Sports

By Staff Writer Dinah Soloway

As of the 2021-2022 school year, SLA and Ben Franklin are sponsoring a badminton team. Currently, the Badminton team has nine girls plus a handy helper for games and equipment. Most of the players are new to the sport. Many have only previously experienced playing badminton in a PE (physical education) class.

As both schools returned to in-person learning this past fall, many of the sports have resumed their regular scheduled practices and games. This includes Badminton, which for SLA is an entirely new sport. 

The team has been competing since March, and the matches usually consist of 3 independent games which are played to 21 points. Games are always held indoors. The SLA and Ben Franklin badminton team travel on a bus to the opponents school.

These matches can be played as a single-player match or a double with a partner.  A single match consists of 2 opposing players on each team, but when a doubles match occurs there are 4 players on the court for each team. Ending the game, after a team reaches 20 points they now have to achieve a 2-point lead to finish the game.

The team is led by Coach Canada, who is also the principal of Ben Franklin High School. She decided to coach the sport because no one else would. Earlier in her own school career, coach Canada had played badminton with her school team. 

For readers who have never witnessed the sport before, The rules of badminton are very easy to understand. The game setup is almost a cross between tennis and volleyball, only it uses a small racket to hit a birdie back and forth over a high net. It is an interesting sport that challenges players to look all around and aim at the birdie (the ball in this case).  There are two main points that any player needs to know really well. That is how to serve the birdie properly over the net so as not to get fouled. Two hitting the ball to other teammates or over the net. 

“In badminton, serving is one of the most difficult skills to learn,” said Lara Rosenbach a 10th grader at SLA. Serving the birdie over the net needs to be under the player’s waist. One way to serve the birdie is to place the birdie above your racket with one hand straight out below your waist before swinging with your rack, quickly drop the birdie and then follow through and up towards the sky. 

 Coach Canada Said that “There is so much team spirit on the court!”  

The badminton season is over for this year, but if you are interested in doing a sport then stop by the gym next season and give it a shot! 

Valeria Escobar

Staff Writer

The Swimming team is back for its second year at SLA, but with continued COVID-19 precautions and other challenges. 

Even though COVID affects the swim team and their practices, there’s around 20 students who still participate and choose to be a part of the team. Sophomore student athlete Toby Hilton, who has been part of the team since his Freshman year, said that swimming is complicated and he likes doing activities that require hard work. It gives him motivation to become a better swimmer and to work harder in and outside the pool. Sophomore student athlete Eric Perez joined the swim team this year and even though this year’s swim season may be difficult, Perez enjoys being part of the team and he wants to participate in future swim seasons as well. 

SLA Special Education Teacher and Swim Coach Elizabeth Menasion explained that there’s a lack of practice space which can complicate practices. “The thing that does impact how the athletes perform is access to practice space,” she said. SLA as well as various other teams hold practices at the YMCA pool on Broad Street. 

The pools previously used by schools that have swim teams have not been maintained partially due to Covid, which requires teams to share resources. Sometimes that means practices are crowded. 

In addition to the crunch for space, other COVID safety precautions present disadvantages to the team, although most of them don’t impact the way the swimmers perform in the water.

Toby Hilton brought up how masks play a big role at practices. “Before covid happened, people would usually walk around the pools without masks before they got in but now you usually have to wear a mask before you get in.”. Unlike what Hilton said, Perez thinks differently about the role masks play at practices. “Nobody really uses their masks on deck, (COVID precautions) should be more strict.” Perez said. 

Ms. Menasion echoed Hilton’s point, adding that it’s really hard for athletes, coaches, and staff to wear masks on deck since the rooms are climate controlled, which means they’re really hot. “For me as the coach, it’s extra difficult to make sure everyone hears me in the pool when they need to and I’m wearing a mask and talking a lot louder and it’s very hot,” she said.

The season recently started, and on their first meet against Central High School, the boys team won with 86 points. The Girls’ team scored 68 points, which was not enough to win but had some first, second, and third place wins. The team also has district qualifiers already. This was the first meet for the majority of the team. Even though other meets have been cancelled because of COVID cases, I’m excited to see how the team performs in future meets. 

As the Swim team continues to become accommodated with the COVID precautions, Ms. Menasion, as well as everyone else in the team, don’t know if the precautions are gonna become more strict if cases rise. However, as of January, the swim team is still going strong. 

Adrie Young

Staff Writer

You may have read notes in the advisory memo or heard announcements over the loudspeaker about it, because a brand new sport has come to SLA: bowling.

“Bowling is a School District of Philadelphia sport, and it was always a Ben Franklin sport, but since we started combining athletics with them a couple of years ago we also had the option to have our students be a part of the bowling team,” said athletics director Zoe Siswick. 

The team began practicing in late November.

“If you like casual competition, it’s the kind of thing where anybody can play. You don’t have to be good to enjoy it,” said History Teacher and Bowling Coach Daniel Symonds.

Before the season started, the team met at V&S Elmwood Lanes in Southwest Philly. “It was a very long commute. We took three forms of public transportation to get there…but once we were actually there, I had a good time,” sophomore Jed Cohen said about the team’s first practice.

“It’s very enjoyable, even if you’re not as experienced as the rest of the players,” stated sophomore Max Riviere.

There was about a week or so for practices before the season began. Currently, there are matches every Thursday at V&S Lanes, through mid-February. 

While this sport is new to SLA, it is established in the district. Many schools have bowling teams that compete against each other, and many bowling alleys have relationships with the School District. But there are a limited number of lanes available to the school. Because of that, the bowling team can only have 16 players total, from both SLA and Ben Franklin. 

Many are excited about the opportunity for a new sport like bowling at SLA. 

“I got involved ‘cause it just sounds so ridiculous and fun and surprisingly quirky…it would be a shame for us to miss the opportunity to have something as strange as a bowling team, as a high school, in 2021, at Broad and Spring Garden. I am primarily motivated by how funky it is,” said Mr. Symonds.

“It’s nice to be able to offer a non-traditional sport to our students who may not have been able to see themselves in other athletic endeavors,” Ms. Siswick said.

Avi Cantor

Staff Writer

The most powerful word to describe the Philadelphia Phillies this season is “if.”

The Phillies have added power-hitting first baseman Carlos Santana and 2015 Cy Young Award-winning pitcher Jake Arrieta to their lineup of young players, giving Phillies fans two guaranteed areas of production. However, the rest of their lineup embodies the word “if” perfectly.

One of 2017 most effective power hitters was first baseman/outfielder Rhys Hoskins, who hit 18 home runs and drove in 48 RBIs despite only playing in 50 games. That means that he averaged one home run for less than every three games he played.

Unfortunately, as many players do, Hoskins has an “Achilles heel” that could run his season into the dirt quickly: the California native has trouble hitting against left-handed pitching.

In 41 at-bats last year against righties, Hoskins batted a mere .171, a slugging percentage that was ten points under his percentage against lefties, and an OPS that was less than his OPS against lefties. Because of this, he has the potential to either flourish like he did in 2017 or flop like several of his teammates have after their rookie seasons. One of these players is third baseman, Maikel Franco.

The Dominican Republic native started seeing regular playing time in the season of 2015 and flourished into a bonafide fan favorite by the end of the season. Franco finished off 2015 with 14 home runs, 50 RBIs, and a batting average at .280.

Franco was rewarded with much more playing time in 2016 and did a fine job. Despite having a lower average, Franco hit 25 home runs and 88 RBIs. Franco is also an excellent fielder, making only 13 errors in 148 games. That’s just three more errors than fellow Third Baseman Adrian Beltre, who won the Golden Glove award for outstanding fielding.

However, in 2017, Franco struggled to put up the same numbers as his past two seasons.

The Dominican Third Baseman did worse than his last season in more than ten categories including batting average, fielding percentage, RBIs, home runs and double plays grounded into. If Franco continues this downward trajectory in statistics, the Phillies will have to scramble to find someone else to put at third.

Moving on to the player to Franco’s left, Shortstop J.P. Crawford shows an immense amount of potential. The Phillies traded away their previous shortstop Freddy Galvis for Crawford, and for good reason. The former first-round draft pick has a great feel for the position, has a strong throwing arm and is excellent at making tough plays. However, he’s a very streaky player at the plate.

In his 23 games, the California native batted just under .215, compiled 15 hits while striking out 22 times. Crawford also hits fly balls frequently at the plate racking up nearly 35 fly ball outs. Given the fact that Crawford is a contact hitter, he needs to be able to hit the ball on the ground to get on base more often. Fly balls are not only easier outs but given his lack of power, fly balls don’t benefit him. However, two players who do benefit from hitting fly balls is outfielders Aaron Altherr and Odubel Herrera.

Altherr and Herrera combined last year for 33 home runs, nearly 250 hits, 107 extra base hits and both had averages hovering around .275. Both players are also very effective forces in the outfield. Altherr leads the National League in double plays from the outfield while Herrera led the League in outfield putouts. However, neither player is flawless.

Fans constantly wonder how high Herrera’s baseball IQ is due to his ability to make boneheaded decisions in the outfield and swinging at pitches that are nowhere near the strike zone. In fact, one anonymous fan went on Philly’s 94WIP sports radio station and said that Herrera had a “tapioca brain.”

Altherr, on the other hand, has only started seeing real playing time since last year. The Phillies are notorious for having “one hit wonder” players who have great first years, but manage to string together several seasons of mediocrity or worse.

Even if all of these players play good baseball, Phillies fans still have one thing to worry about. Despite being the club’s skipper for a mere eight games, Rookie manager Gabe Kapler has already begun to stir up controversy.

In a game against the Braves on March 31st, Kapler put in reliever Hoby Milner to replace starting pitcher Vince Velasquez. This move made sense to fans due to the fact that Velasquez struggled mightily, giving up 7 runs in less than three innings. However, the problem with Kapler’s move was that he didn’t tell bullpen coach Jim Gott that he was putting in a reliever. Because of this, Milner came into the game cold which could’ve resulted terribly for the Phils.

To make matters worse, the Phillies would go on to get smoked by the Braves 15-2 on 19 hits while making a season-high of four errors. Since then, Kapler has been blasted by fans, local media outlets, and even his own players.

Outfielder Nick Williams criticized his choice to consistently leave him out of the lineup saying “I guess the computers are making [the lineup]”. This jab at Kapler’s strategic moves based on analytics created turmoil in the clubhouse that has likely resulted in the Phillies starting off under .500. However, Kapler has bounced back from bad situations in the past.

In his 12 year career in the Major Leagues, Kapler played for seven American teams and one Japanese team. In that time he’s been forced to bounce back from trades and low expectations. The Phillies manager was drafted in the 57th round and became the first Tigers player since the inception of the draft to be picked as late as he was.

So, back to the beginning of this column: If the Phillies are able to milk the talent out of the plethora of young talent that they have and if Gabe Kapler handles being the ringleader of this team, the Phils will be a force to be reckoned with in the National League East.

Jayla Wright

Staff Writer

An exotic locale. Political Intrigue. North Korean Cheerleaders. The world may have been excited for this year’s Olympics, but are students at SLA interested?

According to Junior Cynthia To, kids at SLA aren’t that into the Olympics.

“We don’t really talk as much about it. Cause in school no one really talks about it unless you actually bring it up. I think it’s not really brought up. I feel like if you’re into sports you’re most likely to watch it or if you’re competitive then you’ll like to watch it. Other than that, they’re not going to be as much as a watcher.”

However, To did watch the Olympics herself.  Family is a big part of her enjoying the Olympics. It’s a chance for her to spend time with both her Dad and Grandpa as well as a time to observe their antics.

“Olympics always pop up around Chinese New Year so it’s really cool getting to watch with my family. We’re really loud!”

Junior Matthew Milligan is more of a casual viewer of the Olympics.

“I don’t actively go to watch it like I’m not like ‘Oh it’s time for my favorite event.’ I usually just turn it on and if I’m just flipping through the channels and I see the Olympics and I’m just like ‘Oh this looks interesting.’ I’ll watch it for a little bit. Or a lot of times my mom will be watching it and then I’ll sit down and join her.”

“It’s kinda funny so we kinda want to continue watching it cause it’s actually pretty interesting. My parents like watching it cause they’re supporting their home country cause they always support Vietnam for Summer Olympics. My grandpa always goes for his country China, so it’s really cool when you go home. They’re like ‘Go USA!’ ‘No!’ ‘Go China!’ it’s really cool.

Junior Meymey Seng also connected her experience to her family, “The Winter Olympics is something I always look forward to because I just remember enjoying it with my family.”

There was one sport both Seng and To found odd enough to comment on.

It’s like a shuffleboard thing but they’re mopping the floors,” To said laughing.

“So my parents and my sister are like making little memes and making little jokes saying like, ‘They must be really really good housemaids.’”

To was talking about curling, a sport where players on ice slide stones onto a target. Seng found this sport funny as well but she also saw it as an accomplishment for the US.

“I just saw a lot of memes about it and I heard that the US actually won gold for that. So I was impressed because even though many people saw it as a silly thing we actually did really well in it.”

Milligan found that the Olympics being held in the winter caused the low viewing among SLA students.

“I don’t feel super strongly about the Olympics and I also think it’s the Winter Olympics and people don’t always care about that as much cause it’s not as exciting, for some reason.”

To found that the Summer Olympics grabbed her attention more.

“I’m interested in the summer sports. Summer sports are more interesting to connect to and it’s more fun to watch. There’s more variety of sports there’s swimming, there are water sports, dry sports. But for winter it’s all ice so there’s not as fun with less diversity.

“And I feel like the summer sports have more countries than the winter sports everyone can connect to that one more.”