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Girls’ Basketball dunks into a new season

 

By Mae Castellano

With an hour and a half practices, the Girls’ Basketball team is preparing for the upcoming season.  The team does defensive drills like shells, basic skills such as layups, and conditions  regularly.

“Conditioning is done on a daily basis because we always run several liners throughout practice,” provided JV Center Aliyah Davis.  The team goes to the weight room every Saturday as well for additional training.

“We went to CCS (Central Coast Section),” claimed Varsity Point Guard Katie Yamashita. “I think we got out in the second round, but it was still a really big accomplishment.”

For this upcoming season, some of the girls have hopes to be undefeated.  With the practices preparing the team for season, Yamashita thinks starting off with more warm-ups rather than getting straight into the defensive drills would improve their skills.

The team, however, is supportive and happy; there’s no negativity within the team.

“I think we have good teamwork because we’re all friends,” stated JV Power Forward Tasha Nguyen.  The girls have a close relationship with each other, and there’s strong teamwork between them.  “I think we have all around great players,” Nguyen continued.

“I’m expecting to grow, get better as a team, have fun, and win!” exclaimed Davis.  She shares this similar idea with Nguyen who is expecting growth and improvement within the team.

Although the team did lose six starting seniors from last year, the team seems to be improving and working better as a whole.

“The games are pretty intense on and off the court,” commented Nguyen.  They also generally turn out fun for the team as well.

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Girls’ Tennis hits through the season

By Bernice Ou-Yang

The season has already begun for PHHS Girls Tennis and they have played many games since then.

Last Thursday, on their last game of the season, they lost 2-5 against Leland High School, ending their season with a record of 8-6.  In their first CCS (Central Coast Section) Qualifiers game this Monday, the girls won, scoring 6-1.

“Our goal is to place second in our league,” announces Co-Captain Kelly Chau.  Right now, the team is in the A league for the most competitive division.

In order to reach their goal, the team has been practicing since the beginning of the school year and even during the summer. Through their conditioning, they build more muscle strength and improve on their speed and reflexes. During their practices, the members focus on drilling footwork and different types of shots into their muscle memory for games.

This year, Coach Alex Nguyen, a new coach with a tennis coaching- license, joined the team to help the girls bolster their techniques and forms.  He assesses their weak points, identifying what the team needs to work and improve on.

“The new players have really improved since the beginning of the season,” mentions Co-Captain Tiffany B. Nguyen. Despite losing quite a few valuable members at the start of their season, the two captains have noticed quite a lot of improvements from their members.

“As long as I don’t do anything (reckless), I think I won’t get injured,” says member Hannah Lim. Physical injuries are common among athletes. Some of the team members have minor injuries here and there. To make up for their setbacks and get over the other obstacles, the team has been practicing really hard every day.

“I want to practice with (the underclassmen) more, even when we don’t have practice,” declares Lim. The team is motivated to make it to CCS this year and every member have been working very hard during practices, hoping to improve as much as they can before the next game.

“Kelly and I always strive to create a team-oriented environment, so basically family, which I think we are,” exclaims Nguyen. By creating such a supportive and encouraging environment, the girls can practice cohesively knowing that the team has their backs.

 

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How to choose classes to prevent stress overload

By Quynh Luu

Academic studies are oftentimes an essential yet taxing component of a high school student’s life.  Along with keeping up with various extracurricular activities and maintaining social relationships, students also have to deal with the pressure of passing courses in order to graduate.  Picking which classes to take can greatly impact your future grades.  With that said, here are a few tips that will help ease the challenge of creating a schedule before a new school year begins.

In order to graduate high school, you need to earn at least 220 credits by the end of your senior year.  Before choosing classes that seem “fun and easy,” think about picking courses that will help you get all the credits you need to meet the A-G graduation requirements first.  The sooner you complete those classes, the sooner you can start to take more courses that appeal to your interests.

Seniors should consider taking five classes instead of the usual six.  The phrase “quality over quantity” matters here.  Concentrating and understanding information well from a few courses is better than getting through many of them without fully comprehending the material.

If you are still in your freshman year of high school, sign up for one or two AP classes next year.  It’s a good idea to get a small taste of college-level courses before entering the world of higher education.  If you perform well enough in them, consider taking more the following year.  If you don’t perform so well, don’t feel discouraged.  You’re not automatically unintelligent for getting low grades in an AP class, so just study harder and take only a couple more classes again when you feel prepared.

When a class feels way too challenging to handle after the first week, try to drop out as soon as you can.  Again, don’t believe that you are not smart for deciding to do so.  Many people face difficulties when it comes to coursework.  It’s a safer option to quit and prevent future stress than to struggle and carry on, in some cases.

Finally, talk with your counselor if you face any concerns regarding schedules.  Their job is to provide you with assistance when it comes to academic problems, so don’t feel shy about opening up about your frustrations with choosing classes.

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Walking in a Winter Concert Land

By Angelina Nguyen and Yen Linh Duong

The doors of the L-Building opened up, welcoming folks of all ages to enjoy two wonderful concerts brought by the PHHS Music Department students.  Part one of the Winter Concert began with A ‘Suite’ Sleigh Ride, the instrumental concert, on Dec. 4 and ended with Home for the Holidays, the choir concert, which took place last Wednesday.

During the piece ‘Today is the Gift’, the drama and Concert Choir students made a special appearance.  The choir members, together with the chosen vocalists and egg shakers from the Wind Ensemble, sang a simple hymn after the riveting Martin Luther King Jr. ‘I Have a Dream’ speech spoken by drama students.

Concert choir introduced a new technique using mason jars and their cellphones during ‘Sympathy.’  The audience members were asked to type in links from the back of the pamphlet on their smartphones.  Each attendee opened a different link according to the section they were sitting in.  Right before Concert Choir sang, the sounds of birds chirping erupted throughout the L-Building.

“It’s based on a poem called ‘I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings’ and we have recordings of these little birds tweeting and we put the recordings inside the mason jars,” mentions Concert Choir member Athena Nguyen.  “The song is about how a bird is trapped in its cage so we’re trying to give an image of an actual bird trapped inside the jar to make the (performance) come to life.  Also, there is a soloist and she has a recording of her singing at the end of the song and the very last words that she sings (are) ‘I know why the caged bird sings.’  She put this really big jar on top of the recording when it says (that) and it represents a bird singing inside of the jar.”

After the intermission, the Percussion Ensemble enchanted the audience with their unique pieces ‘Cloud Forest’ and the ‘Nutcracker to Go!’  The Percussion Ensemble is not a music class at PHHS, but is a group of percussionists from Wind Ensemble and Symphony Orchestra gathered together.  They practice once a week during seventh period or after school.

“We are just doing it [Percussion Ensemble] for fun. We have really good percussionists at this school,” comments orchestra teacher Emily Ray.  “Last year I started the Percussion Ensemble and I found this piece that was really hard, and had a couple of them practiced over the summer.  So when they came back in August they were pretty good at it, and we just kept practicing.  That was a college level piece [‘Cloud Forest’] that they played.”

According to Ms. Ray, the Percussion Ensemble have only practiced ‘Nutcracker to Go!’ for less than two weeks since she didn’t give them the music until just before Thanksgiving break.

The choir students have started working on the new pieces for the Winter Concert since the end of the Fall Concert which amounts to about seven weeks.  The pieces were chosen based on the strengths and weakness of the choral students.

“After the first concert of this year, we completely moved on.  We immediately started to practice (and) we (have) constantly been practicing,” says concert choir sophomore member Steven Lu.

A $5 admission fee was required to enter the show.  Delectable treats such as cookies, custard-filled donut holes and hot chocolate were sold at a concession stand, providing warmth and comfort for all who watched the show.  All of the money earned through the concerts will fund the music programs, allowing them to buy new equipment and go on more trips, such as this coming trip to Italy.