Dear Chinthes,

There was heartbreak for the girls and triumph for the boys in the latest high school basketball playoff matches played on Wednesday evening. Please read below for a match report and information on where and when to watch finals this afternoon (Friday).
Our middle school boys football team is currently playing their end of season tournament. Please continue reading to see how they are doing.
If you are looking for something to do in the summer holidays then please consider the Chinthe Summer Fun program. Information on this and where to sign up can be found below.

Middle School Athletics 

This week the end of season middle school football tournament will be held. ISY have a boys team in this tournament. The tournament is being held over two days, Thursday and Friday. On Thursday ISY played two matches against International School Myanmar (ISM) and then against Yangon International School (YIS). Then on Friday our boys play ILBC International School.
The first match against ISM was a good opening match for the boys to start the tournament and they were 4-1 winners. This has been the theme for the season and it was carried on against YIS. In this game ISY also won 4-1.
Today’s game will be the deciding match against ILBC at South Dagon field at 3:50. ISY and ILBC have won one game each this season so this should be an evenly matched game. We wish our boys all the best for this final game of the season.

Southeast Asian Activities and Sport Conference (SEASAC) News

Badminton

ISY sent a girls and boys team to Kuala Lumpur over the weekend to compete in the SEASAC badminton tournament. These teams were a mix of experience and ages. The girls team on paper had more experience than the boys and so expectations for the tournaments were different. Without doubt, both teams wanted to do their best.
The boys team opened up their campaign with a tie against eventual tournament winners Tanglin Trust School. This was a tough first up game to have at the start of the tournament. As you might imagine the TTS team were comfortable winners.
That led into the next matchup. Again ISY were underdone and made a slow start. Although this tie was more competitive they eventually lost. Then things started to turn for the better.
The next opponents, ISY played well and beat well. Then came the UWCE team. This was a good matchup for our young athletes but they stood up and stayed strong, being eventual winners.
These two wins placed ISY into the top bracket for this tournament. It also meant that the opposition would be of a high quality. This was proved as our first tie was against TTS, again! Although our boys put up a much better performance they were still beaten by this very good badminton side. It didn’t get much better for our boys as they played the next best team form the other pool. Again our boys played well and competed with heart but they were eventually beaten.
This is when the tournament made an interesting twist. Our next game would be the playoff for 5th and 6th. We were matched up against the team that beat us in our second tie. However, just like in softball, our boys were wiser for the experience they had had already. Our boys played so well to come out winners and gain 5th place.
Our girls team came into this tournament with a little more experience having a number of seniors in the side. This made all the difference as ISY were able to play well right from the start. Our girls played with patience and power when needed. They were easy winners in all their first day games. ISY were quickly establishing themselves as one of the teams to beat.
The second day went a lot like the first. Our girls showed what they were capable of and played with skill and poise to come through the crossover ties as the top seeded team in their pool.
This would mean that ISY would play for the championship on Sunday morning!
The girls were up against Harrow International School, Bangkok. This school had made both the boys and girls finals so they were obviously going to be tough. As is always the case with our ISY athletes, they worked as hard as they could but in the end Harrow were victorious.
Our ISY badminton teams should hold their heads up high with the efforts that they produced over the weekend.

SEASAC Badminton Action

SEASAC Softball Action

International High School Football

Football

Our ISY boys football team also traveled to a tournament in Bangkok, held by Harrow International School. This would be an experiment into the unknown somewhat for our team as ISY has never played in this tournament before.
It would become pretty obvious that the standard of play at this tournament would be higher than ISY has experienced this year. Our boys were going to have to lift their game if they were to become competitive. And in true ISY style that is what they did. Our boys played well for the most part of the two day tournament but the quality of the opposition would decide the outcome of our matches.
Our team was able to put together patches of teamwork and attacking patterns which is encouraging for the future. The team gained a lot of knowledge and understanding of what they will need to do next year to lift their skill leave going into the SEASAC season.

With less than a minute to go ISM scored a two to put them up by one point and it was ISY’s turn to respond. Unfortunately that would not happen as ISM scored again to be up by three.
The drama didn’t stop there as ISY had a possession with 16 seconds to go. ISY would not be able to get a good shot off and would end up losing by three points.
ISY will now play Yangon International School (YIS) for the 3rd and 4th place today (Friday). We wish this team all the best.

The shoe was on the other foot so to speak for our ISY boys basketball team. They were the team coming into the playoffs as the top seed. The boys welcomed ILBC to the ISY gym and showed them why we pride ourselves on making this a tough place to come and play.
The boys had a quiet start by their standards but then got into their stride and pushed the score out to an early lead for ISY. This would be the same for each quarter as ISY showed their class to finish easy winners.
The boys will play ISM in their final. This should be a good game as ISY won by two points in their last meeting. ISM will be looking to improve on this and ISY will want to put up a big score against them.

Game schedule for today is:
2:30 ISY Girls Vs YIS
3:30 ISY Boys Vs ISM

Chinthe Summer Fun

For a full list of the details and activities, please see this program document.  To register your interest, please fill out this form.

Community Activities

Zumba classes are on every Tuesday in room 200W. These classes are fun and an easy way to get moving. There is a supportive group of community members attending that will make you feel welcome. The cost is 15,000MMK for each person for each class. You simply pay the instructor.

What: Zumba
Where: 200W (Above the fitness room)
When: 4:00-5:00 every Tuesday
Cost: 15,000 MMK per person per class
Why: For fitness and fun!

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.

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

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