![“[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)
Eagles lose 7-42 on homecoming night
Runningback Will Park (12) runs the ball during a play. The eagles lost homecoming 7-42.
November 7, 2016
Varsity football lost their homecoming and senior night game 7-42 to Stellar Preparatory High School yesterday night.
To start off the night, the school honored all the seniors on the varsity football team, including Saketh Gurram, Danny Reidenbach, Will Park, Davis Howard, Kailee Gifford, Anthony Crook, Rishabh Nijhawan and Norman Garcia. The homecoming game marks the last game of the football season for the seniors and the rest of the team this year.
Two captains from each respective team gathered in the middle of the field to begin the coin toss. While Stellar Preparatory won the toss, they chose to kick instead of receive.
Within the first six minutes of the first quarter, Will Park secured a touchdown for the Eagles, scoring them six points. Kicker Kailee Gifford was able to boost the score to 7-0.
“In the first quarter [and] the first half, our defense was pretty good,” Davis said. “We didn’t let them score that much, [and] we did what we practiced.”
The Stellar Preparatory Thunder scored a touchdown by the end of the first quarter and decided to take a two-point-conversion instead of kicking the ball into the goalpost, taking an 8-7 lead. The Thunder went on to score another six points in the second quarter.
“It didn’t go as we expected, but we tried the best we could do in the first and second quarters,” Nemo Yang (10) said. “We need to eat more and drink more milk because their linemen [were] really big.”
In the third quarter, the Thunder scored another 28 points while the Eagles scored zero. The score remained 7-42 throughout the fourth quarter with neither team scoring.
As the football season begins to close for this year, Head Coach Mike Tirabassi hopes that the Eagles will make the playoffs to extend their season by two more weeks.
“Hopefully we are not done for this year, we find out tomorrow if we have a playoff game, then we can have two more weeks. But overall, they need to keep doing what they are doing,” he said. “They worked so hard off-season and we got a lot stronger over the years. Plus, we are fairly young than most teams. For next year, we just need to work in the weight room and get big, and strong and fast.”
The freshman and sophomore classes engaged in a competition of tug-of-war to determine third and fourth place preceding the start of the game, with the sophomores taking third place overall. During halftime, the juniors beat the seniors in another game of tug-of-war, putting the juniors and seniors in first and second place, respectively.
The cheerleading team supported the Eagles throughout the game, including performing a routine at halftime as well as prior to the start of the game with the junior eagles.
“I’m pretty sad we lost to Stellar Prep especially because it’s senior night and a lot of the seniors’ last game,” cheerleader Kelly Shen (10) said. “I thought our routine went pretty good, there were a few mishaps, but we really enjoyed performing. It was our last performance together for the football season, so it was a really nice close to our season.”
The Varsity Dance Troupe also performed a routine during halftime before the Homecoming court made an appearance. Senior class dean Jeffrey Draper crowned seniors Ryan Vaughan and Kailee Gifford as Homecoming king and queen.
Led by jazz band conductor Chris Florio, the jazz band performed their repertoire throughout the game as well.
The bleachers were packed for the entirety of the game with parents, students in the Flight Zone and Harker families cheering for the Eagles. Students wore black paint on their face to show their spirit and support for the team.
“Harker does a good job in getting a huge crowd to non-stop cheer for the team. The [halftime activities] like the cheerleaders and the tug-of-war don’t make it boring,” Puneet Nayyar (10) said. “If they had enough manpower and every football game was like this, I’m sure there would be such a large crowd for every game.”
Varsity football will face Moreau Catholic High School next Friday in the first round of the NCS playoffs. Specific time and location are to be determined.
