Middle School Moments - Chag Kasher V'Sameach

TORAH BOWL PLAYOFFS

The HANC Middle School Boys' Torah Bowl team was crowned the Long Island Champions of Torah Bowl on Tuesday, March 20th at Haftr. The boys performed incredibly at this set of matches in order to bring home the crown as champions. In the Semi-finals, HANC played North Shore in a wonderful match, but HANC pulled away late to seal the victory. In the best out of 3 finals vs. Silverstein Academy of Great Neck, game 1 was a back and forth battle, and after regulation the score was a tie, however, in overtime HANC won by 1 point. In the second game, HANC lost a close match to Silverstein to set up an amazing winner take all finale. The third game was very close until the second half when HANC started to pull away to seal their championship victory. The stars of the day were the 8th graders who lead HANC's team; Mor Sharoni, and Avi Brandler. Isaac Goldschmiedt, Jeremy Koppel, Dovid Engelsohn, Yishai Kaufman, and Noam Klein also did a wonderful job. HANC will now wait to see who will face them in the tri-state Torah Bowl Championships, as they will play the winners from the other three divisions.

The girls had an amazing season and maintained their first place status throughout, leading us into automatically being in the playoffs last week at HAFTR. The other 5 schools competed against each other, Shulamith won, which meant they would play against the HANC girls-best out of 3. We were honored to be guaranteed a seat in the playoffs and since we had time before our match we had a great time celebrating the "sweetness of Torah learning" at Dunkin' Donuts. We then headed to HAFTR and played Shulamith. The competition was intense but we came out on top after the first game. Then came the second and we lost. The third game was the tie breaker and while we knew parshiot Miketz, Vayigash and Vayichi with RASHI super well, we did not win the game. We are very proud of the girls for all their efforts and look forward to making it to the championships next year.

BOYS' ALL-STAR BASKETBALL GAME

One of the greatest experiences as a coach is seeing your players succeed on another level. This past Sunday I had the opportunity to coach the New York eighth graders at the MVP Yeshiva league All Star game. Prior to my game I got to watch two of HANC's future stars Matthew Hoch and Ben Mottahedeh play in the MVP seventh grade All Star game. Matthew played solid defense while being matched up against a true seventh grade giant, and added a block to his credit. Ben made it to the three point shooting finale and lost by a heartbreaking last second shot by his opponent. He followed up that performance with a solid 10 point showing in the game and was honored as the game's MVP. Ori Baer represented HANC in the eighth grade game, and brought his hard-nosed defense to a new level. Ori fought hard on defense and even got "dirty" grabbing a loose ball. Ori showed real grit and heart in the game. The HANC All Stars really represented the school with pride and joy. It was a great experience for all and really put HANC on the map for next year.

Coach Tanenbaum

DEBATE

On Monday, March 26th, HANC attended its third debate of the season at Yavneh Academy. The resolution was "The United States should be allowed to limit a person's right to privacy and freedom in the name of national security." Participating schools included Flatbush, Kushner, Yavneh, and HANC. We are excited and proud that HANC won first place school again! Additionally, Ori Baer came in first place speaker and Yonatan Levy was the second place speaker. Ori and Yonatan also came in first place team. We look forward to our last debate in May which HANC will host.

UPCOMING EVENTS

April

9 - School resumes

11 - Gurwin - selected students

12 - Yom Hashoah

18 - Yom Hazikaron

19 - Yom Haatzmaut

24 - Amish trip - 7^th grade

May

3 - Lag B'Omer

9-10 Washington trip - 8^th grade

11 - trip recovery day

14 - Scrabble Tournament

14 - Yom Yerushalayim

15 - Gurwin trip

23 - Seventh grade mother-daughter booktalk - at night

24 - Debate

29-June 1 - Final STAR 360 testing

31 - Names, Not Numbers© program - at night

June

3 - Celebrate Israel Parade

6 - 8^th grade dinner for students

20 - 8^th grade graduation