co-ed sailing
Sailing Team Hits SF Bay {by anjali shrestha convent-12 }
{ photo courtesy shhs yearbook }
the University of San Francisco men’s basketball team in the 1990s, and was with the squad when it advanced to the NCAA tournament in 1998. Prior to that, he played Division I basketball for Mount St. Mary’s University in Maryland. Galvin is also the director of the basketball programs at the Olympic Club. Assisting Galvin this season are John Perez, Jack Keane and Jen Hum-Taverso’06’02, who played on the Cubs’ state championship winning team in 2003 and then played for New York University. At press time, the Cubshad been doing very well in league play and alone at the top of the league standings; senior India Pearce earned recognition as San Fran Preps’ Player of the Week for January 24, following her dominating appearance (19 points, 10 rebounds) against University High School. Find up-to-date information on the basketball season at www.sacredsf.org/CHS. knights wrestling
Stuart Hall Pins the Competition
What started as a club activity at The Hall has turned into another gripping venture for the Knights’ Athletics Department. The wrestling team made its competitive debut this winter with a number of regular-season wins and a North Coast Section berth. The group participated in the San Francisco Section for league play, taking on wrestlers from such schools as Mission High School, Balboa High School and Lick Wilmerding High School. Coaches for the new team, who have all had experience in the sport, include Matthew Jones, and Todd Weidner, as well as Matthew Woodard, who told the round table (student newspaper), “I eat, live and breathe wrestling,” an enthusiasm that he has passed down to a number of wrestlers who found success this year.
On foggy afternoons when most students head to the comfort of their warm homes, Convent junior Meghan Helms heads to the Marina, leading the sailing team to the San Francisco Yacht Club where she slips off her signature boat shoes and launches her 420 into icy San Francisco Bay. “I’ve sailed intermittently for about five years, but it has always been something that I loved and wanted to do,” Helms said. “My dad and I also built a boat together, which really got me interested in sailing and, if anything, just taught me to love it.” Convent & Stuart Hall’s first sailing team works through the SFYC and is led by Helms and senior Stephen Quanci with support and funding of freshman parents. Freshman interest in sailing was the driving force to start the team. Prior to this year, Helms was the only Convent student interested and ready to commit. “I joined sailing because I love it and have been sailing for seven years,” freshman Grace Hull said. “The co-ed environment is nice, it has all different grades. Working with SFYC is a friendly environment.” Under Helm’s leadership and the SFYC partnership, the team has come together and has a couple of regattas under its belt. The nineperson co-ed team includes four boys from Stuart Hall High School. “I am excited that the girls who wanted to do it went forth to make it happen,” Convent athletics director Elena De Santis said. “Even though it is not on our campus and there is no team bus, they have stuck with it to keep the team moving.” The St. Francis Yacht Club charges the team $250 per person, and in return the club provides boats and instruction for the semester. The team that competes is solely with Convent & Stuart Hall students but practices with local independent schools—Waldorf, Bay School and Le Lycée Français. “We sail primarily FJs and 420s, which are two-people boats with a skipper and a crew. To compete we need four people or two boats,” Helms said. The team practices alongside the other teams at the yacht club, sharing SFYC boats and coaches. Although they practice together, at regatta teams separate and only work within their own teams. “As the leader of the team I just want to get people involved and set a good example,” Helms said. “In order to sail properly you need to follow careful rules and know what you’re doing. I just want to help people sail well and let everyone have fun.” Participants must adhere to right of way rules to sail safely. The laws of sailing help keep the boats moving smoothly and allow boaters to know who has the right of way. “Anything could happen out there and you need to be ready for it,” Helms said. “It’s mental and physical { photo courtesy jennifer hull } labor, plotting a course and then sailing it. It’s also just beautiful. I mean look out on the bay, you can’t really get any better than that.”
—Anjali Shrestha is the features editor for the broadview, the student paper at Convent High School. This article was originally published in the October 2010 issue and is reprinted here with permission.
C o nvent & S tuart H all
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