Harding Athletic Highlights - October 28, 2022

Jason Embry
Middle School Basketball Tryout Dates 
Friday, November 4 - Girls Tryouts 3:30pm-5:00pm
Friday, November 4 - Boys Tryouts 3:30pm-5:00pm
Saturday, November 5 - Boys Tryouts 9:30am-11:00am
Saturday, November 5 - Girls Tryouts 11:00am-12:30pm

Developmental Basketball
We wanted to be in touch with some important information about basketball season at Harding Academy. An adaptation we made to Covid two years ago was to create a developmental team on the boys side which proved to be a huge success for the growth of those less experienced players. We played a series of intrasquad "blue vs. white" games where officials were assigned and they played games against each other in our gym. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive so we have decided to keep that model moving forward. Last year, we duplicated that model for our girls. 
 
Our boys participation numbers are traditionally in the mid 40's and our girls in the mid 20's so we are looking at opening up girls basketball to 5th graders for our developmental team. The numbers may be such that we only have a varsity girls team and a developmental team. We feel a situation where our girls can learn and develop while playing against each other is much better than playing opponents who cut players and have JV teams that may be as talented as some varsity teams in our conference. 

Harding Wrestling Has Two Matches This Week
The Harding wrestling team picked up its activity this week with two home matches against the Nashville Catholic Club team and the Montgomery Bell Academy Big Red. Both matches saw the Hawks continue to make improvements in a season that is short but intense. 

On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Harding faced the Nashville Catholic Club team. Jackson Swygert '25 got the team off to a great start with a regular decision win over his opponent. Ripley Bickerstaff '25 continued the success with a win and Grant Song '23 followed that with another victory. Also victorious for the Hawks were Ben Lucas '25 and Isaac El Gammal (CPA), both winning by pin. 

On Thursday, Oct. 27, the MBA Big Red rolled into Roberts Gymnasium in a big HVAC matchup. The Harding Hawks got out to a 15-0 lead through the first 3 weights with victories from Ripley Bickerstaff '25, Ben Lucas '25 and Brody Maddox '25. MBA went on a big run to jump out to a 48-15 lead. Jackson Lucas '23 won his match followed by a forfeit victory for Christian Harris to set the final score at 48-28. The Hawks had several other wrestlers earn victories in exhibition matches. Jackson Swygert '25 and Luke Fields '23 both won for Harding. 

Varsity Girls Soccer Defeats Valor 2-1
Harding girls' soccer defeated Valor 2-1 in a Monday night match up. Louisa Smith scored first to take the lead. Valor scored with minutes left in the first half to tie it up. After back and forth action for 24 minutes in the second half, Hilary Fremont scored on a beautiful direct kick from 30 yards out to win the game for Harding. 

Varsity Boys Soccer Ties Pope Prep 1-1
Chase Embry, Daniel Maumus and Sebastian Muller did a great job fielding the ball in the middle, passing it up often to our forwards, Riley Bundren, Briggs Waddey, and Robert Topping.  The boys did a great job staying in triangle formation, passing the ball fast and often to get around defenders.  Eli Russ, Smith Morris, and other parts of the defense did a great job limiting Pope Prep to only one goal.  Sebastian Muller scored a PK to tie the game 1-1.

Varsity Boys Soccer Loses to Valor In Hard Fought Game 3-1
The boys came out swinging in the first 20 minutes of the game, keeping the ball on Valor's side for much of the time.  Beautiful crosses and passes by Carter Mohr, Briggs Waddey, Daniel Maumus, and others to the forwards led to some close goals.  Matthew Hillenmeyer did a great job crashing the goal on all of our crosses from the wings.   The boys lost a little bit of steam after Valor scored their second goal, but they continued to fight hard in the remaining minutes.  Holden Thomas and Elijah Westbrook were able to get some great passes to the front line, which gave Harding a few more chances.  George Boero was a true standout as goalie, playing aggressively and rushing out from the goal; this frustrated the Valor offense for a good part of the game.

JV Boys Soccer vs. Pope Prep
Exciting game against Pope Prep. We gave up two goals in the first half and were a little fast and loose on our positioning. We were able to clean up our play in the second half and were able to score a goal and create several scoring chances. I think if we apply what learned and convert on our scoring opportunities going forward our season looks very promising. 

JV Boys Soccer Ties Valor 4-4
Incredibly exciting game that literally came down to the wire. We fell behind early giving up a couple goals but were able storm back in the second half converting a penalty kick, following up on a free kick ricocheting off the crossbar, then scoring the tying 4th goal with 2 seconds left on the clock. Overall, a well played game against a very good Valor team.

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