Por Elizabeth Gillingham

Spring sports finish strong

Donald Kay, Patrick Henry’s extraordinary golfer, shot a 68 at Poppy Hills in Monterey to finish tied for second in the CIF State golfing championship. The round was virtually flawless and included six birdies.

Congratulations also go to the track team, who participated in the city league conference finals. The team was well represented at the CIF prelims at Mt. Carmel High School. The team was led by individual league champs: Clara Lane (pole vault); Madison Simmons (shot put and discus); Roxanne Foltz (long jump); and Troy Cristobal (long jump, triple jump, and high jump).

The PHHS Swim CIF finals ended with the following results:

• Jack Macceca, our diver, got second place out of 27 divers and competed at the state finals in Clovis, California.
• Carlson Temple got first in both the 200 individual medley and the breast stroke, and also competed at the state finals in Clovis.
• 200 medley relay — girls: Naomi Blik, Ashley Wenzel, Sarah Harry and Sydney Fortune — fourth.
• 200 individual medley: Carlson Temple — first
• 100 fly: Ashley Wenzel — 15th
• 100 freestyle: Sarah Harry — 12th
• 100 breast stroke: Sydney Fortune — fourth
• 100 breast stroke: Sarah Harry — 12th
• 100 breast stroke: Carlson Temple — first
• 4×100 relay — girls: Naomi Blik, Ashley Wenzel, Sarah Harry and Sydney Fortune — 11th
• diving: Jack Macecca — first

In badminton, Brian Tran, a junior, won the boys’ singles crown for his second title of the day. He also teamed with Mikayla Aguilar to win the mixed doubles championship.

In softball, the Lady Patriots played in the CIF Championship Division 1 as the No. 1 seed and ended up as the runner-up team in the final round played at UC San Diego.

Our boys’ Lacrosse team came out on top 9-7 against El Camino High School in the quarterfinals of CIF. It was a very entertaining and physical match against two competitive programs. PHHS held on to their advantage in the final quarter with very intelligent and unselfish play from the boys. Unfortunately, they lost to the No. 1 seed, Del Norte, during the semifinal match last month.

Our baseball team earned the No. 11 seed in the CIF Division II playoffs.

In boys’ tennis, Joel Foster and Teiva Berger each qualified for the individual CIF tennis tournament. Joel posted a record of 38 wins and 18 losses and Teiva had a record of 38 wins and 20 losses.

Students visit City College

PHHS students from Mr. Karl Bolton’s graphic design class participated in a portfolio review process at City College.

The students had a great time as they sat down individually with different design professors from around San Diego and discussed their portfolios, which were created throughout the school year.

The response was positive from both sides of the table.

After the presentations, a professor pulled Mr. Bolton aside and stated, “Your kids were so articulate, well behaved, and courteous; every single one provided a hand shake and mentioned how appreciative they were of our time … they acted completely contrary to what I hear about high school kids these days.”

Estudiante del mes

Tyra Roberts was selected for PHHS Student of Month.

One teacher stated in her recommendation: “She has an astonishingly strong and sincere desire to build community — whether it’s school, sports or home. She supports all the groups and organizations above passionately through cheer, link crew, peer mediation, volunteering for our Special Olympics activities, attending games and events both at Henry and SDSU. Tyra really values finding ways to connect with people, both like-minded and different from her, and has an as much of an open-minded as they come. She believes in the value of working to make these connections. I am continually impressed with her appreciative and optimistic outlook on life, death, education, commitment … the list goes on. She sees it all as opportunity. And she greets it all with a smile and a ton of humility. I’d like to clone her.”

Another teacher stated: “I’d like to recommend Tyra Roberts. She is a strong leader in link crew and on campus. She volunteers to tutor other students in the library almost every day, when her requirement is only three hours per semester. She is kind and welcoming to all students, and consistently has a smile on her face. I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more!”

Conservation poster contest

The Kiwanis Club presented certificates from Councilmember Scott Sherman’s office to over 40 students involved in their conservation poster contest.

All students also received a goodie bag from the city of San Diego Water Department with pencils, cups, a stress ball and more. SDG&E donated ear buds for everyone, as well. The winners got cash prizes to recognize their special entries, ranging from $20 for honorable mention to an $80 award for first place winner senior Sophia Luna.

Student wins second place on civics essay contest

Jordan Furtak placed second writing about Japanese internment in the Southern District of California’s 2017 Civics Essay Contest.

Her essay represented the Southern District of California at the Ninth Circuit Court Civics Contest, where winners will be announced in June for the next level of the competition.

John and Susan Furtak accompanied Jordan, with PHHS teacher, Mrs. Taunya Robinson, joining federal judges and the contest judging committee and staff for a celebratory award luncheon held in Jordan’s honor at the James M. Carter and Judith N. Keep United States Courthouse on May 31.

Jordan was honored with a certificate and was asked to read her essay to the audience in attendance.

The court created an exhibit of the winning essays and videos inside the courthouse to showcase all the student’s hard work and effort, and to inspire other students as they visited the courthouse.

Summer trip to Japan

Five PHHS students were chosen to participate in the Tomodachi-MUFG International Exchange Program this summer.

They’ll be learning about the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami of 2011, living with a Japanese host family, and visiting Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima, to strengthen ties between students in Southern California and Japan.

Their trip is fully funded by the Japanese government through a special partnership with the Tomodachi-MUFG international exchange program and this is the third trip PHHS students have been included in. They leave June 24 for two weeks and we are very excited to hear about this amazing opportunity!

—Elizabeth Gillingham es directora de la escuela secundaria Patrick Henry.