Jan. 14, 2011
[Update] The middle school boys Varsity A (grade 8) are both league and tournament champs for the first time! “We survived a great effort from Menlo yesterday and prevailed in the tournament championship game 20-14 in overtime,” said coach Mike Delfino. “Menlo did a great job slowing down the tempo, holding the ball for two to three minutes sometimes before shooting, and not allowing us to quicken the tempo of the game.
“Our guys adjusted well, were patient, and took advantage when the opportunities presented themselves. We like to run the ball up and down the court and push the tempo — it’s what we’re most comfortable doing, so it’s a credit to our players to be able to still win a game where they had to adjust to a completely different style of play. Incredibly, the game was tied at 13 after regulation play. Srivinay Irrinki hit a huge three pointer to start the overtime and Eric Holt helped ice the game with some clutch free throws.
It’s the first time a Harker middle school basketball team has ever won the league championship and the WBAL Tournament in the same season,” Delfino noted. Congrats to all the Grade 8 Varsity A basketball players!
Incredibly the game was tied at 13 after regulation. Srivinay Irrinki hit a huge three pointer to start the overtime and Eric Holt helped ice the game with some clutch free throws.
Jan. 13, 2011
[Update] The boys Varsity A team defeated Pinewood 53-38 last night in the semifinals of the WBAL Tournament. Eric Holt led all scorers with 26 points, 16 coming in the first half as the team built an 11 point halftime lead. “I thought all 10 of our guys played very well,” said coach Mike Delifino. “This was the second time in six days we played Pinewood and last week they were much more aggressive than we were and really took it to us. In that game, I thought we were very fortunate to come away with a 2-point win, but last night was different. Our guys were much more aggressive from the start and really did a nice job dictating the tempo of the game, especially on defense where we were able to force a lot of early turnovers. It really was a complete effort on both sides of the ball.” The boys play their final game of the year tonight at Blackford against either Menlo or King’s Academy at 6 p.m. The boys have beaten both those teams in regular season play, so have a good chance of adding the title of tournament champs to their already-earned league champioinship, tonight! See below for details of their exciting season
Jan. 10, 2011
[Update] The middle school boys Varsity A (grade 8) team) finished up a stellar season with a heartbreaker, losing to St. Simon’s on Friday 48-40. The team finished the season 7-1; see below for details. The game Jan. 7 was, “a very good game between two very good teams,” said coach Mike Delfino. “St Simon players were big and fast but it was back and forth all the way. I thought we played very well. We had some chances –we were down just four with about two minutes to play, but missed a couple of key free throws and a couple of shots and couldn’t close the gap.” The team will play in the WBAL post-season tournament starting this week on Wednesday at 5 p.m. at St. Joseph’s.
Jan. 7, 2011
[Update] The middle school boys Varsity A (grade 8) team squeaked by Pinewood to complete league play unbeaten! “It was a battle,” said coach Mike Delfino. “Pinewood played very well. We escaped at the end 29-27. Srivinay Irrinki hit a three-pointer with nine seconds left to win it.” Tonight is the final regular season game against St. Simon of Los Altos at 4 p.m. in the Saratoga campus gym. Come on out and cheer the boys to victory in this tough final match!
Jan. 6, 2011
[Update] The middle school boys Varsity A (grade 8) team has two games left to win to complete an unbeaten season: Pinewood on Thurs., Jan. 6, and St. Simon of Los Altos on Fri., Jan. 7. The Pinewood game is at 4 p. m. at Bucknall and if the boys win they are league champions and unbeaten in league play. If they beat non-league St. Simon, a very good team, according to coach Mike Delfino, that ends their regular season unbeaten. That game is at Saratoga at 4 p.m., and spectators are welcome at both games! The team then plays in a league tournament next week to finish the season.
Jan. 5, 2011
The middle school Varsity A (grade 8) and Varsity B (grade 7 and 8) basketball teams both fought for league titles Jan. 4, with the A team winning 32-17 and the B team going down 24-33. Both games were held at the Blackford campus with a solid crowd of supporters.
The Varsity A game was a showdown with Menlo School that left the Harker team with a 5-0 record in league play with one game left to play against Pinewood this Thursday at Blackford. The team has beaten every team except Pinewood, their last opponent, who already has two losses. That means that even if Harker loses, no other team will have better than a 5-1 record, and even then will have already been beaten by Harker, leaving the league championship squarely in Harker’s hands!
“I’m sure there’s no way we can be caught,” said coach Mike Delfino. “We are now 7-0 overall and that includes a 51-46 win over a very strong Willow Glen Middle School on their home court.”
In Tuesday’s game, “We were able to jump ahead early,” said Delfino. “We were very solid defensively and though we weren’t shooting well, we rebounded well and got a lot of second chance points, allowing us to jump to a 16-2 halftime lead. The second half was a little more back and forth. Menlo closed to within eight points, but then we moved the lead back up to 14 and by the end of the third quarter it was 27-11. Last quarter was a chance to get everyone some playing time and the final was 32-17.”
The team has a tough non-league game against St. Simon on Friday, Jan. 7, and the league tournament follows next week, but pairings won’t be available until at least Friday as teams finish their final games. “I can tell you that we should be the top seed and probably will have a first round bye,” said Delfino.
“The tournament (next week) doesn’t determine a league champion,” Delfino continued. “That is done during the season. This is a separate tournament involving the teams in our league where they seed according to their season finish.”
Delfino noted the team has earned its kudos this season. “I know the chance at an undefeated season would mean a lot to the kids, and let me emphasize that the success the boys have had this year is entirely due to their hard work and efforts,” he said. “They are a wonderful group to coach. They know when to have fun and when to be ready to play.
“The fact that the boys were lucky enough to win the league title is completely a reflection on them. They made it happen; I was just along for the ride. They are truly a terrific bunch of young men. Individually, I’d like to acknowledge the efforts of Eric Holt and Srivinay Irrinki, whose performances have been clutch all year. Also, I would like to commend Avik Wadhwa and Vamsi Gadiraju, not only for their solid efforts in the win over Menlo but for their contributions all year long. It’s really been a team effort,” Delfino concluded.
Famed beach volleyball player and two-time Olympic gold medalist Kerri Walsh visited the Blackford campus on Dec. 21 to give a pair of volleyball clinics to middle and lower school students. A Bay Area native and volleyball star since college, Walsh attended Archbishop Mitty High School and won national titles in 1996 and 1997 while at Stanford University. With her teammate Misty May-Treanor, Walsh was awarded Sportswoman of the Year from the Women’s Sports Foundation in 2004 and 2006. The appearance was arranged with the help of Harker volleyball coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith, a long-time friend of Walsh’s.
“It was really amazing because she’s like my role model and I want to be just like her when I’m older,” said Shannon Richardson, grade 7.
Walsh ran the students through several warm-up exercises and drills, having them work on fundamental aspects of the game such as passing and setting.
“I think fundamentals get glossed over a little bit,” Walsh said. “I feel like, especially at this age level, you need to take the time to really just break the game down.”
Students spent a significant portion of the lesson in pairs, passing and setting the ball to each other. In another exercise, Walsh hit the ball toward each student, who then made an attempt to keep the ball from touching the floor, a skill known as digging. After working rigorously on ball control, the focus shifted briefly to hitting and spiking.
Ball control, Walsh said, is especially important for young volleyball players to learn, and said she noticed improvement in the students’ ball control as the clinic progressed. “If you have great ball control, that means you’ll be an asset to any team,” she said.
“She gave a lot of good advice to us,” said Doreen Kang, grade 7. “It’ll help me a lot.”
Walsh’s biggest piece of advice to the students was to believe in themselves: “Don’t be afraid to look silly and take risks, because that’s when you become great, when you take those risks, and learn from your mistakes.”
Harker dancers are dancing in both the San Jose and San Francisco productions of “The Nutcracker” this year. At least eight students, from all three campuses, are participating, and more seem to turn up daily.
Katherine Dow, grade 2, is a mouse in this year’s Ballet San Jose production of the eternal children’s classic. “I have been dancing for four years, since I was three. This is my second year with Ballet San Jose,” and her first appearance in a production, she said. “The most fun thing about being a mouse in the ‘Nutcracker’ is jumping on the soldiers during my dance.”
One grade 3 student, Mimi Campbell, also a mouse, is doing it for the second year in a row. She has been taking ballet for almost six years, and is in her third year at Ballet San Jose School. She said “Dancing onstage for a big audience, fighting with and jumping on the soldiers in the mouse battle!” are the most memorable parts of being in the production.
Classmate Andrew Cheplansky, also grade 3, dances the part of Fritz. He started ballet because his sister, grade 5 student Anastasia, had been attending ballet school and their busy parents needed to consolidate their children’s activities to keep life manageable. “In the beginning Andrew did not like doing ballet,” said his mother, Marina Ovchinnikov, “but with Andrew’s progress and ballet teacher’s encouragement Andrew’s attitude has changed and he enjoys doing ballet now – but not as much as playing soccer or ice hockey.” Andrew’s credits at the Ballet San Jose include “Romeo and Juliet” as the son of a vegetable seller and “Giselle” as a village child.
Though not in this production, Anastasia has been doing ballet for about eight years and had roles in “The Nutcracker” as a mouse; “Coppelia” as the daughter of a flower seller; the title role in “Ugly Duckling”; and “Giselle” as a village child.
Another third grader, Charlotte Brezoczky, joined her sister, Emma, grade 5, in the Ballet San Jose production this year, both as mice. Charlotte has been training since she was three years old and this is her first professional production, “but I also love singing and dancing,” she said. “I was just cast as the King of the Monkeys in ‘The Jungle Book,’ and have been in productions of ‘Annie,’ ‘The Grinch Who Stole Christmas’ and ‘Aladdin.’” For Charlotte, “dancing with the company – that I get to be in a real show dancing with the professional company,” is the most fun!
Sister Emma is a five-time veteran of the Ballet San Jose production, and has been dancing for seven years. “When I was two-and-a-half years old my parents took me to ‘The Nutcracker’ and I told my mom that I wanted to be a mouse!” She has only danced “The Nutcracker” professionally, but “this year, I was very excited to be able to dance with Dance Fusion at Harker,” she said. This year, the entire grade 5 class will attend “The Nutcracker” and “I’m really glad that the fifth grade class gets to see me dance this year! In all the years I’ve been in ‘The Nutcracker,’ this is the first year my classmates have been able to see me.” In addition to that thrill, Emma loves “just being on stage; I feel happy and it is fun. I also have been able to meet some of the professional dancers, like Willie (Anderson) – the Mouse King – and he is a really nice and a really good dancer.”
Charlotte and Emma’s mom, Kelly Lewis Brezoczky, said what she likes is “the girls get the opportunity to be in a professional show working together as a team. ‘Nutcracker’ auditions are in late September and this team of mice rehearse together every Saturday for two months getting ready for this production. They support each other and learn to work together as a unit on stage. It’s about the sum of the parts being greater than the whole, and I think that is a great lesson for the children who participate. The professional dancers are also really great mentors to the kids. They love dancing with them!”
One of Emma’s classmates, Lauren Luspo, will also get the thrill of knowing her classmates have seen the production. She, too, has been dancing since age 3 and is in “The Nutcracker” for the third time. “We started practicing ‘Nutcracker’ Oct. 2 for two hours every Saturday. This is in addition to my three hours of ballet classes per week,” she said. “Rehearsals were hectic last week.”
Luspo doesn’t mind the long hours, though. “I’m passionate about ballet. Like playing the piano, when I am on stage I forget about being shy. Being in ‘Nutcracker’ is so much fun! I also learn discipline and focus. I think it helps me be a better student!
“I also have a ballet family and some of them are already from Harker! I make lots of new friends. Most of all, I get to rehearse with the lead characters like Maria and the Mouse King! I enjoy ‘Nutcracker’ – I just wished all the Harker students were all together in the same cast! I look forward to doing it every year!”
Helena Dworak, grade 7, will perform with the San Francisco Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker” for her second year in a row, playing a member of the cavalry. Dworak trained for six years with the San Jose Ballet and was in their production of “The Nutcracker” for four years. One year, she traveled to China with the San Jose Ballet to dance in “The Firebird.”
One thing she particularly enjoys about ballet is the thrill of seeing world-class performers onstage. “Watching world-famous dancers perform on the stage from backstage or the wings is an amazing experience,” she said. “It provides a different perspective from a private angle.”
As much as Dworak enjoys ballet, she admits that it requires a lot of hard work. “Ballet may look like a delicate activity, but the training required is physically and emotionally intense,” she said.
Two girls in the upper school are in the production, both as snowflakes. Angela Ma, grade 9, and Sara Howells, grade 11, have been dancing since they were four and three, respectively. At age 14, Ma has been dancing for nine years. “Throughout these years, I participated in many BSJ (Ballet San Jose) productions,” said Ma, which have included parts in “Giselle” and “The Toreador,” both as a village child, and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” where she played a fairy.
“I enjoy the professional experience I gained from these performances,” said Ma. “Ballet has introduced me to many dancers, each with a beautiful personality. I find that I can learn something from everyone, the students and the professional company dancers.
“BSJ has been the birthplace of many of my favorite memories,” Ma said, “from standing for the first time at the incredibly high barres to learning to dance in pointe shoes to performing in a professional production. As I grow up, the barres no longer seem so high and the teachers become a part of my family. This is my first year playing the part of a ‘Snowflake’ in the BSJ company production of “The Nutcracker” and I look forward to it.”
Howells has been at Ballet San Jose school since 1998. She took an 18-month break from ballet to play sports, but, “I missed ballet too much and quickly returned to BSJ school,” she said.
“I was a mouse in ‘The Nutcracker’ twice, and a snowflake last year,” Howell said. “I also understudied the corps de ballet section of ‘Giselle,’ and have performed in various BSJ School end-of-the-year productions.” She also noted that over the past summer she attended the Boston Ballet School Summer Dance Program, “which was a great opportunity to improve and grow as a dancer and to meet other ballet students from all over the country.”
The dedication and hard work each of these dancers has put in is apparent, and the ballet mistress of the BSJ School, Dalia Rawson, sends special thanks to Harker. “I am responsible for rehearsing both the snowflakes and the mice, and I am sincerely grateful to the faculty and administration of The Harker School,” she said, thanking Harker on behalf of BSJ’s artistic staff “for support that has been shown to these students, especially Sarah Howells and Angela Ma who needed to reschedule some finals to accommodate our theater schedule. I am gratified that these talented students can continue to excel artistically at Ballet San Jose while following a rigorous academic schedule, and sincerely appreciate Harker for allowing these students to pursue professional ballet training and performance experience.”
Long hours bring rich rewards, though. For Howells, “the most memorable performance experience I have had was the first time I danced as a snowflake, with the falling fake snow and the scenery and costume, which made that experience the most exhilarating of the many performances I have been in.” The role is one she has long aspired to. “I have always wanted to be a snowflake in “The Nutcracker,” which I have finally achieved!” she said.
In keeping with the giving spirit of the holiday season, the lower school’s annual holiday toy drive delivered 925 toys to Sacred Heart Community Service in San Jose on the afternoon of Dec. 16. Grade 4 students loaded up a Harker delivery truck, which transported the toys from the Bucknall campus to Sacred Heart. There, members of the grade 4 student council helped unload the toys and received a tour of Sacred Heart’s facilities.
Toys donated included “sports equipment, board games, stuffed animals and all the popular toys of the season,” said Joe Connolly, lower school dean of students. “We even had toys that were purchased at FAO Schwarz.” Harker tech support manager Jesse Lara donated more than 125 toys from his personal collection to help the cause. “He originally collected them as an investment, but decided that boys and girls should play with them,” Connolly said. He later thanked the Harker community for its generosity, saying that Sacred Heart was “thrilled” with amount of toys they received. The donations will play a big part in assisting the 5,000 families that Sacred Heart will serve this holiday season.
“I continue to be touched by the incredible generosity of our parents and students,” Connolly said. “We organize these service projects so the children may realize the wonderful feeling of giving to others. It is uplifting to be able to partner with our parents in this worthy cause.”
In October, Jacqueline Wang, grade 10, was named a regional finalist for this year’s Siemens Competition. Harker regional semifinalists were Roshni Bhatnagar, Rohan Mahajan, Nikhil Parthasarathy and Supraja Swamy, all grade 12.
Each Harker student entering the competition worked with a mentor to do research for their projects. Parthasarathy, for instance, worked with Dr. Sandra Faber, mother of Holly Faber MS ’89, and Wang collaborated with a mentor from Stanford University.
More than 2,000 students from 36 states participated in this year’s Siemens Competition. Of those, 312 became regional semifinalists, and were regional finalists. The mentorships were set up through Harker’s internship program, which is coordinated by Anita Chetty, science department chair. “The entire science department shares in this great achievement,” Chetty said.
Upper school music teacher Chris Florio traveled to Japan in October as this year’s exchange teacher to Tamagawa Gakuen in Tokyo. While there, he helped prepare Tamagawa’s middle and upper school bands for national competitions. Both bands took top honors.
“I got to be there for all the hype that led up to it,” Florio said. “I got to work with them a lot, conduct them almost every day.”
The two groups both performed American music at the competition, and Florio’s understanding of American music, particularly jazz, proved vital in helping them perform at their best.
“One piece was very jazz-heavy, so I helped them find a more appropriate jazz feel,” he recalled. “They’re not really jazz players. They’re classical musicians, so that’s always tough, but they responded so quickly and amazingly.”
Certain English words also presented some difficulty, such as when one section instructed the brass players to “wail.”
“As a jazz musician in America you might understand what that means,” Florio said, “but it took me days, actually, to figure out how to explain that one.”
After spending so much time teaching students at Tamagawa, Florio took to heart some principles that he hopes to instill in students at Harker. “I noticed how much [Tamagawa students] worked with the metronome during rehearsals. I started doing that and the kids responded really well.”
He also played some recordings of the Tamagawa upper school band for his students, and noticed that “the kids are practicing on their own more.”
In addition, Florio’s work with the band did not end with his Tamagawa trip. Some time during the school year, he wants to hold a video conference between Tamagawa’s band and the upper school orchestra, and have them play for one another and offer feedback. Two students from Tamagawa’s upper school band will also be visiting as exchange students in January.
Aside from teaching, Florio also went on many fun outings with his new friends at Tamagawa, and also visited Kyoto for two days. “They work very hard, but no matter what age the teacher, they have a lot of fun,” he said. “They made me feel like one of their teachers.”
After finishing as the league champions with a perfect 6-0 season, the grade 5 boys JVB1 basketball team lost a tough game to a strong St. Matthews team in the West Bay Athletic League (WBAL) championship game on Dec. 13, coming up just one point short in the 32-31 contest. The following student athletes and coach Steve Carroll are to be congratulated on their great season and inspired play: Vince Vu, Eric Andrus, Kunal Bhatia, Zack Fitzgerald, Arindam Ghosh, Michael Kwan, Michael Sikand, Shikhar Solanki, Aadith Srinivasan, Siddhart Chari and Brando Pakel.
Another lower school basketball team, the grade 4 boys JVC team, also went 6-0 and are the season’s WBAL champions, marking the first time since joining the WBAL that a Harker grade 4 team has won a championship. Congratulations to the team, coached by Jim McGovern: Viren Abhyankar, Jarett Anderson, Zack Baz, Chris Gong, Zach Hoffman, Hasan Jamal, Krish Kapadia, Charles Molin, Jason Peetz, Andrew Skrobak, Trevor Thompson and Jackson Williams.
With the holiday season in full swing, holiday activities distracted upper school students from studying for finals in the days prior to the break. Following a Harker tradition, students, faculty and administrators got to work cobbling together gingerbread houses in early December. Houses were built by each upper school class, and one by the faculty and administrative staff. In addition, each class decorated a section of windows in Manzanita Hall, with the seniors’ effort themed” Nightmare Before Christmas”; the juniors’ was Winnie the Pooh; sophomores drew Invader Zim; and freshmen illustrated the class Grinch. Spirit point winners of the gingerbread house contest were juniors followed by seniors, freshmen and sophomores; while in window painting, seniors came in first followed by juniors, freshmen and sophomores.
In other pre-holiday activity, the Cooking Club went natural, making pumpkin pies from scratch in mid-December. About half a dozen students joined Danae McLaughlin, Saratoga kitchen supervisor, and club advisor Tony Silk in the main kitchen to scoop fresh pumpkin from the rind to create delicious pies. A few days later, teachers got Santa’d up and spread out across the campus to deliver candy to advisories. Finally, one evening, not a creature was stirring, except the Candy Cane Santa: in an as-of-yet unsolved mystery, persons unknown taped candy canes to every classroom and office door on campus overnight, bringing one more drop of sweetness to the holiday spirit on campus.
Fashion show attendees flipping through the program will see something new this year — group shots of the models taken by Harker student photographers. In the past, a professional company handled the staged shots that identify all of the models in the show. This year, however, Sue Prutton, fashion show liaison, asked journalism teacher Chris Daren if his students would be interested in the job.
The team of photographers was led by Brianna Tran, grade 12. She and Daren coordinated the groups and scheduled the shoots, which were done in front of the library, Nichols Hall and in the quad. “There was always one main camera that was connected to the flash, but we also had side photographers shooting from different angles, or getting closer-up photos of smaller groups of models,” Tran explained.
Following the show’s theme, “When I Grow Up,” was important to Tran and Daren. They decided to group the models by age instead of separating the photos of lower, middle and upper school models as is usually done. As for the general tone of the shots, Prutton gave the students free rein. “We decided that we wanted a more relaxed, classical American look,” said Tran. “We used the photographs on (designer) Tommy Hilfiger as a base for all of our ideas.”
Tran is pleased with the results, and learned a lot from the process: “I’m very excited that I had this opportunity and I’m proud to say that the photos turned out great!”
Including Daren, the photographers who contributed to this project were: Tran, Monisha Appalaraju, Nirjhar Mundkur, Tiffany Chien, Katie Liang, Shreya Nathan, all grade 12; Isha Kawatra, Michelle Lo, Alisha Mayor, Devin Nguyen, Jennie Xu, Laura Yau, grade 11; and Megan Prakash, grade 9.
Four talented students have their designs featured on the 2010 “Snowman-Grams,” sponsored by the lower school Service/Spirit Club. The ‘Grams went on sale Dec. 1 and the winning designers each received a free message. The festive holiday messages are sent from students and teachers to each other, each with a treat to accompany the sweet message inside.