Dear Chinthes,

This week we welcomed back our SEASAC delegates and athletes from the model United Nations and swimming competitions. For a report on how our teams did please read on.
Last weekend we also had our high school girls and boys softball teams finishing their Yangon Softball Conference seasons. See below for a report on their finals.
Tonight the sign-up to the second session of elementary school SCUBA diving will open. Read below for more information on how to sign-up your child for that.
Some school facilities will be closed on Monday due to the public holiday. Please check the Facilities Schedule below for more details.

Southeast Asian Activities and Sport Conference (SEASAC) News

Over the last weekend ISY had two groups traveling to SEASAC events. One group went to Singapore for the SEASAC swimming competition, and the other traveled to Ho Chi Minh City for the SEASAC Model United Nations (MUN).
The MUN delegates had been building up to this for the whole school year. The MUN is where delegates (students) assume the role of a country’s diplomat and negotiate with other countries, usually in a council setting. The delegates have been learning about procedure, debate, compromise, world events, countries’ global interests and anything else that is involved with diplomatic discussions and agreements. This was a young team of delegates which impressed everyone that was involved. They were all well prepared and spoke with poise, meaning and feeling. Because of this ISY has been invited to another MUN conference in October. Exciting times for our MUN team.
One important part of any MUN conference is to forge relationships with other people from other cultures. Our ISY MUN team did this as many new friendships were created.
Our ISY swimming team traveled to Singapore for the annual SEASAC swim meet. Like their MUN counterparts, these athletes had been working up to this event for the whole year. Here is a report from Coach Danny:
With a team of 5 swimmers ISY took to the water at SEASAC ’23 swim meet with the goal of testing ourselves against ourselves. Coming to the water at an international meet for the first time in 3 years there were many opportunities to learn and rediscover what international swim competitions are. It was an indisputable success. From the first to the last, every single swimmer in every single event hit personal bests. ISY bests were also set in a range of events including the 200m freestyle relay. Jimu Grade 8, had never before been to SEASAC or a competitive swim meet, yet was able to adjust to the pressure and excitement of the event to take 4th in his 400m freestyle heat, coming back from 8th place as he entered the final 50m. Pine Grade 12, in his last SEASAC event for ISY as a senior, took personal bests in all events and set himself some impressive times that would not be amiss at the Southeast Asian Games. Junwoo Grade 11 also saw great improvements in his times, taking seconds off his breaststroke performances, beating his own time trial results from only the week before. The youngest member of the team, Aziz Grade 8, held his own in all events, often leading the field as he entered the final 25m of each race, with lessons to take away and work on in stamina and endurance to hold the leading pace into the wall. Milun Grade 10 started very strong, breezing into timed finals for secondary events, with a focus on the 50m freestyle as a potential medalist. As is the way in sports, anything can happen and unfortunately with a goggle mishap in the 50m heats Milun was left swimming blind, still managing to hit the turn and finish the race but outside of qualifying times. He pulled back mentally to anchor the team relay home later the same day with a 25.01 freestyle 50m, which would have qualified for the finals as a standalone event and showed he is capable of returning to the pool and taking silverware. Did the ISY team place? With only 5 swimmers against other teams of 12 we did not. Did we learn and find huge personal and team successes? Absolutely
Well done to both teams that traveled!

Middle School (MS) Athletics

The ISY middle school boys football team were back at home on Wednesday and played host to International School Myanmar. This was going to be an interesting match-up, owing to the last game between these two sides being only settled minutes before full time.
As expected, these two sides seemed evenly matched in the opening five minutes. Then our ISY boys turned it on. They started with a goal from an ISM goalie mistake. However, the next few goals were from controlling the middle and defending strong. ISY went into halftime with a healthy lead.
It was much the same for the second half as ISY continued to score regularly through the second half. ISM were able to score a consolation goal, but by that time the match was effectively over. The final score was 5-1.

High School (HS) Athletics

Last week saw the finals of the Yangon Softball Conference. As well as many teachers participating, ISY also had two teams competing in this event. The high school girls and boys teams have been practicing and playing all season long in this league. The finals would be the end of season event of the girls team.
The finals were a best of three game series of which the girls were already one game down from the previous weekend. This meant that they needed to win their first game to force the deciding third game. The girls started confidently with a 3 run innings, unfortunately the opposition matched this with 3 runs of their own. The girls showed strong defense by not letting the other team score or only letting in one run for many innings. However, the opposition was able to have a 4 run innings which put the game beyond our HS girls. The end score being 3-10.
This was not what the girls were hoping for but there were a lot of positives to take from this season. We have a lot of young girls keen on softball and now they have the experience to be competitive next year.
The HS boys had a different finals format with many teams in a knockout competition. The boys have made a lot of improvements over the season and are now looking like a competitive team heading into their SEASAC tournament on the 17th, 18th and 19th of March.
The boys are fielding and understanding the game much better than at the start of the season. The biggest improvement for them as a team is their hitting. They look like a team that can score some runs!
The boys played well on the weekend but lost both their games in the final series. This means that they did not place. However, they have had some good competition leading into their SEASAC tournament.

After School Activities: ASA

I am pleased to announce that the sign-up for the second session of elementary school SCUBA diving is opening tonight at 7:00 PM. Please remember that the minimum age for SCUBA diving is 8 years old. The sign up is available on PowerSchool. The sign-up will be like a normal after school activity sign-up. First, sign in to PowerSchool, then click the After School Activity link, then choose SCUBA Diving on Tuesday.

Swim Team

The swimming team will continue their training. The secondary school team trains on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the elementary school team trains on Monday and Friday.

Facility Schedules

There is a holiday on Monday 6th of March. The pool will be closed for this holiday. All other facilities will remain open as normal.

Please remember that to use any of ISY’s facilities you must fill out the booking form.

Tennis Court

Weekdays 2:30-6:00PM

Weekends 8:00AM-5:00PM

(Middle and elementary school students need to be accompanied by an adult)

Swimming Pool
Mornings
Open 6 – 7:30 AM Monday – Friday
Afternoons
Monday 5-6 PM
Tuesday 3:30-6 PM
Wednesday 5-6 PM
Thursday 3:30-6 PM
Friday 5-6 PM
Weekends
Open Saturday 8 AM – 12 PM
Closed Sunday
(Please note to use the Swimming Pool you must book your place)

Fitness/Weights Room
Weekdays
Closed 7 AM – 2:30 PM (School hours)
Weekends
24 hours (Please note to use the Weights/Fitness Room you must book your place)

**Please note** The Fitness/Weights Room is busy with a lot of equipment in it. Could all users please tidy up after themselves. This means wiping down equipment after using them and returning all weights and moveable equipment back to its correct place. This will make for a much more pleasant experience for everyone!

HS students may use the Fitness/weights Weights Room unsupervised.
MS students may use the Fitness/Weights Room only with adult supervision.
ES students are not allowed in the Fitness/Weights Room.

Outdoor Areas
Weekdays
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday 3:30 – 6 PM
The Field
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday the field will be used until 5:30 for ISY sports teams practice.

(Please note that to use the Outdoor Spaces you must book your place)
Weekends
8 AM – 6 PM
**These times may change once more sports start up at ISY**

Questions or More Information

As always, if you have any questions about what is in this blog or anything else that you may think of related to activities or athletics please feel free to contact me at:

josullivan@isyedu.org

Kindest regards,

Mr. Jonathan O’Sullivan

Blogs
Secondary School
Elementary School
Athletics & Community Education
Service Learning
Global