Dear Chinthes,

Our Model United Nations group has come back from their MUN conference in Singapore and the United World School, East Campus. Please see below for more information on this conference.
Middle school basketball season has finished and our middle school basketballers were able to show their talents on Friday evening at the end of season tournament. Please read the Middle School Athletics section below for a review of the tournament.
The high school volleyball and football teams continued their build up for the SEASAC tournaments with friendly games against other schools on Tuesday. If you would like to read a short report on those games continue reading below in the High School Athletics section.
With the October holidays there will be some closers of our facilities. Please read the Facilities section for more information.

Middle School Basketball End of Season Tournament

Middle School Athletics

The middle school basketball season always seems to fly by because it is the first of the new school year and this season was no different. However, as usual, our ISY coaches and athletes always put their best foot forward for this season and, again, this season was no different.
The boys squad has continued to improve this year under the guidance of Coaches Smith and Jiang. The boys have had some great wins and close losses but as we know in middle school athletics, it all comes down to the end of season tournament.
The boys started their tournament with a confidence building win against Yangon International School. In this game they controlled the tempo for the whole match to win 38-15. The next, and biggest test, would be against International School Myanmar. ISM had beaten ISY twice this year and ISY were determined to make this the day for ISY. The last meeting between these two teams was a closer game than the scoreline suggested so our ISY boys were up for the test. ISM have two outstanding players and it would be a case of stopping them, stop ISM. In theory this is a good plan and for long parts of the game this worked with ISM only able to maintain a slight lead for most of the match. However, unforced errors would cost ISY in the end with ISY losing a close game 32-38.
The tournament wasn’t finished there though. ISY still had to play ILBC International School to secure second place. This was not a foregone conclusion and the ISY boys showed true Chinthe spirit to pick themselves up after a loss and win a competitive game 29-18.
This left ISY with a win-loss record of 2-1 which earned ISY second place. Well done to all the boys and coaches who played over the season and to all the boys in the squad. There will be more to prove next year by our middle school basketballers.
The Girls had traveled a different road to this tournament. They were unbeaten coming into the tournament and wanted to emulate what the middle school girls team achieved last year, to go through the season unbeaten. This would be a tough ask for the girls but there is a lot of talent and skill in the girls team.
Like the boys, the first game was against YIS. The girls have a great offensive game but their defense was what won them this game. The girls made it very hard for the YIS girls to score, eventually winning 23-1! Then it was ISM.
Our ISY team has beaten them twice this year but they were not going to let complacency into their game. The girls played hard and fair and at times had to play physically to match the ISM ‘style’ of play, however, this would not prove a distraction. Defense would again be prominent in this game and ISY won the match 22-3.
The last game was against ILBC. Again ISY have beaten this team twice this year and again complacency would not enter ISY’s game. And again defense would be at the top of the list for ISY. The girls played well and won 24-5.
These results would mean that the ISY girls team would again go undefeated and win the YAC middle school basketball tournament. Congratulations girls!
Well done to all our middle school basketballers for your efforts this season. There is a lot of talent coming through the ranks for the coming years at ISY.
The next season’s sport is volleyball. Each middle school student has been sent an email with a form and information about how to sign up and when and where the practices will be. Please check your emails for this information.

Model United Nations

High School Athletics

Today the ISY high school volleyball teams start the Yangon Citywide Invitational tournament. This tournament will run today and tomorrow. ISY is co-hosting this event with Yangon International School. On Friday ISY will host the girls part of the draw and on Saturday ISY will host the boys side of the draw and boys finals.
The games will start at 3:00 PM on Friday and 9:00 AM on Saturday. Here Is a link to the schedule. This will be a very competitive tournament and there should be some great volleyball action.

On Tuesday, ISY hosted the first preseason high school football matches against International School Myanmar. They might have been friendlies but the competition was high.
Our boys started first and played well to control the majority game. They would win 5-2.
Our girls also played well and controlled extended parts of the game and because of this held an early 1-0 lead through a wonderful attacking play. However, in the final minutes ISM were able to get a goal through a corner kick. The score would end up 1-1.
There were a lot of positives to be taken from these games for both ISY squads.

Also on Tuesday, the ISY high school girls volleyball team played a friendly practice game against Thalun International School. This was a nice hitout for our girls before they go into the YCI tournament and the October holiday and then the SEASAC tournament.

High School Football Action

SEASAC Information

The ISY delegates to the Model United Nations conference arrived back on Sunday evening with a hugely valuable experience of making connections and trying to fix problems through debate and reasoning. The MUN conference was organized by the United World College East Campus, in Singapore. The conference ran from Friday through to Sunday morning.
In the MUN the delegates (students) are assigned a country before time and they come into the conference having researched their country and the problems that face their country and the other countries in their group. From this they have prepared resolutions and speeches outlining their stance as a country on the problems the group faces.
This can be a very intense weekend for the delegates and I am sure that a lot of them would have come back exhausted, but also full of ideas and new connections and hopefully friends. Now the MUN group at ISY will build towards the SEASAC MUN conference in February.

SEASAC Information

The high school cross country team is looking for more members. By training for this team you will improve your fitness by a long way! You will feel good about yourself and your added fitness levels will help you with other sports.
You will be expected to run a 5km race but by then you will be so fit this will be easy for you!
If you are interested in running please speak with Mr. Just or contact me on my email at the end of this blog about this exciting opportunity.

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
SEASAC Cross Country @ Garden International School, Malaysia, November 24, 25

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

After School Activities 

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

There are currently two community sport opportunities happening at ISY. The first is community touch rugby. This is held on the ISY field from 5:30 PM every Thursday. Touch rugby is a fast paced game and easy to learn and is a great way to meet new people from our community and around Yangon. All levels of experience and fitness are encouraged. Come along and give it a try. If you would like to play please email Jonathan O’Sullivan on josullivan@isyedu.org. 

On Saturday, there is an opportunity for parents to play badminton. 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.

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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