2/24-3/2 Weekend Update

This week in sports was less eventful than usual, with middle school seasons already over. Varsity girls basketball had their last game of the season on the evening of Tuesday the 25th. It was an away game at Heritage Christian Academy. They lost 58-23, although they fought hard in the second half. Despite, and perhaps because of facing some hard losses this season, the team has improved tremendously, especially in terms of their record. Winning five games this year, there is a certain improvement from the past two seasons, where not a single game was won. They look forward to success next season.

Yet again, the high school boys basketball team, whose regular season ended last week, dominated the competition; they notched two key wins last week: 83-37 over Heritage Christian on Tuesday and 70-46 over Pembroke Hill on Thursday. Against Heritage, the team saw five of their players reach double figures. Sophomore Juju Ramirez led the team with 22 points, junior Zach Bloch had 19, Senior Luke Hornberger had 16, junior Stavian Jones had 12 and Senior Cobe Green had 10. Overall, the team spread out the scoring across their balanced and dynamic attack. They followed up on this big win with another dominant performance against Pembroke Hill. This time, Jones led the scoring with 22 points, followed Ramirez with 21 and Bloch with 17. This showing gives the team a strong boost of momentum going into the postseason, which begins on Tuesday with a rematch against Heritage Christian. The game will take place at seven at Seabury, and it is a pink-out, so be sure to come out and support the team. BSAP is paying admission, which is ordinarily $5, for the first 50 students in pink.

“DUCKS!” This was the cry that rang throughout the Seabury gymnasium on the nights of February 28th and 29th. Upper school actors performed David Mammot’s play “Duck Variations.” Student directors Alex Porter, Emma Silvestri, Shelby Esmond and Alesia Brovtcyna each took charge of a few of the 14 scenes in the play. Full of humor and deep conversations about ducks, the play was a great success. The next Seabury performance is the all-school musical, “Jesus Christ Superstar.” Auditions are after school on March 3rd and 4th. 

Many of these actors also traveled to Basehor-Linwood for a Leap Day forensics tournament. The team placed fourth overall, only two points behind the third place team. Seniors Alex Porter and Addie Bay placed fourth in Duet, and Bay also placed fourth in Improvised Duet Acting (IDA) with senior Logan Mathis. Senior Emma Silvestri placed second in Poetry and qualified for state. Junior Lyle Griggs placed first in Extemporaneous speaking, qualifying for state, and fourth in Impromptu. Junior Morgan Orozco placed second in Oration, qualifying for state, and placed fourth in Extemp. Sophomores Ivan Calderon and Marie Brockhoff placed fifth in Duet and Brockhoff also placed sixth in Informative. It was a very successful tournament for the forensicators, who will compete again at Paola high school on Saturday, March 7th.

The chess team completed recently at a tournament. Although they were middle schoolers competing in a high school division, David rose against Goliath, and the team placed second overall. In other middle school competition news, the sixth, seventh and eighth grade science classes competed at the KU Engineering Expo on February 24th. Some of them built bottle rockets, among other competitions, and all of the middle schoolers viewed the exhibits set up at the Expo. 

FBLA hosted its annual Career Fair on Thursday, February 27th. Highschoolers spent an hour talking to people with different occupations, including forensic science, organic chemistry, engineering, dentistry, finance and law enforcement. Students won prizes for asking questions, including oreos and a Snack Shack coupon. Thank you to FBLA for hosting the fair, and to all community participants! 

Having prepared materials for the conference for several months, delegates to the 2020 Topeka Model United Nations (TMUN) conference spent Monday and Tuesday speaking on behalf of their countries at the Ramada Inn in Topeka. Although the event is not primarily competitive — most go for the educational opportunity — two Seabury delegates won awards. Seventh grader Hugh Griggs won Best Affirmation Speech in World Council C and placed second among all delegates in his council. His brother, junior Lyle Griggs, won Best Negation Speech in Security Council, placed first among delegates in that council and won best overall delegate at TMUN.