By Elizabeth Gillingham 

Choir rocks the house to gold

Meet our Fabulous Bel Canto Ensemble of Patrick Henry High School! On April 30, these amazing singers competed in a choral festival and won for the second year in a row. They received a superior rating, first place, and best overall choir against very tough competition. We are so proud of these talented students for bringing home the gold and wanted to share our joy with all of our Henry family and community-at-large.

Donations contribute to building our choral program and helping us continue with our success. We welcome donations all year long made payable to PHHS Foundation/Choir. We are also looking for companies who would be interested in sponsoring our choir program. Please email Karley Chubb at [email protected] for more information regarding sponsorship. We appreciate your support.

Student of the month

Karina Cardenas was recognized as PHHS’s May Student of the Month. She was noted for her positive participation in class and her contributions as being constructive in nature.

Teachers described her as kind to her classmates; friendly and helpful to everyone; and noted that her writing skills have improved dramatically. Cardenas is also an exceptional student who displays a high level of integrity and fabulous work ethic, is well-spoken and can articulate her thoughts and answers very well.

Cardenas is our Mecha Club President, participates in Reality Changers, and is a high academic achiever. We are very proud to name her as PHHS Student of the Month for May!

Swim team takes on state competition

The City Conference was exciting and the PHHS swimmers swam fast!

“I was especially enthused by their commitment to the team, their discipline in techniques and strategies learnt whilst trying to achieve CIF Qualifying Times — and achieving CIF Qualifying Times they did,” Coach Gil Levy said. “They were extraordinary. And where my initial estimate was 12 qualifiers for the CIFs, Patrick Henry High School Swimmers more than doubled that with 30 swimmers qualifying.”

Special thanks to the team managers: Morgan Atchison and Miki Clippinger and parents Sam Robe, Megan Beltz and Madi Taylor for helping with the team organization.

From the preliminaries, 17 swimmers progressed to the Division 1 – CIF Finals.

• Carlson Temple – took Silver in the 200 medley where he dropped an incredible two seconds from his best time and took bronze in the 100 breaststroke shortly after that, which saw him qualify for the High School State Championships in Clovis/Fresno on both those events. The fastest 40 swimmers from the entire state of California qualify to compete at “The State Champs” and this young sophomore was amongst them and ranked in the top 30 going into the meet.
• Sydney Fortune – was immense and placed seventh in the breaststroke – as a freshman in her first CIF competition, with a challenging season behind her.
• Naomi Blik, the most experienced and captain of the team, swam well right on her best times in two events.
• Ashley Wenzel swam well in finals and improved on her best time having had a most successful season having dropped almost four seconds in total on her best event.
• Sarah Harry – skipped her Church Confirmation rehearsal in order to compete at CIFs, swam well and dropped to a new best time.
• Laura Pelaez swam brilliantly as a swimmer who doesn’t have the club background of the others mentioned above.
• The girls relay team, ranked sixth, finished an incredible fourth place.

Carlson Temple travelled to the State Championships in Clovis, California. He was the first male, and first sophomore, swimmer to represent PHHS at the State Championships. (Last year, senior Amanda Sumrow was the sole qualifier.)

Temple was sensational in swimming the 200 medley, swimming right on his best time and similarly on the 100 breaststroke. He moved from 26th to 21st position in the 200 medley and in a time that would see him finish 17th at the completion of the top 16 finalists. On the breaststroke, he was ranked 25th going in and finished 25th. On his best time, he would have finished 14th had he managed to achieve that. Coach Gil stated,

“This future star is well set to break into the finals next season and perhaps snatch a podium position, too,” Levy said. “I am very confident of that. His humble, disciplined and fiercely focused approach to his sport and his ambassadorial qualities in representing his school bode very well for a wonderful career in this sport.”

Badminton champs

Congratulations to PHHS Badminton team that won the SD Section Championship last month. Teams are broken up into three different leagues in the city based on location of school. Patrick Henry is in the Central League along with Kearny, Crawford, Hoover, Morse, and Serra. Each school is required to play every school in its own league twice, with an away game and a home game. Patrick Henry’s League record this season was perfect (10 wins and no losses), which placed us as CIF League Champions eligible to enter the Team CIF Contest, referred to as the CIF Section Championships. Eight schools are chosen based on their rankings in their respective leagues and play against each other in three rounds. Patrick Henry was ranked second under University City who was also undefeated in their league. This year, Patrick Henry played against Mira Mesa in the first round, Madison in the second round, and University City in the final match. The final score against University City was 10-7 making us the Section Champions for the city!

“It is a great accomplishment for the team to take home the CIF Championship trophy,” said Cathy Wong, sophomore and first-year team member.

“Without the help of everyone’s support, we wouldn’t have made it this far. Who’s got your back? Who’s got your back?” said Lanae Nguyen, sophomore and second-year team member.

“It has been a dream for the Patrick Henry Badminton team to win a CIF Section Championship title for as long as I can remember back when I was a rookie in 2006,” said Coach Gary Tran. “To have made that dream a reality now is incredibly surreal, but this team and its alumni deserve all the glory. It has been 28 years since Patrick Henry has won this title and the team feels that their continuous training, dedication, and passion created this historic moment. All the coaches are so proud to have contributed and supported these students from the very beginning and to see the immense growth at the very end. For the first time since 1988, Patrick Henry Badminton team has the pleasure of being the best badminton team out of the San Diego United School District with an undefeated record.”

Alumni golf tournament

Thank you to all our great sponsors, donors, volunteers and attendees for making Friday, May 13, 2016 a special Patriot Day! Through their support we’re pleased to announce that our event netted just over $45,000 for special capital projects and other items unfunded by the school district.

To date, through the support of our fine sponsors and participants, we have provided $135,000 in funding for 18 senior scholarships; band instruments; risers for choir practice; much-needed equipment and uniforms for numerous sports teams; Engineering Academies robot kits; laptops for computer sciences classes; along with $36,600 towards the new on-campus PHAME building fund.

The 6th Annual PHHS Alumni Golf Tournament & Reunion BBQ is tentatively set for Monday, October 16, 2017 at Admiral Baker Golf Course. Shotgun start at 12:30 and 5:30 p.m. for the BBQ. See you there!

—Elizabeth Gillingham is principal of Patrick Henry High School.