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![“When I came into high school, I was ready to be a follower. But DECA was a game changer for me. It helped me overcome my fear of public speaking, and it's played such a major role in who I've become today. To be able to successfully lead a chapter of 150 students, an officer team and be one of the upperclassmen I once really admired is something I'm [really] proud of,” Anvitha Tummala ('21) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Screen-Shot-2021-07-25-at-9.50.05-AM-900x594.png)
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![“[Volleyball has] taught me how to fall correctly, and another thing it taught is that you don’t have to be the best at something to be good at it. If you just hit the ball in a smart way, then it still scores points and you’re good at it. You could be a background player and still make a much bigger impact on the team than you would think,” Anya Gert (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AnnaGert_JinTuan_HoHPhotoEdited-600x900.jpeg)
![“I'm not nearly there yet, but [my confidence has] definitely been getting better since I was pretty shy and timid coming into Harker my freshman year. I know that there's a lot of people that are really confident in what they do, and I really admire them. Everyone's so driven and that has really pushed me to kind of try to find my own place in high school and be more confident,” Alyssa Huang (’20) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/AlyssaHuang_EmilyChen_HoHPhoto-900x749.jpeg)
Boys varsity basketball wins against King’s Academy
Senior Elijah Edgehill goes up for the layup as a Kings Academy player defends him. The boys won this game after losing to the Knight during their last matchup.
January 30, 2016
The boys varsity basketball team won 51-47 against King’s Academy in its eighth league game at the Blackford gym yesterday at 7:30 p.m.
The Eagles maintained a lead throughout the game, scoring 17 points to the Knights’ 10 in the first quarter, entering halftime with a score of 27-20 and scoring 15 more points to their opponents’ 19 in quarter three.
The team’s win yesterday brings it to a 3-5 record in the league and an 11-7 record overall.
Butch Keller, head boys basketball coach, discussed what he thought were the team’s strongest points during the game with regard to strategy.
“I was really proud of our defense,” Keller said. “We thought that if we played them really tough defensively, they would get tired because we were going to play more people—and because we played more players, towards the end, when they needed jump shots, they weren’t there, because they were tired.”
The boys lost their last league game away against King’s Academy 54-73 on Jan. 5.
Justin Jia (11), a point guard and co-captain of the team, spoke about what he expected from the Knights on the basis of their prior game.
“Going into it we expected a tough game, because the last time we played them they beat us,” Justin said. “They blitzed us really hard, like a full-court press and everything, so we knew it was going to be a tough game; we knew our A-game had to come out, especially defensively. We definitely clamped up on defense: I think it goes to show if you look at usually the top two scorers, number five and number four. We pretty much locked them down, and it was a good game overall.”
Jordan Goheen (11), a power forward on the team, commented on the team’s performance and how he felt before the match started.
“We really needed this win because last time they beat us pretty badly,” Jordan said. “I think the biggest thing this game was free throws—it seems like something that’s really simple and really little, but it adds up throughout the game because there are so many of them.”
Ahmad Young (12), a point guard for the Knights, also expressed his expectations for the level of play throughout the game.
“I felt like we could have easily won this game, just [we had] many mistakes and just letting [the Eagles] easily get to the basket, so respect [to] them for finishing stuff like that,” Ahmad said. “I felt we played very well on defense, just minor mistakes, and that’s what we got to pick up in practice.”
At the game, many supporters, including upper school students participating in Flight Zone activities, came to cheer on the team, chanting phrases such as “Defense,” “Eagles” and “I believe that we can win.”
Rohan Desikan (12), a point guard and co-captain, spoke about how the encouragement helped the team play well.
“We held [the Knights] to under 50 points, which is a great achievement, so as long as we keep playing like that, we’ll just keep winning,” Rohan said. “It was a fantastic level of play, and I think one of the most important parts was that there were so many fans here tonight. It really helped us, so I can’t wait for more home games like this.”
The boys now prepare to play the Sacred Heart Preparatory Gators, an undefeated team in league that they lost to 46-72 on Jan. 8, at the Blackford campus next Tuesday at 6:30 p.m.
