As students are settling in for the school year, fall sports teams have been training and setting goals for the upcoming season. Hungry for championship titles, the teams are ready to take on the new year with high expectations in terms of team and individual player performance.

Boys Fencing

Boys fencing, led by senior captains David Zarowin and Jonathan Lee, will seek a deeper playoff run after both foil and epee teams were eliminated in the second round of the PSAL playoffs last year.

David, who competed in the Maccabi Games in Berlin over the summer, has high ambitions for himself.  “Individually, I would like to perform well in the various PSAL tournaments and earn a top spot for the school.”

David also aspires for an improved team finish within the borough. “I want the Boys Team to win Queens Champs this year, and bring the title back to THHS,” he said.

Senior Geoffrey Lin commented on his expectations. He said, “I want to push myself as far as I can this year because I won’t get another chance [to fence in high school]”.

With Coach Katherine Yan on maternity leave for the entirety of the season, the team will rely on the three seniors for leadership and support.

Girls Soccer

After a promising season ended in heartbreak last year due to a loss in the last game that called off a chance for playoffs, the girls soccer team looks to progress further this year. A strong senior class with captains Dina Goodger, Kristine Guillaume, and Ivanka Juran seek to propel the team to postseason play.

Dina remarks, “Just looking at our preseason and incoming players, I can tell that we’re going to have a really strong team.” Her main focus, however, is to “dominate, so people can really see what we’re made of and that we can compete with upper tier teams.”

Ivanka added on saying, “if we keep putting in the hard work at practice, we’ll be able to post a serious threat to our rivals in Division A.”

With seniors Branco Gamarra and Tiarnan Mathers at the helm as captains, the boys soccer team is looking to turn things around after finishing the last season with a losing record and without a playoff berth.

First year captain Tiarnan praised his team, saying, “We may not be one of the most talented teams but we will be one of the fittest.” He continued, saying one of his goals is “to help my fellow captain push the team to their limits while pushing ourselves at the same time.”

Branco, a second year captain, is striving to be a better leader and teammate. “I want to show more support and enthusiasm to encourage my team to want to win and play,” adding that “[Although] I can be rude sometimes, it is only because I want to win with the team.”

Girls Varsity Cross Country

After losing seven seniors, the girls varsity cross country team has a big hole to fill up in their roster. Nevertheless, senior captain Yasmeen Ally was optimistic, stating, “Every year it is a loss to lose such experienced athletes, but it gives the underclassmen the opportunity to work as hard as they possibly can to earn their spot on the Varsity Team.”

Yasmeen further attributed her confidence to her teammates’ dedication. “I believe all of the girls have been dedicating themselves to the sport more so than they have in years because we’re losing such a talented bunch.”

Boys Cross Country

The boys cross country team expects to win the Queens Borough Championship after ending the 2014 season ranking second in Queens. Senior captain Matthew Sullivan stated that the team’s ultimate goal is to win Queens Champs, a feat the boys cross country team has never accomplished.

He continued saying, “I’m feeling pretty confident in the team this year, especially since we didn’t lose too many runners last year. We lost some important people, but we have people who can and will step up to make up for those losses.”

As captain, Matthew strives to be a good leader. “I want to do my best to set a good example for my teammates,” he closed.

Girls Bowling

Junior Mya Allen from the girls bowling team hopes that the team will be able to make it to quarterfinals of the playoffs. Due to the loss of core seniors and the inexperience of the underclassmen who make up most of the team, Mya feels that the team will struggle, but claims that this will make them work harder to improve from last year.

Senior Jessica Lung, another member of the girls bowling team hopes to compete with herself by improving her individual score in efforts to raise her team’s chance of winning. “I hope to keep up to my standards and improve skills that I haven’t been mastering throughout my first year of bowling,” she concluded.

Senior Aqib Sadique of the boys badminton team states that the team’s goal is to improve from its previous season, as it is every year. Apart from this, Aqib also wants to start practicing and recruiting new players earlier in order to increase the team’s size before games start.

Sophomore, Shariar Tamjid kept his goal short and sweet saying that he wants to “play harder, practice harder and have more fun in general.”

Overall, the Harris Hawks ready to take on this new season head on. Despite many challenges, the Harris teams are ready to begin their long and hard road to a fall season championship.

Boys Varsity Bowling

The boys varsity bowling team is looking forward to a fresh start. Although the team has lost five senior bowlers who have scored the majority of its points, it hopes to improve this year with the help of the new coach, Jonathan Cubillos.

According to sophomore Fardhen Hossain, the team will practice rigorously to achieve its goal of winning a championship. “Our team wishes to increase our average score, making sure to knock down every single pin every time” he said.

Fardhen went on to explain his personal goal of being a versatile bowler. “This year I’m planning on learning how to throw curveballs and increase my score by doing so.”

Junior Kennis Kong emphasized sportsmanship as a crucial aspect of the game as the team’s first priority is for “everybody to have fun no matter how well [they play].”  Recalling games where the team’s scores reflected his teammates poor attitudes, Kennis feels that the team performs better when they are enthusiastic.