Many thanks to those of you who managed to make it to our 2014-2015 Athletic Banquet last night. For those of you who had already left Nepal, or were unable to make it for another reason, I am sharing my opening remarks, as well as the videos for each season. Thanks to all for your support of our program. I am very proud of our student-athletes.
Good afternoon everyone and thank you for taking the time to help us recognize the efforts of our student-athletes at this difficult time for our country, Nepal.
I think we need to reword our spirit song to include the lines: "It can shake us, but it won't break us!" Because you, our Lincoln students, have been immensely courageous this whole year and, especially, over the past few weeks.
I recently wrote a small end-of-year-report for our school board that included some of the following information:
113 different students of 152 total - including 5th grade - participated in SAISA this year. This meant there was approximately 74% participation in our SAISA program (including grade 5). 78% participation in the SAISA program from our Secondary students only. This is up from 60% last year.
That is an impressive statistic and illuminates just how many of our students are ready to devote their time to their own wellness, learning and growth outside of regular school hours. Their dedication has led to some of the following outcomes:
(just listing top 3 finishes, schools records, and other stats):
- SAISA Girls' Volleyball Finalists
- HIMS Swimming Championship – Champions
- Little Angels' School Swimming Championship – 2nd place
- Girls' Swimming – 3rd place & 15-19 girls Champions
- An astonishing 41 School Swimming Records broken this year, including 5 SAISA records.
- Two of our swimmers – Sofia Shah and Niharika Tuladhar - represented Nepal in the World Swimming Championships this year.
- SAISA Boys' Football - 3rd place
- Hosted a successful SAISA Boys' Football Tournament for the first time ever.
- Our Boys' football team participated in two local inter-school futsal tournaments and won them both convincingly.
- SAISA Badminton – Sent a participating team for the first time in history.
- SAISA Girls' Football – Champions
- NISSA Boys' Basketball Finalists
- SAISA Track and Field – 12 school records
- SAISA Badminton – Sent a participating team for the first time in history.
However, these statistics do not even tell half the story. There were countless moments of courage, kindness, and grit displayed on many occasions by all of you student-athletes sitting here today. Far beyond the numbers, the medals, and the trophies are the enduring friendships, values and memories of laughter, glory, and tears.
We will remember when the 6th grade boy, Hridayendra, stood up in front all the swimmers in Chennai to talk about a moment of trust and respect. We value sportsmanship.
We will remember swimming in the freezing water and the dark at the end of October, and then the nerves of being on the blocks before our first race, the adrenaline shooting through us as we push ourselves as hard as we can go. We value commitment.
We will remember the fun boys' volleyball games against the staff and how you grew as a team throughout the season. We value enjoyment.
We will remember how our girls' volleyballers got trounced by ASB the first game of the tournament on their home court, and then came back to beat them in the semi-finals. We value resilience.
We will remember how we had never participated in sports before, but chose come out to represent Lincoln's first Badminton team. We value courage.
We will remember how refined our backhands and second serves and then beat the heat in Mumbai. We value the learning of skills.
We will remember hosting our first boys' football tournament, Nathan all bandaged up, Pujen gliding through players, Norchen doing push-ups and saving penalties. We value teamwork.
We will remember Carmen running through players legs in Colombo, and the spirit and positivity our girls exuded. We value interdependence.
We will remember how our boys' basketball team grew during both NISSA and SAISA tournaments and how they saved their best performances for the last day, after news of the earthquake had already filtered through. We value a growth mindset, and "I can do it" mentality.
We will remember how Suryansh scissored and Maya flung across the sand. We will remember the fear of not-knowing, and how we cared for each other when we needed it most. We value trust.
We will remember how our Snow Leopards heard the news of the earthquake and then went out and played with fearlessness and passion to thrash the mighty Geckoes in the final 4-1. We value leadership.
Leadership, in these challenging times, is something our students and staffpossess in abundance. I would publicly like to acknowledge the support of our coaches, admin, custodians and bus drivers, as we all play a significant part in the interdependent community that is Lincoln School. Our Sports Leadership Team consisting of Suryansh, Galen, Sofia, Emma, Elen, Laura, Iskra, Kubahan, Rahab, Nathan and Nala have been wonderful Ambassadors for our program.
There is a Tibetan saying, "Tragedy should be utilized as a source of strength. No matter what sort of difficulties, how painful the experience is, if we lose our hope, that's our real disaster."
We will also remember these days for the rest of our lives. We value Perseverance. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your efforts and support. Never give up.
