Sports

LINCOLN BADMINTON TEAM IS READY FOR NEW SEASON

By: Huanbin Chen

Lincoln badminton versus Academy badmintonPhoto By: Huanbin Chen

 

 

  2019 badminton season started two weeks ago, and the greatest and most enthusiastic players from Lincoln have gathered and are ready to fight for the championship.

  The Lincoln badminton team has been sitting in the top three for a sustained period since we have such valuable and engaged players, also we have played against many fierce teams such as Lowell, Washington, and Mission in every season.

  Veteran Franky Yang explains that the team have expectations for newcomers on the team and express his thoughts on this year, “I feel like we are going to do well in this season, and I hope the newcomers will be engaged during practice and take it seriously. Also sport is a way of communicating with others, so teamwork is important, and It’s an honorable thing to be on the team and compete with other schools.”

       “Badminton is very about putting time and effort during practice;  you will need to learn from your opponents and your skills grow as you play more. When it comes to doubles game it bears the test of teamwork,” said Michael Zhou, a sophomore veteran on the team.

         “The outcome of the match is not meant to tell how good you are but how hard you’ve tried and how much love you have for badminton. In my opinion every player is venerable and excellent since they all pushed their limits,” said Antony Chu, the coach of Lincoln badminton team.

  As we wish Lincoln badminton the best of luck, this is the time to pay off all the effort and hard trainings, and we are looking forward to their best performances in every splendid game.  GO MUSTANG! ! !

SKYLINE INVITATIONAL MEET KICKS OFF A GOOD START FOR LINCOLN’S TRACK AND FIELD TEAM

By: Congnan Lu

The girls 100m runners are ready to run as the referee shouted “set”. Photo By: Congnan Lu

 

 

  On Saturday, February 23, 2019, a group of 55 Lincoln athletes gathered on the track of Skyline High School. Athletes like Leo Gallegos, Eugene Larios-Felton, Nathan Zhou, Joshua Lee, Sam Piechota, Nathan Zhou, Mustapha Bhonopha, Kyra Powell, Maxine Boyd, Elen Zhu, and others all participated. The annual Skyline Invitational Varsity Meet started with the field events at 8:00am and track events at 9:00 a.m and lasted for eight hours. Lowell and Mission High School also brought their teams over to the meet.

  The Skyline Invitational meet presents a great start for Lincoln’s track and field team for several reasons explained Craig Cox, one of the coaches that participated.

  “The Skyline Invitational includes a broad range of athletes, so Lincoln’s athletes can also get contested during the races.” As a result, the outcomes pay off all the efforts that Mustang athletes put in the past five months.

  “We have 19 PBs (Personal bests) out of 42 performances.” said Cox.

  Many Mustang athletes achieved excellent results as they competed in different events. For example, Gallegos placed first in the shot put. Larios-Felton got the champion in discus. Zhou won a silver medal in long jump. The 4x100m boys relay team made up of Lee, Piechota, Zhou, and Bhonopha, who won a bronze medal. Bhonopha placed the fourth in boys 400m. Lee placed the fourth in boys 110m hurdles. Powell got eleventh in girls 100m hurdles. Boyd won the third in girls high jump, and Zhu got the eighth in girls pole vault.

  Bhonopha, one of the best-performing athletes, explained his motivation of being the top track athlete.

  “I put all of my effort into being the best student-athlete I can be. Sometimes it is really difficult, but I just try to keep my eyes on the prize and try to help Lincoln win another track championship.” Bhonopha continues, “My goal for the rest of the season is to go out and always run my best despite whatever conditions I am put in. I know that as long as I put in 110% effort, I know that my goal is reachable.”

  Audrey Lin, one of the outstanding freshmen athletes who ran the 300m hurdles and 100m hurdles, also expressed her goal for the rest of this year, which is to improve her times every meet.                   Lowell High School has always been a strong rival of Lincoln in track and field events, according to Kevin Doherty, the coach of Lincoln’s track and field team.

  “Lowell and Lincoln are the only two schools who have won a championship in the last 25 years!” stated Doherty. This year, Cox showed strong confidence in the team in competing the upcoming meets of this season.

  “I’m very confident with the team this year. We had a good team last year, and 95% of the team is still here. Most of our team is made up of sophomore and juniors, so we have the same people this year, which is really good because we nearly beat Lowell last year, and this year with the same team, but improved them all”, Cox says.

ALHS JV BASKETBALL BOYS TEAM WON FIRST PLACE WITH THEIR HARD WORK

By: David Huang

 

 

  This year, the ALHS JV basketball boys team went undefeated and won the championship. The final game was at Kezar on February 15th. In the first game, the Lincoln team was losing to Mission, but they pushed the limits so that they could win.

  “It was hard in the beginning of the game, but then in the second half, we went all out to win the game so we could prove that another team could beat Mission.” says Tahj Farley.

  The Lincoln team won against Mission High School, the score coming out to 77-34.

  “We used team work in the game to fight for everything like we had to win it,” says Tahj Farley.

  “We had a good practice the day before the game. It was not work, and I was really excited about the game. Everyone was ready to win and have a good moment, ” says Kevin.

  The team also zeroed in on some things they could have improved on, which included working as a team, always communicating during the game, and always remembering to have fun. Even though the coach gets mad, at times, when his team is practicing, the coach of the team was doing his best to push the Lincoln team to do better.

  “It felt good after the game because we worked so hard to get to that championship, and we practiced a lot to fix the mistakes that we make. We were very happy that we could bring back the championship to Lincoln,” says sophmore Ryan Fung.

  The team is going to have a of competition for the next year, because they are the champs this year. But they are prepared for whatever comes their way and are very excited for the next season to start.

LINCOLN’S GIRLS JV BASKETBALL TEAM TAKE HOME SECOND PLACE

By: Leo Lin

Team photo of Abraham Lincoln High School JV Girls basket-ball team.Photo Courtesy of: ALHS Yearbook

 

 

  As the girls JV basketball teams all city final game on February 15th came to an end,  Lincoln team lost to Lowell with a score of 45-35 and finished the season taking second place. The JV girls basketball season officially began on October 9, 2018, and had their tryouts during October.  The team had a roster of a total of 14 players and practiced daily at school's gym.

        The team had made some significant changes this year. They had a lot of new players and had a new coach, Lincoln’s math teacher Alex Wong.

   “ He’s great. He really cares about the team and treats us like family. We can really treat him like a family member from all the things he does for us such as giving us rides home to take us out to dinner sometimes. His coaching style is definitely different from the rest of the coaches, but I think it’s good to experience that because we can look at different aspects and learn concepts of basketball,” Said team player Phoebe Fung.  

  “ It was easy to coach when you have a great group of players,” Said team coach Alex Wong.

           Since there were new players and new coaches, the team had hard times adjusting to the new environment and the new play style at the beginning of the season. But they were able to overcome that challenge.

   “ We slowly worked with each other as a team to make each other better by figuring out our weakness and strengths and what we could do together on the court. Every practice we just added on to what we originally were targeting at the previous game to make it better. By the end of the season, we were able to piece all the details together, and we work well to make it to championships,” said Fung.

     Unfortunately, they lost to Lowell in the championship, but they treated it as an opportunity to learn and grow stronger.

         “We felt a bit upset because we could’ve won that game, but we learned that together we can accomplish any challenge that we face. Even if we didn’t win, we still were able to make it to the top 2 and from the beginning of the season to the end, we gained a lot more confidence and skill as a team,” said Fung.

   Even though they did great this season, they found something that can be improved on.

  “I think you can always improve, and I think that’s what special about this group because they always want to improve on something. So I look forward to next year when we are improved,” Said Wong.

    “ Communication and equal playing time,” Said player Mariel Cawthon.

         The girl's basketball team had a  great season as they finished with a 15-9 overall record and 6-1 in the league. The team is excited about next season and has confidence that they are going to do well.

LINCOLN MATH TEACHER PREPARES FOR MUAY THAI FIGHT

By: Nikko Dul

Delapena sweeps his opponentPhoto Courtesy: Brian Delapena

  Lincoln’s math teacher Brian Delapena is a Muay Thai coach and fighter. For anyone who has never heard of this martial art style, Muay Thai is known as the “art of eight limbs”. As a Nak
  Muay boxer, Mr. Brian has signed up for a fight on March 23. The fight will be held in Sacramento at the Asian sport center on Elk Grove. If he wins his fight, he will move on to fight in the Muay Thai Global 14 (MTG 14). Although this fight is not scheduled as a championship fight, the winner of this fight will get a shot at the title. Mr. Delapena lost his last fight located in Los Angeles, California. It was a light welterweight 4-man tournament in which the winner would gain the title as the number 1 fighter in California.

     How Delapena has been training based on his last fight is by taking his time to relax during the fight and working more on the technical side to keep more energy, so coming into this fight he’s been working on his technique and keeping a clear relaxed mind. For weigh ins, he’s sticking to his weight class because he doesn’t want to cut weight, reason being “if i have to cut weight to perform better then I’m really not utilizing proper Technique”.

     Delapena trains at the gym World Team USA, and has found a community of friendly people there. The gym is his therapy. The loss of his last fight was a great learning experience for him because he realized that “it isn’t about winning or losing, but about the experience. When you see the people who came to support you whether you win or lose, you really win.”
  Saenchai is a well-known Thai fighter whose signature move is called the cartwheel kick. Delapena, on the other hand, doesn’t really have a signature move, but he does have a signature technique: never give up.