Athletics & Community Blog

Athletics & Activities Blog – January 24

Olympiad 2020 – One for the Record Books

I am not just saying this because the teacher/staff team beat the seniors in the final competition of the day, but this year’s Olympiad really was one for the record books. We had more students than ever before, competing on 13 teams with their peers in grades 6-12.

The purpose behind this annual event is to bring students together from different grades to work towards a series of shared goals. The day is an opportunity for students to step outside of their comfort zones with their peers in upper and lower grades.

The cross-age format gave seniors the opportunity to show leadership and teach our youngest secondary students the meaning of teamwork. I saw compassionate seniors jumping rope with tentative 6th graders and helping to explain the rules of the obstacle course to their young partners. It was a noisy day as well, as high school students taught team cheers to middle school students, and all did their best to impress the staff judges at each station. (Points were awarded to the teams with the most spirit.)

Mr. Tom Just, who has organized the event for the past 15 years, said that the ISY Olympiad is a tradition that has far outlasted his tenure at the school. The event has been going on for 30 years and appears to have lost none of it’s energy over the decades since the tradition began in the 1990.

Mr. Maung Maung, Mr. Saw Htoo, and Mr. Just organized this year’s Olympiad.

This was my first Olympiad and I was really impressed with the involvement of the secondary faculty and staff, the teamwork shown by hundreds of students, and the unique nature of each of the activities – which combined sports with team-building obstacles. I am already looking forward to next year’s event.

ISY Boys/Girls Varsity Basketball Teams Take Top Spots All-City Championship

ISY hosted the 2020 Yangon City-Wide Basketball Tournament on Friday and Saturday, January 17 & 18. 15 teams from around Yangon and as far away as Mandalay packed into the gym to play up to five games each in front of a crowd that included many ISY parents, staff and alumni, as well as the communities of seven other attending schools.

Congratulations to our players who also received all-tournament honors on the weekend.

Boys All-Tournament Winners

A special thanks to Coach Powers, Coach Hlaing, Coach Franz, and Coach Janzen for all their hard work this weekend! Thanks as well to all the staff who volunteered to help at the event.

ISY Team Qualifies for Myanmar Robotics Competition

ISY is sending two robotics teams to Nay Pyi Taw this weekend to compete at the national STEAM & Robotics Competition. Ms. Kathy Beahn and Mr. Michael Ramirez are traveling with 11 students who will compete in the three-day event.

According to Ms. Beahn, “One group will participate in the Nay Pyi Taw Regional competition in the hopes of advancing to Nationals. The other group already qualified [for Nationals] in November.”

The Regional competition includes a robotics portion on Friday afternoon and a Clean Water project portion Saturday morning. Nationals will take place Saturday and Sunday.

Athletics Results – January 17-24

MS Soccer vs YIS, Friday, January 17 – Boys Win 9-0, Girls Win 8-1
MS Soccer vs ILBC, Wednesday, January 22 – Boys Win 4-1, Girls Win 5-2
HS Basketball vs ISM, Tuesday, January 21 – Boys Win 43-41, Girls Lost 31-28

Athletics Schedule – January 24-31

The week ahead sees a break for MS soccer and JV basketball tournament in Chiang Mai.

HS Basketball – Friday, January 24-Saturday, January 25 – Boys JV @ PREM Invitational, Chiang Mai
HS Basketball – Tuesday, January 28 @ ILBC – Varsity Only
HS Basketball – Thursday, January 30 vs Network – Varsity Girls Only
NO MS Soccer Games This Week

ES Basketball Update

ES Basketball is in full swing. Players from Grade 3-5 have been learning the skills and strategies needed for their upcoming games and tournaments which will be commencing next week.

Our next games will be for Grades 3 and 4 at LFIR on Wednesday, Jan. 29. With two opportunities the next week on Feb 6 and Feb 8 for Grades 3-5 at ISY. Stay tuned for more updates soon.

Color Run 2020

The ISY Girl UP Club is collaborating with another service learning group, Building Blocks, from the Yangon International School, which raises funds to aid various education projects around Yangon. Together they will be creating a Color Run for children of all ages, parents, and friends of both schools on January 25, 2020 at 8:00am.

The main aim of this event is to raise funds which will be used for club projects, as well as advocating for increased female participation in education and sports, primarily focusing on the Yangon community.

ISY sports teams have been invited to participate in order to share a tough, aerobic workout with a purpose. We hope to see many ISY athletes on the course on Saturday!

To register a whole team/ individual members please contact Marissa Powers at powerem@isyedu.org. You can also register in person at the event.