Henry Elected Treasurer of International School Class of 2022!

Henry ran for treasurer for his class against three classmates and won the election! Congratulations and excited for his new career in politics.

He also is participating more actively in Model U.N.; here is a photo of him leaving for the King County Model UN competition in late April.

Newport Wraps Up Another Season

Newport JV wrapped up another season, finishing 6-12. Jack was the starting pitcher in several of the games, and had a bit of an up-and-down year. Here's a clip of a strikeout in the last game he pitched:

Steel Bridge Competition !

On Saturday, April 13, the eyes of the Civil Engineering world in the midwest were trained on Ann Arbor, Michigan for the regional finals of the Steel Bridge competition! Joseph was competing for the University of Michigan. This was the culmination of months of work that he and about a dozen other students put in to design and fabricate a 22' long bridge. Five schools were competing, with the top two advancing to the national competition.

The start of the process is in the Fall, when the students design a bridge according to the specifications of the contest. They then fabricate the pieces of steel to be used in their design, as well as bolts to secure it in place. Once the parts are made, they practice putting it together. On competition day, they are judged on three main criteria: how fast they put it together, how well it is able to withstand lateral force, and whether it can support several-thousand pounds of weight. There also are several other criteria that must be met.

The Michigan team had an outstanding design, and were well positioned to advance to the nationals, but in the process of constructing their bridge, the head of one of the bolts snapped off. They were unable to remove and replace the bolt, which was stuck in the joint without a head. As a result, they had a joint that wasn't secured by a bolt, which disqualified them! Very disappointing, but they were nonetheless deservedly very proud of their accomplishment.

Before the competition begins - these are the individual steel pieces of the bridge which have been designed by the team and will be used to construct the bridge

The competition takes place in the atrium of the main Civil Engineering classroom

The Michigan team begins laying out their pieces in preparation to construct the bridge

Joseph is on the left in the blue shorts

The judges explain the rules to the team before the construction starts

The team hard at work constructing the bridge!

Judges checking the construction once the building has completed

Looking at the damaged bolt

The infamous corner with the busted bolt

2019 University of Michigan Steel Bridge Team

Here's a video of the seven minutes it took the team to construct the bridge:

Skiing at Aspen

After visiting a pair of colleges in the Denver area, Dad and Jack got in a day of skiing at Aspen. The area was hit with some late-season snow, which made the skiing nice though the drive back to Denver a bit treacherous. Jack got to ski Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands and some of the terrain off Cirque at Aspen Snowmass.

Virginia Cavaliers - 2019 NCAA Division 1 Basketball CHAMPIONS!!

Ten years after arriving in Virginia, Tony Bennett coached the Cavaliers to a National Championship. The Hoos were led by Kyle Guy, De'Andre Hunter, and Ty Jerome, with key plays throughout from Mamadi Diakite, Kihei Clark, and Braxton Key. The final three games were incredibly close, with UVA losing with less than 15 seconds left in each of them, only to pull them out - versus Purdue, Auburn, and the final victory in overtime over Texas Tech.

Newport at T-Mobile Park

The Newport Knights played in the 2019 High School Baseball at T-Mobile Park, the home of the Seattle Mariners. Jack was set to pitch the 7th inning, but with Newport winning 24-2 they didn't play the 7th. He got to sit in the bullpen and warm up though.

Jack (#9) in the dugout before the game 

Walking out to the bullpen pre-game

Hanging out with the pitchers

Cam Kaku at bat, shown on scoreboard

Jack warming up

Rainbow Over Seattle

In early April a large rainbow appeared in the sky, stretching out from Seattle. No luck finding the pot of gold!

Jack Pitching at Eastlake

Jack started the game on Monday April 1 at Eastlake High School. He pitched 5 innings and gave up 4 runs, but got off the hook when Newport scored 7 in the 6th to win, 8-4.

Springtime - No More Skiing, On To Mountain Biking

By late March the weather had turned warmer and while ski resorts were still open we had moved on to other activities - baseball and mountain biking. Henry and Dad went for their first mountain bike outing to Soaring Eagle Park in Sammamish.