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

NISSA Boys' Basketball & Girls' Football Update

Our NISSA Boys' Basketball and Girls' Football seasons are in full swing with the Snow Leopards having put on some outstanding performances thus far. The NISSA girls' football league is a 7-a-side affair, and our girls have already played four league fixtures, emerging triumphant in all their games. The league kicked off with a double-header against KISC, which our girls won 4-0 and 5-1. Thereafter, they played an inexperienced GEMS side and won 13-2 at home and 4-0 away. All these games gave our girls ample playing time as they worked to gel together as a team before heading off to the SAISA tournament in Mumbai on April 20-22.


Our boys' basketball team have played two league fixtures thus far, emerging victorious in our first outing of the league against GEMS. In our away fixture the roles were reversed, with our boys shots not sinking, and eventually falling to defeat. Despite this, lessons were learned and the boys and girls teams are now gearing up for their games vs TBS this Saturday, March 18th in the LS gym and turf respectively.

On March 25th, Lincoln School will host the NISSA girls football and boys basketball festival, which is sure to be an exciting affair. Go Snow Leopards!

SAISA Music 2017 - From the Himalayas to the Bottom of the World!

From The Himalayas to The Bottom of The World

By Connor Swanson

This trip was truly one of firsts. Not only was it some people's first time traveling to a SAISA event, but it was also the first SAISA event hosted by ACS. As a first time SAISA participant, I would like to give you a short recap of some of the details of our journey.

Our trip began on Tuesday, and after getting through security and heading out on our first three hour flight we landed in Sharjah, where our group immediately divided to to explore the airport during the layover we had before departing. After our flight and subsequent journey through immigration we boarded our bus and headed to the hotel

On Wednesday we headed to Jerash, where we explored and appreciated the ancient architecture of these Greco-Roman ruins, took an enormous amount of photographs, and purchased some tourist items before we departed. After grabbing some lunch we headed to the ACS campus and met up with our hosts.

Thursday is where the fun really began. After an amazing opening ceremony, all the schools separated into the large band and choir ensembles to get accustomed with the pieces, and with the various directors who would be assisting us. We then separated into our various sectionals so that these directors could give us constructive criticism and some advice about our specific area of music.

On Friday we started in our sectionals to continue polishing the individual pieces before moving into our large ensembles to finalize elements of the main ensemble music. We then split into workshops where I specifically participated in a combination of choir and percussion. After our practices we viewed a performance by the 1st Cavalry Band and some of the student ensembles.

Saturday was the final day of our musical rehearsal and was completed very quickly in anticipation of our concert, We started with our ensemble practices, then had sectionals till about lunch time. During this time some of the additional performances were practiced along with preparing for presenting the pieces.

The concert went very well, and was an excellent first display by ACS in terms of both the quality of performance and dedication of the video crew. If you missed the stream, the link is here http://lssaisamusic17.blogspot.com/2017/02/day-7-return-to-nepal-and-performance.html

On our last day in Jordan we loaded onto to a bus and spent a few hours relaxing at the Dead Sea before leaving for the airport. In fact this last day allowed me to reflect and to firmly state that this trip left a great impression not only upon ACS as a host but also makes me want to return to Jordan at some point. It is also confirmed that SAISA rocks!

Lady Leopards Bring Back the Bronze!

Having finished 3rd in SAISA Girls' Basketball last year, the girls were ready to build on their recent success in the heat of Mumbai during the 2017 SAISA Girls' Basketball Tournament. On the first day of SAISA, the team played and won a total of 3 games. First, we played OSC, then TAISM varsity, and lastly ACS. Our third game was brutal. Everyone was completely exhausted from the two previous games, but we pulled through and won by four points. With our fourth win on the second day against TAISM junior varsity, we secured our spot in the semi-finals. Everyone on the team contributed to the win. Of course we celebrated with a short trip to Starbucks! Once everybody had gotten their energy back, we watched the rest of the games for the day. On the third and last day, we had two games. Unfortunately, we lost to Dhaka in the semi finals. Despite our loss, we bounced back real quick and won against TAISM varsity again in the consolation finals, winning bronze. Our subs and even our injured player were able to play the last quarter of the game. Our coaches were especially proud of how we bounced back after the heartbreaking defeat in the semi-finals, as we were able to score the highest total of the tournament during that game (46). That night at the ceremony, all the girls celebrated our victory and socialized with other teams. All the teams shared their lip synch videos and handed out sportsmanship pins. On the plane back, we proudly brought home with us our third place trophy, bronze medals, and numerous S pins. It was truly a great SAISA, for the youngest team in SAISA! GO SNOW LEOPARDS! 

Mackenzie Scheer

WATCH THE SLIDESHOW HERE: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByCAa8zQsNyQaFd1U25aYXZXR2s/view?usp=sharing

The 2017 Uniquely Chennai SAISA Art!

SAISA ART

The 2017 Uniquely Chennai SAISA Art, hosted by the American International School of Chennai on February 2-4, was a one of a kind experience, which the students of Lincoln School are very fortunate and grateful to have had. Myself (Shreetika) and four other artists got the opportunity to tour the heart of Chennai and visit two art studios of local artists to gain inspiration for our projects. We began the process of creating our art pieces on the second day in separate groups. There were four workshops with different local artists teaching various forms of art. The workshops consisted of mixed media book making, indigo dyeing, acrylic assemblage with scrap materials, and temple figure sculpting. On the final day an exhibition was held on the AISC campus, displaying all the art that was created during the past two days. This exhibition displayed all the hard work, dedication and creativity from each student in all the participating SAISA schools. 

You can view a slideshow of the Art festival here: https://drive.google.com/a/lsnepal.com/file/d/0B9nyXr58kX11N2h4MlRQYWVCTGs/view?usp=sharing

By Shreetika Singh

SAISA Tennis: Lincoln Play Hard on the Courts of Mumbai!

SAISA Tennis - Lincoln Play Hard on the Courts of Mumbai

By Johann Silvanus

View the slideshow here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByCAa8zQsNyQZEdJZVZCb0RCalk/view?usp=sharing

Usually people don’t consider humid conditions, scorching heat and sweaty people to be the basis of a fun event. Yet that was contrary to the events that took place last weekend in Mumbai. A very enthusiastic and eager Tennis team led by Coach Jacob Craig, departed from Kathmandu on the 1st of February along with the jovial and spirited Girls Basketball team. With a full team of four boys and half a team of two girls, we set out for the American School of Bombay to show how a leopard can swing a racquet. Met by the blue sea of Mumbai, we witnessed the stark difference of wealth by seeing a city that is filled with both skyscrapers and slums. Our arrival at the school was met with surprise and excitement as we beared witness to the new and improved tennis courts the school had built. Our hosts from all parts of Mumbai greeted us with happy faces, hot tasty food and comfy beds. The first day was quite an adventure as we got to play on the new courts. It was also the day we met our opponents. Bombay had a fierce line-up of boys and girls ready to go, and Chennai had brought a strong set of players, but as Mr. Davis always says “It’s not the size of the leopard in the fight that counts, but it’s the size of the fight in the leopard.” So as leopards do, we fought long and hard; we won some good games and we lost some close games, but we kept going. We were inspired by the amazing prowess of the Girl’s Basketball team led by Coach Nielsen, and were determined not to lag behind. Through singles and doubles competitions we prevailed and earned both our third place in the competition and our stripes as true Lincoln Leopards. Keeping to SAISA tradition, not only did we participate in the event for the love of Tennis, but we also forged new friendships and strengthened current ones in the process. With a heightened sense of the game, we look forward not only to the next SAISA, but also to every practice and game. All I can say is that the competition in the 2018 Tennis season should be ready and prepared because the Lincoln Leopards are coming.

Lincoln School

Slideshow: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByCAa8zQsNyQSXpDc0cwcUc2N1E/view?usp=sharing

SAISA Boys’ Football 2016-2017: Snow Leopards Keep Fighting

The beautiful game of football was burning with the passions of the Lincoln School boys the minute they stepped afoot the new training ground at school. Despite losing a preseason game against a local Tibetan school, the boys’ were only focused on improvement. Carrying the mindset of developing themselves for the betterment of the team, their first game came in their league match against the KISC school saw the boys cruise to a 10-0 victory. However, they were still not satisfied, believing they could play better football. Their first real test came the next game against Rato Bangala. After a poor loss, the boys found several gaps and holes in their football philosophy and play. But this didn’t break the boys’ confidence, as they worked on their mistakes during practices. Their loss against Rato Bangala helped the boys to prepare for and defeat local derby rivals The British School 2-0, where the Lincoln School boys dominated in both possession and chances. As the league matches progressed, the boys faced a series of mixed results against GEMS, TBS, and Rato Bangala. However, on the bright Sunday of the NISSA tournament, the Lincoln School boys fought hard to get into the finals. A 3-0 victory against the Rato Bangala School did the job in the semis. After a hard fought match against GEMS in the final, the boys conceded a 1-0 defeat. The tournament helped the team to build confidence, as they were proud of the improvement they had accomplished.

Entering the excruciating weather of Chennai, their desire to succeed was burning brighter than the hot sun. In their first game against the SAISA alternate team, the boys saw a comfortable 8-0 Victory. In their next game, however, they suffered a brutal 5-0 loss against Dhaka. After the game, the team went to stretch and reflect on their inconsistent performances. The coaches urged the team to play football the Lincoln way; to dominate possession, to work as a team, and  to fight till the very end. The next game against Bombay was crucial to get into the semi-finals. The boys entered the field and fought every minute of the game, and defended fiercely when they were 1-0 up. They had made the semis!

The boys felt a cloud of bad luck against them on the last day, as they were knocked out of the semi finals and third place play-off despite being the better team, especially in the consolation final vs TAISM. Despite being 1-0 up, the boys conceded two goals in the last few minutes of the game.

In the end, a fourth place finish was what the boys had to settle for. Despite the frustrating last day, the Lincoln School boys looked ahead to the future, as they carry a young team that possesses mountains of potential.

By Jigme Norchen

BADMINTON TEAM BEATS MORE THAN THE HEAT IN COLOMBO!

BADMINTON TEAM BEATS MORE THAN THE HEAT IN COLOMBO!

SAISA Badminton this year was hosted at the Overseas School of Colombo in Sri-Lanka. We went a day early and got to spend one morning on the beach. The Lincoln School Badminton team showed great growth this year, with some strong individual wins and doubles play. More importantly, as a team Lincoln was very supportive of each other through every match. It was an amazing experience because this was the first trip to Colombo for most of us. The amazing food, the dances after each day of the tournament and the late night flights made this experience even more fun. I personally had an amazing time meeting new people from other SAISA schools and making new friends. This was the best SAISA yet, and I hope next year is just as amazing!!

You can view a slideshow of the Badminton tournament here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByCAa8zQsNyQeWhmUzEtdmRoMVU/view?usp=sharing

~Ritisha Mukherjee, Grade 7