Spectators arrived in droves to the upper school campus’ Davis Field for this year’s Homecoming, attended by families – both new and returning — from all of Harker’s four campuses.
Even though it occurred at a much earlier date than usual, and with slightly warmer weather, the event still retained the atmosphere that has made it a favorite with the Harker community. Prior to the game, early arrivals enjoyed food prepared by Harker parents at the parking lot tailgate area and by Harker’s kitchen staff, who served various dishes from the Mrs. Carley’s Café trailer, now a beloved tradition of every Homecoming. Grade 9 students sold pizza, sodas and candy to raise funds for various projects and spirit activities.
Younger attendees, meanwhile, had a blast at Rosenthal Field, where several bounce houses were set up so they could jump to their heart’s content. Others played schoolyard games and tossed Frisbees and footballs back and forth.
Back at Davis Field, onlookers enjoyed watching the first of two tug-of-war contests, with grade 10 defeating the Class of 2017. Spectators then watched performances by the lower school’s junior cheer squad and the upper school’s varsity dancers. Harker’s upper school jazz band, led by Chris Florio, also performed throughout the evening from their perch overlooking the field from the bleachers.
As the contest between Harker and Mount Pleasant drew nearer, the crowd enjoyed one of Homecoming’s most anticipated traditions, the Eaglets’ “Fly Through,” with lower school students adorned in eagle costumes performing a dance routine to the familiar strains of Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like an Eagle.”
Shortly after the Harker Eagles burst through the Gauntlet of Spirit, flanked by members of Harker’s various cheer teams, singers from the lower, middle and upper school campuses gathered mid-field for a rousing version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” directed by Jennifer Sandusky.
As the Eagles faced off against Mount Pleasant, the festivities continued both on the field and in the tailgate area. While the boosters in the stands cheered on their Eagles, Harker alumni in attendance met and reminisced in the special alumni area and parents socialized, while students relished the opportunity to spend more time with their friends.
“I like how there’s a lot of spirit and happiness,” said Angele Yang, grade 6. “It’s really fun and you can meet all of your friends, and it’s really fun to watch the game.”
Come halftime, the upper school cheer squad took to the field to entertain the crowd, and the Class of 2014 bested the juniors in the final tug-of-war contest of the year.
Upper school math teacher Victor Adler, dean of the class of 2014, then introduced this year’s Homecoming Court, who circled the field before the announcement of Adithram Rengaramchandran, grade 12, and Renu Singh, grade 11, as this year’s Homecoming King and Queen.
Although Harker lost the game 52-26 to Mount Pleasant, those in attendance still enjoyed the time spent bonding with other members of the community. “A lot of fun things go on. A lot of kids are having fun, so it’s a great event,” said parent Kim Hailey (Chris, grade 9). “A lot of great people and parents are at the school, and it’s good for them to get together.”
Fall sports continue, with a school record in girls cross country; victories in tennis, volleyball and golf; and a great homecoming event, with huge yardage from the Eagles, despite their loss.
Water Polo
After a tight 9-7 loss to Fremont earlier in the week, the varsity boys water polo squad roared back to crush Santa Clara on Thursday in their home opener, 14-8 win. In the win, Karan Kurber, grade 12, Eric Holt, grade 11, and Billy Bloomquist, grade 11, all racked up four goals apiece. Arnav Tandon, grade 9, and Stephan Pellissier, grade 12, each added a goal, and Sean Pan, grade 12, anchored the defense with four point-blank blocks. The week before, the boys had faced off against then-undefeated Saratoga High, with Bloomquist, Holt, Pellissier and Alex Thomas, grade 11, all scoring. The team is now 4-5 overall and 1-2 in league play. They travel to Wilcox on Tuesday and host Homestead on Thursday at the Singh Aquatic Center.
The girls played this weekend at the Aptos Tournament, winning one game and dropping three. On Friday evening, the girls lost to Santa Cruz High. The day, the girls defeated Lincoln 7-2 before losing to Pioneer and SLV. Delaney Martin, grade 11, led the team in scoring over the weekend, netting five goals. Helena Dworak, grade 10, had 24 saves in her four games. The team heads to Wilcox to lead off this week and then returns home to host Monta Vista on Thursday.
Cross Country
Freshman Niki Iyer raced the best-ever time for a Harker female runner in her first varsity cross country meet this past week at the Westmoor Invitational, finishing second overall and missing out on first place by one second. Senior Claudia Tischler placed 13th overall, while Connor O’Neill, grade 10, and Rahul Balakrishnan, grade 11, both broke 16:00 to lead the boys team. The team travels to San Bruno Mountain this Thursday for their first league meet of the season. Meanwhile, last Saturday, Corey Gonzales, grade 11, who is ranked in the top-five in CCS, faced off against a national field at the Stanford Invitational.
Football
Harker football dropped their Homecoming game to Mt. Pleasant last Friday, despite recording 420 total yards on offense. Running back Kevin Moss, grade 12, ran for 128 yards on 16 carries with one touchdown. Quarterback Keanu Forbes, grade 11, also scrambled for 52 yards on 11 runs, scoring twice in the third quarter. Forbes also connected with wide receiver Adarsh Battu, grade 12, five times for a total of 142 yards, including a 52-yard touchdown pass. The week before, junior varsity trumped Irvington High 20-6 to jump out to a 2-0 record early in the season. Varsity’s next game is this Fri., Oct. 4, at home against St. Francis at 7 p.m. The junior varsity plays next on Oct. 18 in a home game against Lynbrook.
Tennis
Girls tennis now stands at 4-1 on the season after a 7-0 victory over Milpitas last week. “The Lady Eagles battled through injuries to put together a new season-best team performance against an evenly matched Milpitas squad,” writes Dan Molin, Harker’s upper school athletic director.“The doubles team was highlighted by clutch and spirited wins in both third set tie-breakers and the sharp return of Ariana Shulman, grade 12, to the lineup.” Harker did not drop one set all day in their singles contests. The victory came one week after the girls defeated Fremont 5-2 with Dora Tzeng, grade 12, Izzy Gross, grade 10, and Arden Hu, grade 11, sweeping the singles matches. League play begins this week with a game at the Decathlon Club against Sacred Heart Prep.
Volleyball
The girls volleyball team defeated Lynbrook on Wednesday, bumping up their record to 4-3 overall as they prepare to open league play this Tuesday at Blackford against rival Sacred Heart Prep. They’ve now won two of their past three after an early start where the girls, tested early by a strong schedule, faced off against some of the top contenders in their section. Shreya Dixit, grade 11, Divya Kalindindi, grade 12, and Shannon Richardson, grade 10, have emerged as the team’s offensive leaders with setting duties shared by Selin Ozcelik and Selin Ekici, both grade 10. Mercedes Chien, grade 12, meanwhile, has excelled in her role as libero.
Following their league opener against Sacred Heart on Tuesday, the varsity girls will play Castilleja on Thursday. The junior varsity team has played great ball as well. This past week, the JV team won the silver division championship after victories over Presentation, Valley Christian and Menlo.
Golf
The girls golf team defeated Notre Dame San Jose this past Thursday, 213-246. Kristin Lin, grade 12, shot a 36. Daphne Liang, grade 10, shot a 39, and Ashley Zhong, grade 10, shot a 42. On Friday, the girls team upset their league rival Menlo 228-235 with Lin again shooting a 36. The weekend before, the girls finished in ninth place in the Lone Tree tournament in Antioch, with Lin shooting an 80 to finish in third place. The girls have a tournament on Monday of this week, followed by matches against Castilleja on Thursday and Sacred Heart on Friday.
Synchronized Swimmers Shine Nationally and Overseas
Over the summer, synchronized swimmers Katie Gu, grade 12, Kate Chow, grade 8, and Anna Piskun, also grade 8, who are all members of the Santa Clara Aquamaids synchronized swimming club, traveled to a number of competitions.
Gu finished fourth at the 2013-14 Senior National Team Trials in Riverside, Calif., and later traveled to Puerto Rico with the rest of the U.S. Junior National Team to the Unión Americana de Natación (Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas) Pan-American Games. There, the team won first place.
At the U.S. Age Group Synchronized Swimming Championships in Riverside, Piskun’s team placed second overall in the 13-15 age group. Piskun also placed third in combination routine at the U.S. Open Synchro Swimming Championships in Irving, Texas.
Chow also competed at the Pan-American Games as a member of the 2013-14 national team in the 11-12 age group, and her team ended up placing first. At the U.S. Age Group Championships in Riverside, Chow’s team won first place. Her duet performance won third place, as did her trio.
Eighth Grade Swordswoman is National Champion
Foilist Jerrica Liao, grade 8, is the Youth-12 U.S. champion! She took the gold medal at the U.S. Fencing Summer National Championships in Columbus, Ohio, this July. Liao has finished in the top 16 in the past, but this year, her last in the Y-12 bracket, she earned the ultimate triumph.
Liao lost only one bout in her pool of seven but, out of 158 fencers, that was enough to seed her only 20th. Then the real fights began. Y-12 fencers fence for the best of two out of three five-touch bouts, and Liao, after a bye in the first round, beat her first three opponents in two bouts each. In the round of eight, things got tougher, as she faced the number three seed, winning in three bouts , 5-0, 0-1 and 1-0 (bouts with scores under five points went to time—3 minutes), in what must have been exhausting bouts after an already long day on the piste.
Liao then fenced the number four Y-12 female fencer in the country, who was seeded fifth, crushing her in two bouts 5-3, 5-0, but beating her next opponent to reach the gold medal match was tougher. Liao held her course, however, winning in three bouts 2-5, 5-4, 4-3. The gold medal match was a bit of an anticlimax, with Liao cruising to the championship 5-1, 5-1.
Liao’s finish left her ranked second in the U.S. in Y-12. Though she has now aged out of the Y-12 bracket, she has already made inroads in the Y-14 competitions. In Columbus, she fenced in the Y-14 bracket, where she took 22nd out of 152 fencers and is now ranked 11th in the U.S. in the Y-14 bracket. Liao trains at and fences for California Fencing Academy in San Jose. Congrats!
Student Helps Team to Basketball Tournament Victory
Grade 5 basketball enthusiast Benjamin Soraire and his National Junior Basketball League team, the Saratoga Fire, won the full court tournament on Aug. 25, defeating the South Bay Warriors. The Fire struggled early in the season, but rallied to make an impressive appearance in the playoffs, which culminated in last month’s tournament win.
Football In their season opener, JV football beat Yerba Buena 19-8. Freshman Alex Youn reached the end zone on a 17-yard rushing touchdown. Sid Krishnmurthi, grade 11, caught two touchdowns from two different quarterbacks, snagging a 40-yard pass from Jonathan Keller, grade 10, and a 35-yard pass from Keanu Forbes, grade 11. All told, Harker amassed 314 total yards on offense, led by offensive linemen Chirag Aswani, grade 11, Logan Drazovich, grade 10, and Kevin Wang, grade 10. JV plays Irvington High on the road this Thursday.
Tennis
Harker’s girls tennis squad defeated Homestead 5-2, including a sweep of the doubles matches. On the singles side, Sahithya Prakash, grade 12, and Izzy Gross, grade 10, both played excellently, with each playing their best matches to date, according to Dan Molin, athletic director. “The lady tennis Eagles did more than battle against their toughest opponent yet,” wrote Molin. “They showed drastic improvement in serving and volleying skills, as well as knowledge of court positioning and shot selection.” The team hits the road to play Fremont High on Thursday.
Cross Country
Corey Gonzales, grade 11, placed second out of 188 at the Lowell Invitational in San Francisco this past Saturday, staving off two of his competitors down the final straight of his run. Then, in her debut race for Harker, freshman Niki Iyer beat her challengers by 30 seconds on her way to best time by a freshman or sophomore out of all 451 runners. Rahul Sridar, Rahul Balakrisnan, Namitha Villian and Raymond Chang all ran great races as well to start the year. The team’s next challenge will be the Westmoor Invitational two weeks from now. Gonzales will run in the championship division of the Stanford Invitational that same weekend.
Water Polo Boys water polo starts their season this Thursday at Saratoga High School. The boys had their tune-up last weekend at San Benito, winning two games and losing one. Over the weekend, Eric Holt, grade 11, led the team with eight goals. Billy Bloomquist, grade 11, had eight, with Jeremy Binkley, grade 11, Karan Kurber, grade 12, and Alex Thomas, grade 11, netting five, four and two, apiece.
The girls water polo team, meanwhile, played at the Wilcox Tournament, where they went 1-3. Their victory came in thrilling fashion: Delaney Martin, grade 11, scored a triple-overtime goal to give the girls a sudden-death victory against San Lorenzo. League play begins this Thursday at Mountain View.
Volleyball Girls volleyball improved their record to 2-1 on the year after beating Fremont in straight games last Thursday and had their first match of league play last Friday, opening with a 235-273 victory against Mercy-Burlingame. Kristine Lin, grade 12, shot a 34, earning medalist honors. Then, over the weekend, JV competed in the Milpitas Tournament, winning four and losing just one to earn the bronze championship. The teams play three times this next week. Those wishing to take in a game can catch the team at home on Wednesday for a match against Monta Vista.
Don’t forget, Homecoming is Sept. 27 and Davis Field will be the center of the day’s festivities! For all the info, click here! GO EAGLES!
Harker’s basketball camp knitted together drills, five-on-fives and skills games to best engage students. The camp had two sessions per day: a morning session for boys in grades 6-9 and an afternoon coed session for grades 4-8, and was run by Harker varsity basketball coach Mark Collins, who spent 10 years in Denmark as a professional player and six years as the director of the Golden State Warriors camp.
Each session at camp started with footwork drills, “just to get the blood pumping,” Collins said. Students then went to different stations for different skills, including passing, ball-handling, shooting and defense. “We do a lot of break-down drills so that we get specific with the type of drill that we want the kids to learn,” said Collins.
Students play five-on-five games to apply the skills and principles learned in the drills. Each session also featured fun games to liven up the atmosphere. In one of these games, a student’s name was randomly drawn from an envelope, and from a different envelope another slip of paper was drawn with an activity written on it. “This particular game is really fun for the kids, because it could be anything from ‘make a shot with your eyes closed’ to ‘make a shot backwards,’” Collins said.
At the end of each day, students were given a homework question so that their minds would be engaged when camp started the next day.
Collins said the main goal of the camp was to equip students with the skills they can practice at home and elsewhere in order to continue improving after camp is over. “You’re not going to get so much better in a week-long camp,” he said. “But if they carry these skills to their homes and to their other teams and to their free plan and other recreational centers and do these skills, they will get better.”
Harker’s summer volleyball camp returned the week of July 15, offering instruction from experienced, top-level coaches to students in grades 4-9. The camp catered to various skill levels, first grouping students by age and grade, and later moving students to different groups depending on their level of experience. Each day began with warm-ups, with students going through drills for various skills, and each session ended with team play.
The main purpose of the camp is, first of all, for the kids to have fun, said Harker volleyball coach Dan Molin, athletic director and one of the coaches running the camp. “We want them to come here and enjoy themselves and improve in every skill of volleyball, from offense to defense, passing, setting, hitting, digging, blocking and ping pong sets.”
“By the end of the five days, they will be better volleyball players,” Molin said. “We do show them at times high-level concepts so they can see what the game will look like to them, because we have high-quality coaches here who really know the game at a high level.”
Harker girls volleyball coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith said students at the camp enjoy the environment that’s provided for them. “The ground rules are set at the very beginning and the kids understand that they’re all here working together, that they are to include each other and everybody in the activity, and the kids are really, really good about doing that. They’re very inviting, very friendly.”
“I think the people are really awesome,” said Harker student Sameep Mangat, who starts grade 8 in the fall. “Whenever there’s a break or something, you can just ask one of them to come play with you, or one of the coaches, and they’re totally fine with it.”
Mangat said the camp helped her improve some areas of her game that she thought were lacking, particularly her serve. “I finally learned how to perfect my serve and serving is one of the most important parts of volleyball,” she said.
Harker’s summer volleyball camp returned the week of July 15, offering instruction from experienced, top-level coaches to students in grades 4-9. The camp catered to various skill levels, first grouping students by age and grade, and later moving students to different groups depending on their level of experience. Each day began with warm-ups, with students going through drills for various skills, and each session ended with team play.
The main purpose of the camp is, first of all, for the kids to have fun, said Harker volleyball coach Dan Molin, athletic director and one of the coaches running the camp. “We want them to come here and enjoy themselves and improve in every skill of volleyball, from offense to defense, passing, setting, hitting, digging, blocking and ping pong sets.”
“By the end of the five days, they will be better volleyball players,” Molin said. “We do show them at times high-level concepts so they can see what the game will look like to them, because we have high-quality coaches here who really know the game at a high level.”
Harker girls volleyball coach Theresa “Smitty” Smith said students at the camp enjoy the environment that’s provided for them. “The ground rules are set at the very beginning and the kids understand that they’re all here working together, that they are to include each other and everybody in the activity, and the kids are really, really good about doing that. They’re very inviting, very friendly.”
“I think the people are really awesome,” said Harker student Sameep Mangat, who starts grade 8 in the fall. “Whenever there’s a break or something, you can just ask one of them to come play with you, or one of the coaches, and they’re totally fine with it.”
Mangat said the camp helped her improve some areas of her game that she thought were lacking, particularly her serve. “I finally learned how to perfect my serve and serving is one of the most important parts of volleyball,” she said.
Harker’s new wrestling camp, run by long-time, popular Harker coach Karriem Stinson, gave students in grades 6-12 a solid foundation for their future endeavors in the sport.
“We try to show everyone the same moves and we’re trying to keep it basic … because we think basic wins,” said Stinson, who is also the middle and lower schools’ assistant athletic director.
A typical day at the camp focused first on basic techniques and positioning, then wrestlers moved on to situational drills emphasizing escapes, stand-ups and breakdowns. The final portion of the day allowed the students to practice the skills they’d learned with their classmates.
Each day, Stinson said, the students are encouraged to determine three goals that they had met and three other goals that required more work to complete.
In addition, the camp also incorporated the TRX suspension training system for greater fitness and endurance. “We’re trying to incorporate nutrition, mental, physical and mold it all together,” said Stinson.
During the camp, Stinson was joined by Prospect High School wrestling coach Shawn Henebry, who has twice been a U.S. Open freestyle champion.
“We’re allowing the kids to get a good solid foundation in a short period of time,” Henebry said. “And I also think we have a good ratio of coaches to [student] wrestlers.”
What also made the Harker camp unique in Henebry’s view was that more experienced students helped the newer wrestlers learn more advanced techniques, thereby “also helping themselves learn the move by teaching the move.”
Serena Olmos, a senior at Lincoln High School, said she enjoyed the camp because it helped students with focusing on their weaknesses as wrestlers, “and not just focusing on what you’re good at.” She also enjoyed how the coaches made it a priority to help all of the students improve. “They don’t just push you off to the side and focus on one person,” she said.
“When they leave this camp we want them to have life skills, lessons that they took away,” Stinson said. “Mentally, they’ve become a lot stronger.”
Summertime fun kicked into high gear at Harker, this year, as enrollment for camps and other seasonal programming skyrocketed across all three campuses, resulting in a record-breaking number of participants.
Shortly after school let out, Harker opened its doors to the public, becoming a one-stop-summer-program-shop by extending its huge variety of offerings to K-12 students both locally and from around the globe.
According to Harker’s summer programs office, attendance at all summer happenings totaled some 2,740 participants. On the Harker summer menu were a camp for young kids, an institute for middle and high school-aged students, a program for foreigners to learn English, a large and varied sports camp, and a swim school that even adults could attend.
“We were thrilled and delighted at the incredible turnout for Harker summer this year!” enthused Kelly Espinosa, longtime director of summer programs. She noted that Harker has been providing outstanding summer programming for more than half a century.
In addition to the larger number in overall enrollment, there were exciting new happenings in both the English Language Institute (ELI) and Summer Institute (SI) programs. At the lower school ELI saw a huge jump in enrollment specific to elementary school students. Meanwhile, at the upper school, SI successfully added specialty classes to its afternoon activity program.
“Harker summer had everything a camp consumer could want,” said Espinosa, adding that she was also pleased to see how many non-Harker students chose to spend their summer at the school.
Below is an overview of the record-breaking Harker Summer 2013:
Summer Camp+ Wows K-6 at the Lower School
It truly was “the summer of wow!” over at the lower school’s Summer Camp+ program, where 763 children in K-6 enjoyed a wide array of summertime activities designed to delight and amaze them.
According to Joe Chung, program director of Camp+, Harker’s youngest students were happily occupied with such on site highlights as a patriotic games bash, water carnival, sleepover for older campers, presentation for parents, and birthday celebration for camp mascot “Ray.” Campers also partook in numerous offsite field trips, from local outings for bowling and miniature golf to farther trips out to the Oakland Zoo and Coyote Point.
Students had the choice of enrolling in either CoreFocus or LOL (Learning Opportunities in Literature) for the academic portion of the day. Core Focus was a three- or four-week math and language-arts-focused program. LOL was a two-week integrated curriculum centered around a literary theme. Both programs left room for the optional added afternoon activity program.
Afternoon activities were grouped by ages and weeks, with kindergartners attending kindercamp. First and second graders were in the owls group, third and fourth graders were called condors, and fifth and sixth graders were referred to as eagles. The first session of camp included such weekly themes as wow, whamo, wipe out, and work out. The second session featured weeks called wisdom of wizards, waiting on winter and wonders of wildlife.
“This was my third time at Camp+, and I really recommend it!” enthused grade 3 student Alexis Nishimura. To her, the best part about camp was “hanging out with friends,” followed by “all the fun activities and outings.”
Summer Institute Offers Individualized Programs for Students, Grades 6-12
From backyard games held on the upper school field to volleyball boot camp and a cooking corner in the gym and kitchen, Summer Institute (SI) students this year enjoyed brand new specialty class period offerings.
Open to both Harker students and the general public in grades 6-12, the institute got underway mid-June and ran until early August. SI had two separate tracks, one designed for middle schoolers and another geared towards high school students. SI participants typically combined a morning academic program with afternoon activities, allowing them to earn credits and learn new skills with plenty of time leftover for summertime fun.
The unique specialty classes were made available via SI’s afternoon activity program where many middle school students (and some high school freshmen) signed up for courses which changed weekly and included off-campus field trips. Rotating course options included art, cooking, outdoor games, volleyball, jewelry making, magic, improv, dance, tech, junior lifeguard, chess and circus arts.
Proudly displaying a plate she had been working on in ceramics class, Anjali Ravella, a soon-to-be grade 6 student at the new Summit Denali charter school in Santa Clara, said it was her favorite special activity so far. A first-time participant to SI, she noted that she also enjoyed learning from podcasts in her earlier academic class on “super study skills.”
The institute’s academic portion offered rigorous for-credit courses such as algebra, economics and programming, as well as non-credit opportunities for enrichment and growth like creative writing, Web design, debate and robotics. A driver’s education course was available for students aged 15 and up.
Grade 9 students had the option to either participate in Activity Program (AP) or join the older high school students who had no organized afternoon activity program but enjoyed free drop-in access to the library, pool, art room, Ping-Pong table, basketball courts and study spaces. For all grades, an on-site prepared lunch was included.
According to Keith Hirota, summer middle school director, a total of 920 middle and upper school students were enrolled in this summer’s overall SI program, of which 550 participants were non-Harker students.
Ten-year-old Richard Hsieh is non-Harker student who met his new Harker pal Nakul Bajaj, age 11, in SI. Although the two took different morning academic tracks, they said they enjoyed hanging out together for many of the afternoon activities – and now hope to continue their newfound friendship during the regular school year.
English Language Institute Attracts Participants, Aged 6-16, From Across the Globe
Summer at Harker brought with it its own special international flavor, as students at both the lower and upper schools got to meet and interact with peers from all over the world.
Thanks to the school’s renowned English Language Institute (ELI) program, more than 100 international students – from elementary through high school – come to Harker to increase their chances of admission to primarily English speaking educational institutions.
According to Anthony Wood, ELI director, this year’s program saw a notable increase in enrollment at the beginner level, requiring a total of four classes, with at least 55 youngsters enrolled in the primary division. Older students (middle and high school aged) attended ELI on the Saratoga campus.
At the lower school program, 9-year-old ELI student Helen Kozak recalled that going on a recent field trip to the beach at Santa Cruz reminded her of being back home in Ukraine, where she lives near the sea. “I like the ocean very much,” she said in remarkably good English, adding “I swim all day long.” In addition to swimming, her favorite things about ELI were archery, circus arts and computer lab. “I like it all,” said Kozak, who has been to the United States several times but never before in the ELI program.
“My favorite thing about ELI was recess … which we are in right now!” added 11-year-old Aaron Guo of China. The first time ELI participant said that his second favorite activity was basketball. He also liked all the “fun outings” to places like the Golden Gate Bridge and tide pools at the ocean.
At the Saratoga campus older ELI students worked on special projects tailored to their needs, including SAT preparation. They were assisted by mentors (called buddies or conversation partners) who are Harker juniors, seniors or recent graduates. At the end of their time at Harker, ELI students, upon full completion of either a three- or seven-week course, received a certificate and recommendation from their teachers.
On field trip days ELI students of all ages could be seen sporting green Harker T-shirts as they headed out for cultural adventures to diverse Bay Area tourist attractions. Upon their return, their travel experiences were strategically incorporated into their learning curriculum.
Sports Camps Cater to All Skill Levels of Students, Aged 9-16
The middle and upper school campuses set the scene for Harker’s wide variety of on-site, first-rate sports camps, where 518 athletes learned a new sport or worked on improving skills in a sport they had already taken up. This year Harker offered softball, basketball, football, soccer, TRX (suspension body training), wrestling, volleyball and water polo camps.
Wrestling camp was new to this year’s summer sports program. Designed to motivate the novice wrestler and challenge the more advanced, the camp was open to students in grades 6-12. Serena Olmos, a senior at Lincoln High School, said she enjoyed the new camp offering because it helped students focus on their weakness as wrestlers, “and not just on what you’re good at.”
It was just last year that water polo was added to the sports camp choices. All of Harker’s summer sports camps are designed to be a positive, skill-focused environment where highly experienced coaches provide training in a well-structured, character driven atmosphere. Young athletes were encouraged to improve skills, develop teamwork and, most of all, have fun!
Swim School Offers Beginner to Advanced Lessons for Participants, Ages 3-Adult
The Harker Swim School provided both children and adults the opportunity to learn, refine and extend their swimming abilities in a noncompetitive, positive environment. Held at the upper school’s beautiful Singh Aquatic Center, it offered swim lessons for all skill levels, as well as a junior swim team for students in grades 2-8. The swim school is not part of Harker’s regular sports camp programming (for example, the water polo camp is not taught through the swim school).
For more information on Harker’s varied summer offerings visit summer.harker.org.
Harker’s summer water polo camp, held in late June, offered Bay Area students in grades 4-8 the chance to get a comprehensive introduction to the sport in a fun, supportive environment.
“It’s good for the kids to come out and play and it’s helping our sport grow,” said Allie Lamb, the Harker water polo coach who ran the camp with Ted Ujifusa, who also coaches at Harker. “It’s kind of a small sport, so the more kids we can get started early and young, the better it’ll be when they get into high school.”
Because most of the students at the camp were new to the sport, the camp focused on basic skills such as eggbeater kicking, moving through the water, passing and shooting. Each day of the camp showed the students a new skill to learn.
“And since the kids like to play the sport, we do a lot of scrimmaging, getting them out there,” Lamb said. “The best way to learn is by actually getting to play.”
Lamb said that by the end of the camp the students will have gained enough knowledge and experience to join a local water polo club team or high school team. “Our goal is to give them the knowledge they need now so they can go on and play either in high school or on a club team, and they’ll have some kind of background knowledge.”
“I like how the teachers are really nice to you, and they always let you do lots of fun stuff like scrimmaging and lots of fun drills that they come up with,” said Ryan Hagberg, a middle school student at St. Christopher School. “This has made me a lot more interested in playing water polo.”
The main goal of the camp, Lamb noted, was for the students in attendance to have fun learning the sport. “The most important thing that we teach the kids is that water polo is a fun sport to play and they should be having fun while they’re doing it. Of course they learn all the basics, but if they’re not having fun and we’re not making it fun, then they’re not going to want to come back and do it.”