Mike Bassoni, Harker’s facility manager, reported that the school once again provided 500 hot dogs, chips and condiments for the evening event, which began around 6 p.m. Bassoni and other Harker volunteers were on hand helping to distribute food and drinks as well as provide logistical support.
National Night Out is designed to not only heighten crime and drug prevention awareness but to generate support for, and participation in, local anticrime efforts. It also works to strengthen neighborhood spirit and police/community partnerships while sending a message to criminals that cities are united in fighting back.
According to the San Jose police department participating neighborhoods were asked to turn on outside lights, lock their doors and spend the evening outside with neighbors and police. Moreover, neighborhoods used the event as a launching board to plan further programming such as disaster preparedness, setting neighborhood goals or watches, organizing food or clothing drives and planning to beautify a common area with a cleanup day.
During the National Night Out event itself there were some police officers present, army recruiters, representatives from the San Jose Earthquakes and the Starbird Community Center – and, of course, Bassoni and his Harker crew!