Sophomore golfer Jessica Zhou was recently featured on 49ers Cal-Hi Sports as the DGDG Feature Athlete. The segment, viewable below, covers her move from Hong Kong to the United States, how she discovered her love for golf, her achievements as a member of Harker’s varsity golf team and her efforts to supply hospitals with protective equipment during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tags: eweekly, express, golf, Harker Athletics, topathleticsSaturday night’s Homecoming celebration brought hundreds of members of the Harker community together to watch the soaring Harker Eagles, who had a 4-0 record going into the game, face off against the Rams of Rio Vista High School. Prior to the game, families socialized and enjoyed a variety of food options at the tailgate area, while performances by the lower school’s junior cheerleaders and the always-popular Eaglets got the crowd amped for the main event.
Rio Vista scored early to go up 7-0, but for the remainder of the half, it was all Eagles, who scored 23 unanswered points.
At halftime, the crowd enjoyed energizing performances by the Harker cheerleaders and the varsity dance troupe, and celebrated the crowning of this year’s Homecoming king and queen, seniors Peter Connors and Eleanor Xiao.
In the second half, Harker extended its lead by 10 points, which remained until Rio Vista responded in the fourth quarter with a last-second touchdown. Harker won with a final score of 33-13.
Tags: athletics, express, Football, Harker Athletics, homecominghttps://www.facebook.com/harkerschool/videos/10154853777060737/
More than 600 Harker community members attended the opening celebration of Harker’s athletic center on Friday evening. The celebration included heartfelt thanks from Harker faculty and administrators to all who made possible the construction of the new building, as well a special dedication to longtime head of school Howard Nichols, for whom the court in the facility’s 12,000-square-foot gym is named. See the embedded slide show for more photos from the event, and view the accompanying video for a look at the massive construction effort and the reactions from the first student athletes to set foot in the center.
Tags: Harker Athletic Center, Harker AthleticsThis article originally appeared in the winter 2013 Harker Quarterly.
Last spring, as track and field season heated up, a funny thing happened: Harker records began to fall en masse. With 2013 now drawing to a close, the cross country team has kept the streak alive, making the past calendar year one for the record books for Harker runners.
It all started in March at the Willow Glen Track and Field Invitational, when Corey Gonzales, now grade 11, topped his own Harker record in the 3,200-meter run by 40 seconds. Isabelle Connell ’13, then a senior, broke her own record in the 200 meter, and Michael Chen ’13 broke his own record in the shot put. A week later, Connell set a new Harker record in the 100 meter, while Julia Wang, now grade 11, set a new shot put record, then posted the second-best mark in Harker history for girls discus. A week after that, Gonzales set a new Harker record in the mile run, Connell set a new Harker record in the 400-meter run, and Sumit Minocha ’13 set a new Harker record in the 100-meter run.
A month later, Cheryl Liu ’13 broke a Harker record in the 100-meter hurdles. Then, three minutes later, Nadia Palte, just a freshman at the time, broke Liu’s record. That same day, Chen broke a Harker record in the discus competition. A few days later, Minocha broke a Harker record in the 100-meter run, and Palte broke her own record in the 100-meter hurdles. At the WBAL championships, Minocha won the 200-meter race, Gonzales won the 1,600-meter and 3,200-meter races, Claudia Tischler, now grade 12, won the 1,600-meter race, and Connell won the 100-meter and 200-meter races. A relay team of Tischler, Palte, Connell and Ragini Bhattacharya ’13 also came in first place. Discus throwers Wang and Chen all advanced to CCS.
All told, Harker sent more athletes to CCS and saw more athletes score points at CCS than ever before. Minocha won the CCS championships in the 200-meter run, becoming the first runner in Harker’s history to win an individual CCS championship and the second Harker athlete ever to achieve such a mark. Minocha and Connell became the first athletes in Harker history to qualify for the state meet, and they and Gonzales all set personal records at CCS. Minocha was recognized as athlete of the week by the San Jose Mercury News.
It was an incredible finish to an incredible year. Spring 2013 was a breakthrough season for the program, unlikely to be rivaled. The seniors graduated, and Minocha’s and Connell’s new records were noted in the Harker gym.
When the returning athletes came back to school in the fall, an amazing thing happened: the cross country team picked up right where it left off. Tischler was now the team’s senior statesman, and Gonzales was freshly saddled with new expectations to continue his record-breaking streak. They were joined this year by a new phenom: freshman Niki Iyer.
Running cross country in September, Iyer won the first race of her Harker career. In her next effort, her first varsity race, she ran the best time of any female runner in Harker’s history, coming in second place by a single second. In her next race, she racked up her first varsity win, setting a new school record with one of the 10 best times for a freshman in the course’s 70-year history, an achievement that Harker’s athletic director Dan Molin called “truly elite level.” That race won Iyer athlete of the week recognition from the San Jose Mercury News.
In the first WBAL meet of the year, Gonzales set a new course record, while Iyer won her race and missed out on setting a new course record by, again, a single second. At Baylands, Iyer won another race, beating the previous year’s league champion and setting a new course record. At Crystal Springs, Gonzales and Iyer both set new Harker records. Both runners came in first at the WBAL championships. They and Tischler all qualified for the CCS championships, where Iyer placed third in her race and Gonzales won his, making him the new Division 4 CCS cross country champion. Both qualified for the state meet, where Iyer took seventh and Gonzales finished 85th. See the Eagle Report, page 36, for details.
One of the things that changed Harker’s fortunes was a new head coach. The 2012- 13 school year was the first for Scott Chisam, who had run cross country and track at UCLA, then coached UCLA’s women’s track and field team to two NCAA national championships. All told, Chisam has coached 36 NCAA All-Americans and Olympians, and coached the U.S. women’s cross country team in the 1984 World Cross Country Championships.
“He’s as good as it gets,” says director Molin. “The Chisam name in cross country and track is well known.” The team agrees.
“I really could not have asked for better coaches,” says Gonzales. When Chisam arrived, he took naturally quick runners and made them into smart runners, teaching them techniques to improve their times and their stamina, ensuring that not only would they improve, but improve sustainably.
“It’s amazing how little they knew. They could run fast, but just things like starts, staying near the line on the turn. Just the things that make differences, to the hundreds, to the tenths,” said Chisam.
The team’s success has been contagious. “Last year’s team has been such an inspiration,” says Iyer. “They used to break the records like every week,” she remembers. Iyer, in turn, has inspired her teammates. “She’s more tenacious than any runner I’ve ever seen,” says Gonzales. “Being able to have Niki at practice has made me more tenacious as a runner as well.” He has kind words for Tischler’s leadership, as well. “I’ve always looked up to her,” Gonzales adds. “She’s the real captain on the team. She keeps everyone together. We all look up to Claudia.”
The inspiration of last year’s team, the expertise of Chisam, Gonzales’ ascendance, Tischler’s leadership and Iyer’s sudden emergence have created a great vibe among the runners.
“I couldn’t have asked for a better team this year,” raved Iyer. “The dynamics of our team are just so amazing.” Iyer can recall walking into the gym and gaping at the records set by the team the year before. Now, she is proud to see her name on that list as well. When, at a recent race, an athlete at another school asked Iyer if she’d prefer to be at Simi Valley, one of the state’s top cross country programs, Iyer cut her off mid-sentence. “Once an Eagle, always an Eagle,” was Iyer’s definitive reply.
Tags: athletics, Harker Athletics, Sports, track and field, upper schoolThis article originally appeared in the spring 2012 Harker Quarterly.
Harker’s athletic department is making a concerted effort to make available the best sport-specific training possible to lower and middle school athletes. The integrated program will enhance player skills, introduce them to varsity coaches and training techniques and should result in higher caliber teams for Harker.
Solid Staff
The integration has become possible with the careful expansion of the athletic staff. Dan Molin, athletic director, joined Harker in 2005 and recognized the benefit of harnessing Harker’s potential for an integrated athletic program. “We’d like our younger athletes to see themselves contributing someday to the upper school program,” he said. “They see the wonderful student and coach role models in the upper school and want to emulate them.”
The integration, gradually introduced where appropriate over the last few years, provides a smooth transition for student athletes as they progress towards and enter the upper school. “The main goals are to have similar skills taught at the lower and middle school programs as are taught in the upper school programs,” Molin said. “When those students come to the upper school, there is a seamless transition regarding those skills.”
Molin is a certified athletic administrator, a member of the American Volleyball Coaches Association and a lifetime member of the National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association. At Harker he has led numerous athletic improvement projects, helped turn the football program around and coached the first boys athletic team to a Harker league championship.
One of his first steps was bringing a higher level of training to the varsity teams, and to that end, in 2007 Jaron Olson joined the department. Olson is a certified athletic trainer and a National Academy of Sports Medicine performance enhancement specialist.
The integration program took a long stride forward when Ron Forbes joined the athletic department in 2010. Forbes has national chops as a leader in developing winning athletic programs. He comes to Harker from Stanford University, where he was director of sports performance.
“Ron has been an outstanding addition to our athletic department,” said Molin. “He continually sets the bar to a higher standard.” In the last 15-plus years, Forbes has trained more than 60 athletes later drafted by the National Football League. He helped the University of Florida Gators to seven consecutive bowl games and helped Stanford secure its spot as one of the top teams in the NCAA’s PAC 10 division. His organizational ability and deep knowledge of sports programming give the athletic department the administrative depth to coordinate the additional program elements effectively.
Summer Sports Camps
Three programs – swimming, tennis and soccer – have long had summer camps that put athletes of all ages together, providing a de facto integrated program for each.
Swimming, a natural summer activity, benefitted from the opening of the Singh Aquatic Center at the upper school campus in 2008. This year a special competitive element, Junior Swim Team, was added for intermediate swimmers to practice competitive strokes and build endurance and fitness as part of a summer team.
The summer tennis program, directed by Harker’s tennis coach, Craig Pasqua (United States Professional Tennis Association certified), has been naturally integrated with the upper school tennis team as Pasqua trains young students during the summer, then sees them as they continue to compete and reach high school.
Competitive tennis players ages 6-18 train in the summer at Pasqua’s Harker Oakwood Tennis Training System (HOTTS), with team practices and interclub matches, in addition to instruction on advanced techniques, strategy, footwork and sports psychology. When students reach the upper school, they are fully acquainted with Pasqua’s methods and he with their strengths and weaknesses.
Harker also has long had a strong summer soccer program, drawing players from other schools and clubs, and enhancing the upper school’s soccer team, run by varsity coach Shaun Tsakiris. “My aim every year has been to create more and more of a buzz on campus about the sport,” says Tsakiris, a member of the 1997 U.S. National Team and winner of UCLA’s MVP Award in 2000. (For more on Tsakiris, see page 11.)
The Integration
Across the sports, integration has three elements. The first is a series of weekend training sessions during the season open to boys and girls in grades 4-8, run by varsity coaches. The middle school’s varsity A teams also practice with upper school teams. “I felt that it was extremely important for our lower and middle school athletes to see how we do things at the varsity level, see where we train and who we are as a coaching staff,” Tsakiris said. The soccer teams held an inaugural combined practice session in January, while girls basketball weekend training sessions for lower and middle school students started in early February. In addition, upper school track coaches will help with middle school track meets, and Molin, as boys varsity volleyball coach, plans to run training sessions with the grade 8 boys volleyball team.
The training sessions have enjoyed great attendance, with the basketball sessions attracting as many as 28 lower school and middle school athletes, said Molin.
Alfredo Alves, girls varsity basketball coach, noted the age groups mesh well. “At the workouts we have all four high school coaches and some varsity girls each week,” he said. “The varsity girls know everything we do and how we run things, so the coaches have full trust in the high school kids to teach the younger kids, and I feel like that is a key component to the workouts.”
“We were able to get the girls basketball clinics and boys soccer training sessions up and running for the third sports season of our lower and middle school calendar,” said Theresa “Smitty” Smith, the athletic director for grades 4-8. “Last season coach Butch Keller invited members of the lower and middle school boys basketball teams to sit on the bench at his upper school varsity basketball games.”
In addition, Smith said, “Wrestling coach Karriem Stinson runs middle school wrestling prior to upper school wrestling practice with a slight overlap so middle schoolers are integrated with upper schoolers. In the fall, we ran a grade 7 and 8 flag football tournament at the Saratoga campus, and the upper school football players helped out with everything from chain gang to scoring to clean up.”
There are other overlaps being added as schedules and personnel sync up. “In the fall,” Smith said, “upper school softball coach Raul Rios also coached the middle school softball team, and this spring we will have members of the upper school girls volleyball coaching staff, Alisa Vinkour and Diana Melendez, coach our middle school girls volleyball teams.”
Also this spring upper school water polo coaches Ted Ujifusa (boys) and Amelia Lamb (girls) will be coaching the middle school water polo teams.
New Programs
One of the jewels of the program is the new Harker Football School, taking place on Davis Field, March through May. The coed school is open to students from any school, grades 6-8, looking to improve their skills.
Forbes, who directs the football school, noted that the school has made the commitment to develop stronger players. “Success in producing football players who can compete on the highest level is the direct result of a consistent commitment to developing athletes who are sound in the fundamental skills of their respective positions,” he said. The athletic department is applying that maxim to as many sports as it can by presenting advanced techniques to younger players.
The second integration element is the plethora of sports camps Harker is running this summer. Along with tennis, swimming and soccer are now volleyball, football, basketball and water polo camps all run by Harker varsity coaches (see page 8 for details or visit www.harker.org).
In addition, Harker’s Summer Sports Conditioning (formerly Eagle Iron), a drop-in program that lasts most of the summer, meets daily and is managed by Olsen, Forbes and Smith.
The third element is the outreach upper school athletes do to the middle and lower school campuses, visiting to read or to help deliver core value messages along with school administrators. In addition, at the end of November, about 40 upper school athletes joined middle school students for lunch to get them excited about high school sports.
The advantages of the system are straightforward, said Molin. First, athletes will grow into their sports faster, gaining confidence and the ability to become better players – all good for the students’ personal growth. Second, the system will help Harker sports programs as coaches are better able to build on strengths and eliminate weaknesses of athletes, as well as better plan team play as skills build and are refined.
“We want there to be familiarity with the upper school program when students enter,” said Molin. “And naturally this will make our teams more competitive.”
Zach Jones contributed to this article.
Tags: Harker Athletics, SportsThis article originally appeared in the winter 2009 Harker Quarterly.
Homecoming 2009 blended old and new traditions on a crisp fall evening Nov. 13. Held for the first time on campus, but incorporating many old traditions, homecoming at Davis Field provided a home field advantage for both players and fans.
Early in the evening, K-Gr. 12 students, alumni, staff, parents and friends enjoyed the junior varsity game despite the 18-9 loss; tailgate parties and the traditional pre-game and half-time entertainment got the crowd excited and ready to watch the big game. Fan favorites – the class tug-of-wars, the Eaglets’ performance and the homecoming court – were accompanied by the addition of a Bounce Zone with slide and bounce house, on adjacent, well-lit Rosenthal Field.
Although Davis Field has been open for three years, the logistics of holding homecoming on campus have been daunting. Previous homecoming events were held at PAL stadium and at Foothill College. This year, through the tireless efforts of staff and administration, parking, seating and entertainment were all organized to fit the smaller venue. Upper school students vacated their parking spaces in good order to make room for grade-level and alumni tailgates, as well as the traditional team tailgate at Christine and John Davis’ (Cole, Gr. 12) motor home. The arrangement created a safe zone where parents and students could come and go freely throughout the game.
One of the more obvious advantages to having the event on campus was having executive chef Steve Martin’s tasty food right to hand. To accommodate the crowd of over 1,200, additional bleacher seating was brought in, shuttles ran to the Blackford parking lot, and the homecoming court traveled green, arriving via pedicabs instead of the traditional convertibles. Chris Daren, upper school activities and yearbook/newspaper advisor, organized an entertaining week of spirit events for the Saratoga students as well as the homecoming court event.
One of the refinements of the home field location was the above-mentioned Bounce Zone, supervised by ever-vigilant BEST staff, heavily used by an enthusiastic crowd of younger Eagles until close to the end of the game.
This year, with a real “home coming,” the crowd was energized. Before the varsity game, attendees were treated to an impressive routine by the varsity Dance Troupe, directed by Laura Rae, and an enthusiastic performance by the lower school’s junior cheerleaders, instructed by Melinda Beason. Prior to kickoff, vocal groups from all three campuses sang both the Harker anthem and “The Star-Spangled Banner,” directed by upper school music teacher Catherine Snider.
The first half was a hard-fought struggle, with coach Karriem Stinson’s Eagles behind 12-7 when the halftime whistle blew. Throughout the first half of the game, the junior cheerleaders from Bucknall, with the upper school cheerleaders, coached by Chris King, led the crowd in rousing cheers in support of the gridiron gladiators on the emerald field below.
During halftime, the finals of the upper school tug-of-war contest took place, with seniors maintaining the status quo by taking first over the juniors. More halftime entertainment was provided by the cheerleaders, who put on an acrobatic display of school spirit.
Irresistibly cute, the Gr. 1-2 Eaglets, instructed by lower school dance teacher Gail Palmer, performed their annual dance, this year held in the home grandstand, and, shortly afterward, the 2009 homecoming court arrived on the field via carriages pedaled by class deans. Seniors Kevin Fu (playing running back and defensive end, thus in his football uniform) and Mahum Jamal were crowned Homecoming King and Queen. Other members of the court included freshmen Rahul Nalamasu and Maya Sathaye, sophomores Aaron Bisla and Laura Yau, juniors Nirjhar Mundkur and Brianna Tran, as well as seniors Thomas Enzminger, Valerie Hwa, Arjun Mody and Jackie Ho. In another long-established tradition, faculty cheerleaders rallied the crowd prior to the start of the second half.
As in previous years, the crowd was entertained throughout the game by the sounds of the upper school’s Jazz Band, led by Chris Florio. In the stands and on the field, students and players reveled in the first on-campus homecoming. “It just felt right being on Davis Field: it’s where we have all of our spirit events and football games and class meetings and such,” said Danielle Buis, Gr. 12. “So much activity happens on Davis Field, so it’s just always going to bring back those good memories of high school and all the things we did together. We have a lot of spirit and pride in what we do at the high school and homecoming is just our way to show it off to the other campuses.”
Football player Gautam Krishnamurthi, Gr. 11, playing wide receiver and cornerback, concurred: “The fact that it was ‘home’-coming was really defined by the atmosphere that was there at this last game because of the proximity of the fans as well as because it was where we practice and play every day.” Krishnamurthi also liked the fact that the game was held after the regular season and that the opponent, Berean Christian, provided a challenge, which made the game exciting to watch.
Even the younger students enjoyed the home field event. Jithin Vellian, Gr. 8, has attended homecoming games since he was in the lower school. Although he played football with his friends during the game, which is what he says he has done every year, he felt that having the game at the Saratoga campus made it special. “I like how homecoming was at the school itself, instead of some random place. It was nice to have it somewhere I’ve been before.” Victor Shin, Gr. 4, liked the game being at home. Shin explained, “I really liked the food and being with my friends, but I didn’t like that we lost.”
The crowd was thoroughly fired up for the second half and both teams showed great competitive spirit. The game was announced throughout by our own Greg Lawson, assistant head of school for student affairs. Although Harker eventually lost the grueling contest 25-13, Homecoming 2009 allowed our ever-growing athletic department to show off one of the many upper school sports, as well as our impressive facilities.
Since its inception, the athletic department has been steadily growing, adding sports and facilities and training increasingly talented athletes. In 2005-06, approximately 50 percent of the upper school student body played after- school sports; now, 65-70 percent compete in at least one sport.
Currently, 14 former Harker students are playing athletics at the college level, in swimming, gymnastics, tennis, football, baseball, basketball, soccer, volleyball and diving. Schools include Penn State, Northeastern, Cornell and Villanova as well as West Coast schools University of Puget Sound, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara University, Pepperdine and San Jose State University. Current seniors Cole Davis, Arthi Padmanabhan, Michael Clifford and Greg Plauck all are planning to play college athletics as well. Davis has already been accepted to swim at Stanford, and Plauck will be playing baseball at Santa Clara next year.
Harker teams have won an impressive list of titles and championships, including 14 league titles, one Nor-Cal championship, over 35 section scholastic championships, and three state scholastic titles since Dan Molin took over as athletic director in 2005. Already this year, Harker has had two more firsts: the football team qualified for playoffs for the first time in school history, and the girls tennis team made it to the CCS quarterfinals.
“I’m continually amazed at and inspired by what Harker student-athletes accomplish,” said Molin. “They always rise to the occasion and go beyond our expectations on the court, field or pool.”
Joe Rosenthal, executive director of advancment, added, “Looking to the future, there have been and continue to be meetings to rally support for a new gym building to be built at the same time as the planned performing arts center.”
Homecoming at Davis Field this year was just another step in bringing our athletic department to a higher level, and we look forward to the continued growth of Harker sports.
Tags: Harker Athletics, homecoming, Sports