What’s cuter than a penguin family? LOTS of penguin families! Our pre-kindergarten class taught us all about the lives of their South Pole pals at Tuesday’s All School meeting. Taking the stage before a packed house in the Greenberg Activities Center at the Lower Campus, these 3-year-olds and 4-year-olds taught us how penguin parents trade off babysitting so the other one can go “fishing,” how penguins feed their babies, how they keep warm in icy weather, and how they have unique calls for each other.
And, of course, they taught us how penguins walk.

Click here to see photos from the penguin performance!

January 30 – Winter sports continued this week. Here’s the run-down, with contributions from Upper Campus sports writer Olivia Brown (L16):

Girls and Boys Basketball

This week has been jam-packed with basketball games for both the girls and the boys teams. Last Wednesday, both teams played against Besant Hill. Unfortunately, the girls lost. But the boys swept the win with a final score of 54-28. Junior Bob Chen (L17) and senior Aaron Wolf (L16) played a great game with multiple shots and impressive assists.

Last Friday, Thacher hosted the OVS teams in the evening for non-league games. With roaring crowds and excitement in the air, both teams displayed excellent skills and ended up winning their matches. The boys team took the win with a 34-32 final score. The players all worked well together with great assists and good defensive plays. Freshman Ethan Nash took the game-winning shot resulting in a two-point lead. Following the boys, the girls had an exciting game, leading to their first win of the season. The game displayed exceptional performances from junior Kanna Terumuna and a season-high from senior Stephany Nostrant (L16), scoring 17 points.

On Saturday, the teams were excited to host Dunn for final matchups of the season against the school. The girls team had a nail-biting performance and took the win in the final quarter with a 30-27 sweep. Despite not ending up with a win, the boys also displayed impressive skills.

Yesterday, both teams traveled to Midland School to play in the afternoon. The girls continued their winning streak, earning their third win. With a final score of 37-17, the girls had a great game with remarkable defense from sophomore Kyla Pinchassi and a career-high of 16 points from sophomore Eva Gueguen.

The boys swept the win against Midland with a 48-8 defeat. Aaron Wolf scored the most with 12 points, including a beautiful slam dunk. The team worked together, playing tough defense and having impressive assists.

The basketball season ends in two weeks but the schedule remains full. The next game for the girls is against Garden Street Academy this Friday at 7 p.m. while the boys will be hosted by Thacher once again at 5 p.m.

Girls  and Boys Soccer

The girls team took a 7-1 win over Oak Grove last week with goals from freshman Piper Snowber, junior Zela Henderson, senior Margo Eramova (L16) and senior Claire Alexander as well as a hat trick from senior Avery Colborn (L16). From start to finish, the girls worked hard together and showed great teamwork. Senior Caspian Ellis (L16) had great passes and sophomore Catie Jo Larkin (L18) displayed great defensive work, with the team having one of its best showings of the season. Last week, the girls played down a player in an away game also at Oak Grove and pulled out an impressive 5-0 win. The girls lost 0-2 on Saturday against Thacher at the Upper Campus Dok Smith Field.

The boys soccer team also played at Oak Grove and triumphed with a 16-2 win. With multiple first-time goals from many of the players, the boys worked together and displayed great teamwork. Senior Sebastian Wayman-Dalo (L16) scored his first goal of the season after receiving an admirable pass from freshman Eiki Fukuyama. The boys won their game against Midland on Saturday.

 

 

 

By Craig Floyd, Upper Campus Head of School

January 22 – Last week, our high school faculty took a walking tour of the construction site at Upper Campus and heard an update on plans to replace the buildings destroyed by the Thomas Fire, as well as the addition of the new Student Commons. Grading is underway, and the site is beginning to take shape.

As we stood on top of the hill, with dark rain clouds approaching, we could envision the monumental changes to come in the months ahead, and the tremendous benefit they will bring for the future growth of the school.

For our teachers, the rebuild will mean moving into spacious, modern classrooms and science laboratories equipped with the best technology available. The new Aramont Science and Technology Center, perched on the hill overlooking Burr Hall, will offer expansive views, natural light, and environmental sustainable features that will meet the standards of LEED Gold certification.

Inside the tech center, the Digital Media Lab will meet the needs of our award-winning journalism program and allow us to expand our academic course offerings. Next year we will add a new class in videography, supported by Hollywood-grade editing hardware and software. We will also bring back Music Theory and Composition, giving our aspiring music students the opportunity to broaden their knowledge and experience.

Across the hallway from the Media lab, the impressive Makerspace and adjacent Physics Lab will meet the needs of our growing robotics program, allowing students to develop their engineering skills while working with hands-on projects. These spaces will encourage students to experiment, design, build and program at a collegiate level using professional-grade resources.

With student input, the design of the rebuilt Grace Hobson Smith girls dorm will offer stunning west-facing views of the Ojai Valley. It will feature a beautifully landscaped central courtyard and more dorm rooms to accommodate more students in the years ahead.

In the two-story Student Commons, our entire community will soon be able to gather under one roof to enjoy meals together. Our current cramped dining hall will then be converted to a student kitchen and boy’s dorm lounge. The Commons will also provide a spacious library with views of the Ojai Valley, bigger meeting rooms for College Counseling and the Learning Center, a dedicated Student Store, and a long-awaited Mezzanine Lounge for all our students to relax, study, and socialize.

We have always been a college-prep school, but the rebuild is finally allowing us to provide students with modern facilities that feel like a small college campus without abandoning our character or connection to the outdoors.

We are eager to see it come to life and move into the new buildings during the 2020-2021 school year. I encourage you to see renderings of the buildings, which are posted on our website. We will certainly update you on our progress in the months ahead.

The OVS competitive robotics teams participated at the LA/SoCal Regional Championships last weekend, concluding a stellar season in the FIRST Tech Challenge’s robotics league. Teams Spudnik and Spudbot fought hard against 46 other strong teams at the event hosted at Monrovia High School. Although they did not advance to the World Championship in Houston, they are proud of their efforts and excited to have reached regionals. Said Coach Micah Sittig: “This was OVS’s best performance so far in four years of competitive robotics.”

Last month, at the Inter-League Tournament hosted at the Palmdale Aerospace Academy on February 17, Spudnik and Spudbot were ranked 2nd and 4th out of 22 teams after qualifying matches. Joining together as an alliance, they reached the final match and finished as runners-up. This earned them two of seven qualifying spots for the FTC LA/SoCal Regional Championships on March 9.

In addition, Spudnik won a Control Award for innovative thinking in the robot control system, mainly due to the code and documentation written by senior Leo Liang (L15).

This is the fourth year OVS has participated in the FIRST Tech Challenge robotics league. The name of this year’s game was Rover Ruckus, which was space themed and required building a robot that could lift and lower itself from a lander, collect and store minerals in a cargo hold, and place a team marker in a depot.
Both OVS teams ranked near the top of their league during the season with Spudnik placing first out of 22 teams in the combined rankings with Spudbot not far behind.

The season was also noteworthy because OVS hosted an FTC league, League V, at the Greenberg Activities Center at the Lower Campus. Seven teams from different schools and community groups in the Ventura County area met on four Saturdays starting in November and running through January.

In concluding the season, Mr. Sittig and Coach Chris Westcott praised the students who participated this year, and thanked the numerous students, parents, and faculty members who volunteered to make the league events possible.