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

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.

LS Snow Leopards Nail the Mannequin Challenge!

Different Lincoln School Athletics teams and clubs came together to take the Mannequin Challenge at the close of 2016. Take a look. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByCAa8zQsNyQOFZ1c3lkWXFtNk0

New Multi-Purpose Court to be Unveiled

The finishing touches are now being placed on Lincoln's new multi-purpose court. Although the heavy monsoon rains delayed the project, the new surface appears to have been worth the wait. Students of all ages are able to enjoy the surface during breaks, lunch, after-school and during SAISA practices. The court has association approved surfaces and lines for basketball, tennis and volleyball. We look forward to unveiling the court on Thursday, November 17 when our Girls' Basketball team take on GEMS at 4.00 pm. Come out and support your Snow Leopards! 

2015-2016 Lincoln School Athletics Awards

2015-2016 Lincoln School Athletics Awards

Of 130 Secondary Students (Grades 6-12), 106 participated on SAISA sports teams this year. This is approximately 82% participation in our athletics program.

• The year began with the opening of our new Aquatics facility and hosting the 1st Lincoln School Swimming Championships, which we won!

• We were SAISA Girls’ Volleyball runners up, and that is the third year in succession that we have either won or been in the final.

• Our Boys’ volleyball team finished the SAISA tournament in 3rd place, an improvement since last year.   

• In the SAISA swim meet, our 15-18 girls won their division, while our overall girls team finished runners up.

•  An astonishing 24 School Swimming Records broken this year, including 2 SAISA records.

• SAISA Girls’ Basketball was hosted here and this was topped off with a fantastic 3rd place finish.

• In the Lincoln School established local league - NISSA - featuring other Nepali and international schools in Kathmandu - we were girls’ basketball champions!

•  Anthony Colavito won the singles SAISA boys tennis championships making him the best overall boys tennis player in SAISA. 

• Our young Boys’ football team showed improvement throughout the tournament, finishing 5th.

• Our Badminton team improved on last year’s showing and continues to grow.

• SAISA Girls’ Football team scored the most number of goals in the tournament with Karuna Sakya-Hooper scoring 10 on her own! They finished the tournament with 3 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.

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

• SAISA Boys’ Basketball Tournament - we hosted it and we all know what happened there! A brilliant victory for Lincoln School to go on the back of winning the NISSA basketball championships as well.

• MS Male Athlete of the Year: Eskil Sundar

• MS Female Athletes of the Year: Karuna Sakya-Hooper & Sarya Thapa Magar

• HS Male Athlete of the Year: Suryansh Vaidya

• HS Female Athlete of the Year: Laura Herren

• Snow Leopards of the Year: Ana Maharjan & Avi Rajkarnikar

At the end of each year, I find myself both filled with pride and yet shaking my head in disbelief at our accomplishments. This small international school in the Kathmandu Valley continues to go to toe to toe with the best that our SAISA league, complete with schools 3 to 4 times our size, has to offer. How do we do it? Year after year, how do we find the Snow Leopard spirit to dig deep, and be examples to the rest of our sister schools about what it looks like to give your all, and win or lose with sportsmanship and dignity.

First of all, we have a program, a philosophy, founded in tradition, yes, but even more importantly in values like teamwork, humility, respect, balance, friendship, responsibility, and perseverance. We know that to achieve excellence we have to work, we have to try, we have to fail, we have to pick ourselves back up and try again even harder, and perhaps fail again, because that is what it takes to realize our potential. And we have support for this program - from everyone in this school - our drivers, custodians, teachers, teaching assistants, administrators and coaches.

Yes, coaches. We have teachers, coaches who care a great deal. They turn up to practice each day with the commitment to develop our athletes’ skills, but more importantly their character. They are skilled in and passionate about what they do and know what it takes to build successful teams. By success I do not just mean winning, but learning, growing, and improving day-by-day mentally, tactically and technically. Without the commitment of our coaches, this program would not exist. 

The final reason why we can be proud to be Lincoln Snow Leopards is because all of you are Lincoln Snow Leopards. You, our student-athletes, are wonderful ambassadors for our school and make us proud because of your desire to learn and improve as athletes and as people. You feel a sense of ownership of the program; a commitment to not only carry on our tradition and model our values, but also to build on, innovate and develop what has come before. You recognize that each individual has values and positive contributions to make and you work to help everyone feel respected and cared for. Everyone can try out for a team, everyone can work to become a Lincoln School Snow Leopard at this school. 

Student-athletes, it is you that we honor tonight. Your efforts, your skills, your growth, and your leadership deserve to be recognized. However, not all of you will walk away with a physical award tonight. What I want to tell you athletes is that it is not a failure to miss out on an individual award. Everyone here is part of a team and all of you have had a vital role to play in forming that team. So be proud of yourselves and the efforts you’ve made, and be proud of your teammates and the special qualities they brought to your team. We might not have the pool of students that the other big SAISA schools have, or even the locals in Kathmandu, but we succeed because we are one, we are one big TEAM and as the acronym on our gym wall reads, together everyone really does achieve more. Thank you.

Luke Davis

SAISA Tennis 2016

This year's SAISA tennis at Chennai was an amazing experience. Competition was tough and the weather even tougher. The first match was the most difficult due to the fact we were adjusting to the temperature.  All of the players - Anthony, Braden, Divash and Rishi - had good results on the first day. On the second day we finished the grueling singles matches and moved on to doubles. In the doubles matches, I felt all the players were more comfortable on the courts and played excellent tennis. Rishi won the silver for his 4th seed boys singles tournament and I (Anthony) came home with the gold for the 1st seed boys singles tournament!

Tennis Captain, Anthony Colavito