Dragons Dominate to Start Season

Stuyvesant’s handball team, the Dragons, have been dominating their competition, winning all of their games by a 5-0 match sweep, giving them a 6-0 record.

Coming off a playoff exit last season, the Dragons are looking forward to going further in the playoffs and possibly bringing home a championship.

Last year was very promising, as in the prior two years, the Dragons were knocked off in second round exits.

The Dragons have been holding up well, even though last year’s leading seniors Kevin Chau (first singles, 35 total aces, 19 total kills, 7-5 singles record), Jonathan Yuan (third singles, 25 total aces, 9 total kills, 6-3 singles record), and Rahul Debnath (first doubles, 22 total aces, 5 total kills, 8-0 doubles record) have graduated.

Senior and co-captain Vincent Wu, who has been on the team for four years, is optimistic for what this season holds. “They [seniors who graduated] were pretty strong players, but I think it didn’t really hit our team too hard this year. Everyone else improved a lot, and we have good chemistry, as almost every starter is going to be a senior,” he said.

Both the doubles duos, senior Jasper Li and Wu and seniors Stanley Lee, Yongheng Zhou, and Daniel Chiu, have gotten perfect matches (winning the match 21-0), along with singles players senior James Young and senior Edwin Lee. Young and Lee lead the team with 33 aces in five matches, while senior Jonathan Shi lead the team with 12 kills in five matches.

Wu is very optimistic about this season and thinks the team is on track for a perfect season. “Everyone has played pretty well so far, and we already won [half] of our hardest matches in the league,” Wu said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to leave behind a legacy for the handball team that future handball teams could follow.”