Pursuers of Dreams Banquet - A Class Act

On Saturday, May 6th, the Lincoln School gym was transformed into a picturesque ballroom with musical displays, athletic awards, videos and speeches and an opportunity to honor all our students who pursued dreams and participated in our co-curricular programs at Lincoln School this year. 

The videos can be viewed here: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B9nyXr58kX11aTlUMmlQZGM3dUk

Here are some of the highlights: 

Of 135 Secondary Students (Grades 6-12), 115 tried out for our SAISA sports teams this year. This is approximately 85% participation in our athletics program. We also sent a large group of Musicians and Artists to Jordan and Chennai respectively, attended a MUN conference in Holland, put on two secondary plays, and hosted a MathCounts convention. Altogether, 85% of our student population represented our school in one of these events, while almost 99% of our student population participated in at least one after-school activity this year.

●      The year began with hosting NISSA boys’ and girls’ volleyball. Our boys won the tournament and our girls finished runners-up to a club team.

●      We hosted the 2nd Annual LS Swimming Championships, which we won convincingly with many outstanding performances, winning over 90 medals and many of the gold variety.

●      We successfully defended the Little Angels Swimming Championships.

●      We were SAISA Girls’ Volleyball champions! For our girls’ team, this is the 4th year in succession that we have either won or been in the final.

●      Our Boys’ Volleyball were also SAISA champions! This is a record 8 SAISA titles for Boys’ Volleyball.

●      We hosted SAISA Swimming for the first time in history; we won SAISA Swimming for the first time in history. Our teams finished 2nd in the 10-12 girls, 10-12 boys, 13-14 boys and 15-19 boys and 1st in the 13-14 girls and 15-19 girls. We also finished 2nd in girls overall and 1st in boys overall.

●      An astonishing 62 School Swimming Records broken this year, including 3 SAISA records.

●      Our SAISA Girls’ Basketball team had a fantastic 3rd place finish in Mumbai and made it to the finals of the NISSA Championships we hosted.

●      We were one of three SAISA schools to participate in the Tennis invitational in Mumbai.

●      We attended an MUN conference in Holland and hosted a small MUN conference

●      We hosted the MathCounts convention with a number of schools participating in the region and had a gold medalist in the individual round.

●      Our Boys’ football team showed improvement throughout the season, making the finals of the NISSA Championships and the semi-finals of the SAISA Championships in Chennai.

●      We participated in SAISA Art for the first time in two years.

●      Our Badminton team improved on last year’s showing and continues to grow, finishing 6th out of 10 teams.

●      Our SAISA Girls’ Football team won the NISSA league and championships hosted at Lincoln, and then traveled to Mumbai, where they reached the finals of the SAISA Girls’ Football tournament.

●      SAISA Track and Field had some wonderful individual performances despite traveling with a young and inexperienced team.

●      We hosted the SAISA Boys’ Basketball Tournament again this year and our team made it all the way to the final on the back of winning the NISSA basketball championships.

●      Two successful secondary play productions were performed.

MS Male Athlete of the Year: Alexander Gadegaard Shah
MS Female Athlete of the Year: Karuna Sakya-Hooper
HS Male Athlete of the Year: Avi Rajkarnikar
HS Female Athlete of the Year: Shreetika Singh
Snow Leopard Award: Mackenzie Scheer

Lincoln Boys' Basketball Team Make Another Finals!

Lincoln Boys' Basketball Team Make Another Finals!

The Lincoln School Boys' Basketball team turned on the heat and turned up the volume in the Lincoln gym last week as nine other teams came to compete for this year's SAISA title. In the first game of the tournament, our boys - the defending champions - played against a well-drilled and good shooting team from TAISM. Although the boys never quite hit top gear, they were still able to just do enough to grind out a 44-40 win, with Avi hitting some clutch free-throws towards the end of the game. In what would prove to be a very competitive pool, this win proved crucial. 

In our second game of the day, the Snow Leopards took on the latest addition to our league - the Scorpions from Amman, Jordan. This team turned out to be a powerful group of athletes and basketball players that proved too strong for Lincoln on this occasion. Final score: 56-42. 

With ACS Amman winning the rest of the games in their group, Lincoln needed beat both the Geckos from Colombo and the Eagles from Mumbai to finish 2nd in their pool. They did not disappoint. First, they took care of the Geckos in their first game on the outdoor court, winning 50-17. The Eagles from Mumbai were next and the Snow Leopards came out with an intensity that the Eagles were simply unable to match, eventually wearing ASB into submission and winning 45-29. 

Finishing 2nd in the pool meant that our semi-final was against seed 3 from the other pool, the Raptors from Chennai. This team played some well-structured basketball and had a difficult defense to breakdown. However, the resilience of our Snow Leopards continued to shine through, earning a place in the semis with a 39-30 win. 

Our semi-final game was a repeat of last year's final - the Snow Leopards vs the AISD Tigers. Dhaka was a well-rounded team with some strong guards and athletic big men making them difficult to stop. By three quarter time AISD was up by 10 points and it was not looking good for the Snow Leopards. However, a fast start to the final quarter showed that Lincoln wasn't going to give up without a fight and successive three point shots from Avi Rajkarnikar quickly closed the gap. As the clock ticked towards the end of the game, Lincoln took the lead with another Avi three and the crowd went wild. All the momentum was with the Snow Leopards and the atmosphere in the gym was electric. 

The final was a re-match of the LS vs ACS Amman game in pool play and the Snow Leopards started well, taking an early lead. However, the Scorpions would not go away and their top players started to catch fire with some excellent shooting and powerful fast breaks. Although our Snow Leopards could not defend the championship trophy, they played with dignity, skill and passion for the Lincoln shirt. Thank you to everyone who made this tournament such a smooth, exciting and memorable one. 

SAISA Girls' Football Team Rises to the Challenge!

SAISA Girls' Football Team Rises to the Challenge!

Karuna Sakya-Hooper

Our girls’ football team 2017 showed true determination and heart at this years SAISA Girls Football Tournament in Mumbai, India. Going into the tournament, we only had 11 traveling players, most of whom were in middle school. This meant we had very few options on the bench and we were in a stacked pool, just like last year, with the defending champions (ASB), Dhaka, as well as the SAISA team.

We started out with an easier game against the SAISA team, winning a cool 9-1 and after lunch we would face off against Bombay who had earlier tied Dhaka 3-3. A win in this game would assure us a spot in the semi-finals. We were the underdogs of the tournament and the Eagles came out confident that they could defeat us. Still upset from our loss last year, our team seized the opportunity to reclaim our pride and we defeated Bombay 3-1. This game gave us the boost we needed and carried us through our only game the next day versus the Tigers. It was a tough matchup played at the hottest time of the day, but we didn’t give up and eventually came out victorious, winning 2-0.

In the semi-finals, we faced off against a new SAISA team, the ACS Scorpions. This wasn’t our best game but we came in with a win or win mindset so we did whatever it took to keep ourselves in the game and did just that with a 1-0 win. We made it to the finals undefeated to face TAISM!

As we waited for the final match-up, we felt the butterflies build up in our stomachs, but when game time arrived, we were ready. We studied TAISM’s game and played a defensive strategy that helped us hold them to 0-0 at the half. We just had to score once and then hold them again. But unfortunately they scored 10 minutes into the second half and the game ended 1-0. It was a crushing loss, but throughout the tournament it felt as if we had avenged last year's terrible debacle and rose up to regain our confidence at this year’s SAISA tournament.

Snow Leopards Stay on Track in Colombo!

Snow Leopards Stay on Track in Colombo!

SAISA Track & Field was a very extraordinary experience. Although we had a small team this year, we made the best of it, and worked as hard as we could. I believe that all our hard work paid off in Colombo; we survived the blazing heat, and the very tiring plane ride there and back. We all stuck together like a team and we conquered our fears and personal best times together.

There were many memorable experiences from our time in Colombo. For example, watching Coach Craig run as the anchor of the SnowGeckos in the coaches relay! We also had some amazing wins for our team: Zoja Mancek won gold in the 15-19 girls high jump, and Isabella Murphy who won both the 10-12 girls 3000m and 1500m runs, as well as winning silver in the 800! The Powell sisters did incredibly as well, with Izzy Powell winning the girls 10-12 long jump and earning bronze in the 1500, while Niamh Powell won silver in the 400m. For the boys, Tomas Sharkey came 5th for the 10-12 800m and earned a bronze in the 3000!

We definitely improved on our performances from last year. During SAISA, we were half the size of the other teams, but the fight we put up and our energy was enormous. Our overall experience was amazing and I am lucky to have shared one of my favorite SAISAs with this particular group of people, and I’m excited for what’s to come from our team next year.

Akshara Singh

LS Ready to Host SAISA Boys' Basketball!

After a very successful SAISA Swimming Championships in October, Lincoln is all set to host its 2nd big SAISA event of the year - Boys' Basketball - this April 20-22.

The Snow Leopards are defending champions and will play the first game of the tournament vs TAISM on Thursday, April 20 at 9.00 am, just following the Opening Ceremony.

All the live action can be followed on our tournament blog here:
http://saisa-boys-basketball.blogspot.com/p/welcome.html

Results will be posted here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1A6pjDzq28OjKt8Q8_HYpKPKDe3amnP2_2sKg-fA2hnc/edit?ts=58f59b50

Meanwhile, our Track and Field team will be competing at the Overseas School of Colombo, while our Girls' football team will be participating in the SAISA tournament hosted at the American School of Bombay.

Go Snow Leopards! 

A Swim to Remember!

The mighty Snow Leopards emerge victorious for the first time at SAISA Swimming!

Lincoln wrote a little piece of history this past week by winning the SAISA Swimming Championships for the first time in our school’s history. The swimmers pushed through their limits in training and this was evident throughout the meet with some amazing performances. All the long hours in the pool, and the motivational team talks, shaped the swimmers into being the mature individuals they showed themselves to be during the meet. Every swimmer swam some personal bests and accomplished their goals. This meet brought the community together and created an even stronger bond among the members of the swim family and Lincoln family as a whole.

Niharika Tuladhar and Nasir Hussain set SAISA records for the 100 breast and 200 IM respectively in their own age groups. The 13-14 girls broke the SAISA records for the 200 free relay and the 400 free relay; they also set the new SAISA record for the 200 medley relay. Shreetika Singh and Tisa Sakya broke the SAISA records for the 100 IM and 200 Breaststroke events for their own age groups. The pool seemed to literally heat up with some sizzling swims!

Our teams finished 2nd in the 10-12 girls, 10-12 boys, 13-14 boys and 15-19 boys and 1st in the 13-14 girls and 15-19 girls. We also finished 2nd in girls overall and 1st in boys overall. Finally, we finished 1st overall as SAISA Champions. A huge achievement!

With SAISA Swimming being hosted in Nepal for the first time, Lincoln faced a challenge to accommodate all the swimmers and coaches. But with the amazing support from the community, it was worth it. Thank you everyone!

The Journey of Champions: Boys' Volleyball

The Journey of Champions: Boys’ Volleyball 2016-2017

A famous American statesman Colin Powell once said, “A dream doesn't become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination and hard work.” Although the boys in the volleyball team didn’t quite apply it in the political sense that Powell insinuated, the same philosophy was pertinent and evident throughout their season. The season for the boys’ Volleyball started off excellently, with several of the returning players showing a big leap of improvement. Furthermore, the overall team’s chemistry and determination was invigorated with new additions to the team. Each individual in the team made sure to put in their own share of sweat, determination and hardwork. As the early season progressed, the philosophy of perseverance started to become evident in numerous games. Against the Jawalakhel club team, despite the loss, the boys showed great character in fighting for every point. As more challenging games came their way, the boys kept learning and adding improvement points to their philosophy of play. Important aspects of teamwork such communication, trust, and leadership were bolstered after every game. Another big pre-tournament game that the team faced was against the Armed Police Force (APF) team. The APF team have some of the best volleyball players in the nation. Despite losing the match, the boys showed excellent sportsmanship, and application of their training routines: executing their serves, their calls, their covers, and their hard spikes. However, there was no time to celebrate. With SAISA approaching, and a big Dashain break in the way of training, the boys had to keep improving.

The day of SAISA finally approached, and the boys departed Nepal feeling confident with their arduous nine weeks of training. The first day of SAISA brought ambivalent feelings to the players. Although the first game had been won in a heated match against Dhaka 2-1 in sets to Lincoln, the second game against Bombay was one to forget as the boys lost 2-0. At the end of the day Lincoln was second in their pool,  Coaches Sam Davis and Curtis Broker motivated the team to push for further improvement in the following days. That motivation proved effective; as the hard work, training, and perseverance that the boys had trained for started to show in the games that followed. In the second day, the boys played their final game of the table against Chennai; in which a comfortable 2-0 win saw them face ASC Jordan school in the quarter finals.

The Quarter Finals proved to be a tough game for Lincoln School, as the sets kept fluctuating in the lead of points between the two teams. However, Lincoln School went on to win both the sets. Not only did Lincoln progress to the Semi Finals, but they also created a strong bond with the boys from the ASC Jordan School.

The Semi Finals was a big test for Lincoln School Boy’s Volleyball team. After winning the first set, the boys were down in their second set with 12 points to 22 for TAISM. The team called for a timeout. In the time out Coach Sam Davis urged the boys to shrug off their complacency and bring back their mentality to fight for every point, he reminded them that they had to “take it if they wanted it, because nobody would hand it to them.” The players kept this in mind and made an incredible comeback to win the second set 26-24.  We were in the finals!

The build up to the finals brought a certain nervous-excitement to the emotions of Lincoln School boy’s Volleyball players. The day had so far been excellent, with a win against TAISM, and a nice ovation from young fans of the Chennai school. A certain vibe of confidence floated in the air as the boys changed in the locker rooms. With 30 minutes remaining until the Finals the boys walked out into the hot air of Chennai. The boys warmed up to pump up music; a routine they had carried out since their first string of wins from the Chennai game. As they huddled up in a circle, they let out all their nervous energy in the form of a dance. Each member of the team, including the two coaches danced away. The boys then walked in the gym, prepared to face the AIS/Dhaka, a tough opponent to face, but one that Lincoln had beaten in their first game of the SAISA tournament. The boys were introduced one by one, and after a full team pump up, the referee blew the whistle to start the game. What followed next was a full application of all the sweat, determination and hardwork that the boys had gone through. Fighting with all their might, the boys won an emotional final, winning 3 sets in a row. However the emotions didn’t stop there, after hearing further news from the girls volleyball and the swim team’s victories in SAISA, tears of joy celebrated a historical moment for Lincoln School.

The victory of the tournament and the overall experience of everything the boys had gone through brought together a family. A family that understood each other and fought for each other. The season of the boys volleyball team perfectly encapsulated a core value of the Lincoln School mission statement,  “to have the confidence and competence to pursue their dreams.”

By Norchen Lama

Lincoln Girls’ Volleyball Team Brings Home the Gold!

Lincoln Girls’ Volleyball Team Brings Home the Gold!

The Lincoln School girls’ volleyball team started their SAISA journey with an early flight to Muscat, Oman. Arriving in Muscat, the girls went to their host house for a long nights rest before the tournament began. Calm and ready for the first day, the girls won their first game against Lahore easily. The girls seized the second game with a mighty 25-1, 25-2 win. The first day seemed to be just a warm-up for the rest of the championship.

The second day was a marathon. The girls had to play three games in comparison to the previous day’s two. Breezing through the first game, Lincoln had to play Dhaka for the second game. By far this was the girls’ closest game, barely winning the first set 26-24 and smoothly taking the second set 25-19. This was the toughest game for the girls’ mentally, however they stayed consistently positive through every point. Exhausted by the previous game, the girls were a little tired playing Bombay, but they took it in their stride and nabbed another win. By this time the girls knew that they were playing ACS (a new SAISA school) in the semi-finals.

            

With the nights rest to recuperate, the girls were excited going into the last day. The coaches had closely been watching ACS, thus the girls knew the weak areas of their opponents and they capitalized on that. The girls were in the finals against the home team TAISM. What is more, this was the fourth consecutive year that the Lincoln School Girls' Volleyball team had made it to the SAISA Championship game. An astounding feat for our small school. 

When 2:00 rolled around, an hour before the final, the team started their warm up routine. A crowd started to build in the gym in support of the home team. The girls kept their calm. The plan was to play this game the same way as all the other games. The first set started and Lincoln created a strong lead early. It soon became apparent that the TAISM team was folding under the pressure to win the finals. The girls’ volleyball team rolled straight through TAISM in the final, sweeping the championship in straight sets 25-14, 25-9, 25-15. Soon after their win, the girls were watching the boys’ snatch their championship and anxiously waiting for the news about the swimmers. This volleyball team was reliable and consistent on the court. Without a doubt a very strong team and a class above their opponents in the SAISA competition. 

By Emma Shrestha