![“I wasn't discouraged by some of the obstacles we faced. I learned a lot from the leadership. I found that different people need different ways of receiving feedback — you can't [just] tell them to do something and expect the best. [Some] people needed more incentive. A large part of my role was to figure out what worked for everyone and to figure out how to lead all these separate individuals as a team,” Suhana Bhandare (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/SuhanaBhandare_JasmineHansra-1-1200x798.jpg)
![“This is actually from Randy Pausch Randy P. Brick: ‘Walls are there for a reason. You have to show how much you want to overcome them.’ You have to show how much you want something. That's what I've always been able to do with tennis, Link Crew and getting that internship [with Kushy Baby]. It’s important pushing through that — getting around that brick wall, climbing over it or clawing through it,” Yash Sachdeva (’26) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/YashSachdeva_RamBatchu-copy-1200x1002.jpg)
![“[Building nerf blasters] became this outlet of creativity for me that hasn't been matched by anything else. The process [of] making a build complete to your desire is such a painstakingly difficult process, but I've had to learn from [the skills needed from] soldering to proper painting. There's so many different options for everything, if you think about it, it exists. The best part is [that] if it doesn't exist, you can build it yourself," Ishaan Parate said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/DSC_8149-900x604.jpg)
![“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)
![“I think getting up in the morning and having a sense of purpose [is exciting]. I think without a certain amount of drive, life is kind of obsolete and mundane, and I think having that every single day is what makes each day unique and kind of makes life exciting,” Neymika Jain (12) said.](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Screen-Shot-2017-06-03-at-4.54.16-PM.png)
![“My slogan is ‘slow feet, don’t eat, and I’m hungry.’ You need to run fast to get where you are–you aren't going to get those championships if you aren't fast,” Angel Cervantes (12) said. “I want to do well in school on my tests and in track and win championships for my team. I live by that, [and] I can do that anywhere: in the classroom or on the field.”](https://harkeraquila.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/DSC5146-900x601.jpg)
![“[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)
Varsity girls water polo loses to Cupertino High
Senior Helena Dworak prepares to throw the ball during the varsity girls water polo game. The Eagles lost the match 1-10.
Varsity girls water polo lost 1-10 to Cupertino High School in a non-league home game yesterday evening at 6:45 p.m.
Freshman Claudia Opris scored a goal for the team during the first half of the game, but Cupertino led at halftime with a score of five to one. The second half ended with Cupertino scoring five more goals, stretching the difference to make the final score ten to one.
Although the girls lost to the Cupertino team, the members reflected on their mistakes and ways they can improve before their next game.
“I feel like we could’ve done better in this game; even though we still tried our best, there were just simple mistakes that we could’ve avoided,” co-captain Yasemin Narin (12) said. “We’re a very young team but we’re learning really fast and I feel like next year, we’re gonna come back even stronger.”
Head coach Allie Lamb talked about what the team has been trying to improve on this season.
“There’s a few things we have to work on going into our league finals and this game kind of showed us what we need to work on,” she said. “We really need to work on offense and getting our shots off – it took us a while to even get any shots off today so that’s something we’ve been struggling with this season.”
Members from the opposing team, however, felt that Harker played well.
“Harker just came out really strong and we knew it was going to be a hard game to beat but it’s just who wanted it more,” Anna Rajaratnam (11) said.
Cupertino’s team’s head coach, Jen Townsend, reflected on their own performance, as well as goals for the rest of the season.
“For my team, we just wanted to have a solid, complete game, so it was a fun game to watch and a good experience for both teams,” she said. “I’m hoping we continue to do well; we have a few tough games coming up so those are going to be big challenges, so we wanted to make sure we had a strong game today [and] that we continue to play like we did today.”
The girls varsity team will have an away game next Tuesday afternoon against Wilcox.
A Harker water polo player blocks the ball from entering the goal.
Ashley Jiang (11) is the photo editor for Winged Post. This is her third year in the journalism program, and she was a reporter her freshman and sophomore...
Rose Guan (10) is a copy editor for the Winged Post in her second year on staff. She was a reporter in her freshman year, and her favorite aspect of journalism...