Until Next Year, Winter Sports!
The Senior Girls’ Basketball team pose together on their Seniors’ Night | Photo Credit: Cindy Si
After hard-fought games, plenty of team bonding, and dozens of wins and losses, Hamber athletics put on quite a show this winter season. Enthusiasm from fans and players alike drove athletes in basketball, girls ice hockey, table tennis, and wrestling to success. Hamber athletes placed in cities and zones for their respective sports and divisions, while the school hosted several exciting tournaments and games at home.
During this winter season, collaboration was key. The newly minted boys and girls table tennis teams came together with a new schedule and coaches, while Hamber’s wrestling team continued to combine practices and meets with Jules Verne. Several senior basketball players volunteered to coach bantam and juvenile teams. Meanwhile, senior students from P.E. Leadership 12 worked together to re-plan Midtown Showdown after unprecedented snow days.
With support from older athletes, alumni, coaches, and teacher sponsors, bantam athletes' first seasons at Hamber were certainly memorable. “I joined the basketball team at my old school, in grade 7, and I loved the teamwork involved with the sport,” said Nara Harvey (8). “Playing for my first year at Hamber was also a great experience! You’re put into a group with people who share a common passion for basketball, and it’s really fun celebrating your victories together.”
The Bantam Basketball team’s journey came to an end with a commendable sixth place finish at the city-wide tournament, and Harvey had a clear favourite moment from her first highschool season. “We played a game against Prince of Wales, where we only won by two points, and had to go into overtime. In the last thirty seconds, I scored a layup to tie the game, and then we went into OT and won!”
While some students’ journey with Hamber basketball began, others came to an end. After five years of playing on Hamber’s basketball teams, Serena Wang (12) finally got to enjoy Seniors’ Night and the other traditions that came along with her final year. “Seniors’ Night this year was a lot of fun, and very emotional. The game itself wasn’t perfect, but we definitely played better in the second half than we did in the first,” she said. “My final season at Hamber was great, especially getting the chance to play for the last time with Mackenzie Paemoller-Amisano (12), Christy Wu (12), Mary De Leon (12), and everyone else on the team. I’ll definitely miss it!”
When it came to advice for newer students who were hesitant on joining a school sport, Wang had a clear answer: “Go for it. Everyone is incredibly supportive,” she said.
Another team that went through memorable ups and downs was the wrestling team. Athletes from multiple grades, and two different schools, came together to compete against some of the best competitors in Vancouver.
Hamber fared well, and athletes from the school placed in the city’s zone tournament in early February. “At the start of the [wrestling] season, it was pretty divided between grade levels,” said Calvin Adams (11). “Eventually, we started to come together as a team, and things became a lot more cohesive.”
Adams also had a favourable view of the competitions he attended. “We kept to our own group mostly, but there was a lot of good sportsmanship, and it wasn’t really mean-spirited.”
“My first year on the wrestling team was pretty good, but the end of the season sucked, because I was one place away from qualifying for provincials,” said Deion Kahlon (11). Kahlon is one of the few athletes who participated in two sports during the winter season: wrestling and the Senior Boy’s Basketball team.
“A highlight of the season for me was bonding with the team, but I don’t think I’m going to do basketball next year, because I want to focus on wrestling,” Kahlon said. He reflected on the future of the basketball team for next year’s players. “There’s going to be a big gap on the team, because our seniors, Marcus Seid (12) and Alejandro Diaz-Henderson (12), were huge leaders. Someone’s really going to have to step up.”
The girls ice hockey team enjoyed a largely successful season, but they too lost a critical final match. “The team was better overall this year with skill and dynamic, and we had some new people who joined,” said Kristienne Soo (10). “We won more games this year than last season, which was fun, but we lost a game that would have taken us to cities.”
The team’s biggest challenge was its small number of players, because an absence meant more work for others. “Some games had a very little number of players, which meant longer shifts for everyone else,” Soo explained.