Dear Chinthes,

This week was a relatively quiet week for ISY standards. We only had middle school volleyball matches and said, “Good bye and good luck,” to our SEASAC teams traveling this weekend.
On Wednesday ISY welcomed Yangon International School for girls and boys middle school volleyball. Please read below for a match description.
On Thursday ISY sent four teams to various SEASAC events. Girls and boys football traveled to Jakarta, Indonesia, and girls and boys volleyball traveled to Bangkok, Thailand. There will be a detailed description of how these teams went in next week’s blog.
In other news, next week after school activities will finish. November 11 is the last day for ASAs this session.

Middle School Basketball End of Season Tournament

Middle School Athletics

Last Wednesday ISY welcomed our cross town rivals, Yangon International School (YIS), to play middle school volleyball. This would be the first game of the new middle school volleyball season.
The girls middle school volleyball team has shown a lot of enthusiasm this year and have well over 20 players in the squad! Unfortunately, not all of the girls would be able to play due to the fact that YIS didn’t bring an official B team. However, to our surprise, they turned up with 15 or more players. Putting that aside we started the matches.
In the first set the ISY girls showed great skill in opening a large lead. Serving is the key in middle school volleyball and this was very true for this set. The ISY girls were able to capitalize on putting their serves in and they were able to win the first set comfortably.
Being middle school sport, the second set was a chance for Coach Just to change his rotation and play his whole bench. This notion may have been lost on the YIS coach as her extensive bench didn’t seem to do much more than cheer the six players on the court. YIS would eventually win this set. ISY could not get the pip however, because the all important third set was next.
So with the score 1-1 after two sets the third set would be the decider. The first two sets are to 25 points with the third set to 15. This means that a strong start is essential. Unfortunately the idea of first serves are key was a little lost in the third set for ISY. However, our girls held in there and showed a lot of fight to keep the game very even. Eventually the scores were tied up at 14 all. In the third set a team needs to win by two points. This means either team would have to score at least 16 points to win. Sometimes these sets can go on for a long time! Unfortunately serves would cost us again and YIS were able to win the third set, and the match, 14-16. Our ISY girls team can still hold their heads very high with their performance. And, it all comes down to the final tournament for middle school YAC athletics. So I’m sure we will get them in the final tournament!
Next was the boys’ turn. On first impressions, ISY were clear favorites over YIS. ISY is blessed with some very tall grade 8 students and YIS, not so much. However, looks can be deceiving and the ISY boy’s coaches were not going to let initial looks distract them from the job at hand.
The first set commenced and it would seem that, yes, ISY would live up to the favorites tag in this match. The ISY boys played very well to run out comfortable winners in the first set.
The second set followed the same script as the first with ISY winning the set and the match 2-0. In true Chinthe spirit the boys from ISY and YIS played some more friendly sets with the available court time.
Both girls and boys middle school teams look forward to their next match on November 15 against International School Myanmar at ISM.

High School Athletics

Touch Rugby

Touch rugby training will start next week. All those interested in playing touch rugby should check their emails for the signup form.

Basketball 

Basketball training will start next week. All those interested in playing basketball should check their emails for the signup form.

Swim Team

Here are the training times for our elementary, middle and high school swim teams.

ES Swim Team:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 2:20-3:20 PM

MS and HS Swim Team:
Monday, Wednesday and Friday 3:30-5:00 PM
Tuesday and Thursday 6:45-7:45 AM

SEASAC Information

On Thursday, ISY sent four high school teams to the season 1 SEASAC tournament. These teams were girls and boys football to Jakarta, Indonesia, and girls and boys volleyball to Bangkok, Thailand. 

The teams will be competing against other SEASAC schools over the weekend. This competition will be tough but the athletes will have a chance to test themselves against other schools and make connections as well. 

Please see next week’s blog for more information on how our Chinthes performed.

The Southeast Asian Student Activities Conference is the athletics and activities conference that ISY belongs to outside of Myanmar. Each year ISY sends students to athletic, Model United Nations conferences and arts festivals. These events are a very valuable opportunity for our students to connect with other like minded students across Southeast Asia. This section in the Athletics and Activities blog will outline some of the important information and general happenings around SEASAC events.

SEASAC Dates:
SEASAC Football @ British School Jakarta, November 3, 4, 5
SEASAC Volleyball @ NIST, Bangkok, November 3, 4, 5
SEASAC Golf @ Bangkok Patana School, November 22, 23, 24

After School Activities 

Next week after school activities will finish. November 11 is the last day for ASAs this session.

Please remember that elementary school ASAs finish at 3:05pm and middle and high school ASAs finish at 3:25pm. Students will be ready for pick up from the Teak Steps at these times. When elementary school ASAs have finished, elementary school students should be waiting at the Teak Steps for pickup, even if they are waiting for an older sibling.

ASA Times:

Elementary school ASAs 2:25pm-3:05pm

Middle and High school ASAs 2:40pm-3:25pm

ISY Sports Broadcasting

Last year a sports broadcasting club was started at ISY. They were able to cover some of our high school basketball games with great success. They produced a very professionally polished product.
This year they will cover our high school athletics for the whole year. If you are interested in this please follow the link below and this will lead you to the group’s Youtube page. So far the group has covered two high school volleyball games and some of the high school basketball games from last year.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIzBh86SGxeV22RG6ZHYW2g

Community Sport

On Saturday, there is an opportunity for parents to play badminton and pickleball. Each Saturday there will be community badminton in the ISY gym from 2-4 PM. You will need to bring your own rackets and birdies, some pickleball equipment is available. 

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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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