The month of September can be compared to a plane steadying to a constant speed after the takeoff. Students have adapted to new teaching styles, courses, and workloads. That being said, our student athletes also start preparing for their tournaments. With the beginning of the school year comes the beginning of a new season. Season 1 sports––volleyball, rugby, tennis, baseball, and cross country––are up and running. Several sports have started off the season with invitationals at other international schools in preparation for the main event occurring in late October: APAC.
Baseball and rugby travelled during the second weekend of September while cross country travelled during the third. The baseball team went to Kobe, Japan for an invitational, the rugby teams journeyed to Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) for the annual WABX to the Max, and the cross country team flew to ISB Bangkok for a meet.
The baseball team left on September 8 on their trip to Kobe. They returned with third place and incentive to train even harder than they did before. Like most of the other invitationals, this was a chance for the team to recognize their progress and skill level, assess the competition, and improve. Having the privilege of flying to Japan over the long weekend, the baseball team played hard but also had a lot of fun. Junior Clifford Lin stated, “Japan was a great experience where we found out weaknesses, and we will work from there.” Important upcoming games for the baseball team include China Cup at our own pitch and APAC at Brent, Manila.
After a weekend of intense heat, turf burns, and competitive rugby, the girls’ rugby team returned from Beijing with second place while the boys’ rugby team returned with fourth. WABX to the Max is a festival combining dance, music, rugby, and more. For a weekend every year, WAB hosts multiple events on their campus at the same time. At the end of the weekend, the sports teams join the audience to watch a performance by the dancers and the band while celebrating their team accomplishments. The participants of this year’s tournament included WAB, the International School of Beijing (ISB), SAS Pudong, and SAS Puxi. The girls’ rugby team won two of their four games and tied the third. Losing only in the final game against ISB, they returned with more motivation than ever.
“We did pretty well considering they were our first games of the season and we had a couple of girls who had never played in a proper rugby game before,” Captain Sofie Fella, junior, said about the weekend, “We definitely have areas to improve on before China Cup and APAC, but WABX gave us a wake-up call. Overall, aside from the turf burns, injuries, and hot sun, the weekend in Beijing was great for the team in terms of getting our heads back in the game.”
On the other hand, the boys rugby team travelled to Beijing with only four varsity players. The ACT was the same weekend, so many players could not attend the tournament. They were faced with a tough weekend, but they still managed to score one try and make several close attempts. “We are a very young team this year, and many of us are very new to rugby,” Junior David Zhou said, “This weekend was very challenging but I believe that we will do better at China Cup with our full varsity and junior varsity teams playing against their league. This weekend was a great practice for the junior varsity team to compete against teams of a higher level.”
Instead of the annual Guam meet, this year coach and vice principal Christine Doleman decided to take the cross country team to a meet hosted by International School of Bangkok in Thailand. The runners raced in a 5.3k run against 12 schools in the IASIS league, an athletic league similar to APAC but involving other international schools such as Singapore American School, Taipei American School, etc. The race was hosted at a resort three hours away from the city.
“It was a tough race because of the heat and the hills, but the team really pushed through and we all did a good job,” Captain Nike Hartmann, senior, commented, “It was great to compete against IASIS schools and I think we’re all ready to kill it at APAC!” Team member Jacob Earley, junior, commented that “SAS faced interesting opponents and great environments to improve their running skills in a competition where both APAC and IASIS teams were involved in a fun environment.”
The recent invitationals provided excellent opportunities for SAS Puxi teams to assess the competition, identify areas of improvement, practice and refine skills, and have fun while doing so. Teams utilized the next couple of weeks to learn from the invitationals to prepare for the upcoming China Cup and APAC.
Vivian Zhou
Baseball and rugby travelled during the second weekend of September while cross country travelled during the third. The baseball team went to Kobe, Japan for an invitational, the rugby teams journeyed to Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) for the annual WABX to the Max, and the cross country team flew to ISB Bangkok for a meet.
The baseball team left on September 8 on their trip to Kobe. They returned with third place and incentive to train even harder than they did before. Like most of the other invitationals, this was a chance for the team to recognize their progress and skill level, assess the competition, and improve. Having the privilege of flying to Japan over the long weekend, the baseball team played hard but also had a lot of fun. Junior Clifford Lin stated, “Japan was a great experience where we found out weaknesses, and we will work from there.” Important upcoming games for the baseball team include China Cup at our own pitch and APAC at Brent, Manila.
After a weekend of intense heat, turf burns, and competitive rugby, the girls’ rugby team returned from Beijing with second place while the boys’ rugby team returned with fourth. WABX to the Max is a festival combining dance, music, rugby, and more. For a weekend every year, WAB hosts multiple events on their campus at the same time. At the end of the weekend, the sports teams join the audience to watch a performance by the dancers and the band while celebrating their team accomplishments. The participants of this year’s tournament included WAB, the International School of Beijing (ISB), SAS Pudong, and SAS Puxi. The girls’ rugby team won two of their four games and tied the third. Losing only in the final game against ISB, they returned with more motivation than ever.
“We did pretty well considering they were our first games of the season and we had a couple of girls who had never played in a proper rugby game before,” Captain Sofie Fella, junior, said about the weekend, “We definitely have areas to improve on before China Cup and APAC, but WABX gave us a wake-up call. Overall, aside from the turf burns, injuries, and hot sun, the weekend in Beijing was great for the team in terms of getting our heads back in the game.”
On the other hand, the boys rugby team travelled to Beijing with only four varsity players. The ACT was the same weekend, so many players could not attend the tournament. They were faced with a tough weekend, but they still managed to score one try and make several close attempts. “We are a very young team this year, and many of us are very new to rugby,” Junior David Zhou said, “This weekend was very challenging but I believe that we will do better at China Cup with our full varsity and junior varsity teams playing against their league. This weekend was a great practice for the junior varsity team to compete against teams of a higher level.”
Instead of the annual Guam meet, this year coach and vice principal Christine Doleman decided to take the cross country team to a meet hosted by International School of Bangkok in Thailand. The runners raced in a 5.3k run against 12 schools in the IASIS league, an athletic league similar to APAC but involving other international schools such as Singapore American School, Taipei American School, etc. The race was hosted at a resort three hours away from the city.
“It was a tough race because of the heat and the hills, but the team really pushed through and we all did a good job,” Captain Nike Hartmann, senior, commented, “It was great to compete against IASIS schools and I think we’re all ready to kill it at APAC!” Team member Jacob Earley, junior, commented that “SAS faced interesting opponents and great environments to improve their running skills in a competition where both APAC and IASIS teams were involved in a fun environment.”
The recent invitationals provided excellent opportunities for SAS Puxi teams to assess the competition, identify areas of improvement, practice and refine skills, and have fun while doing so. Teams utilized the next couple of weeks to learn from the invitationals to prepare for the upcoming China Cup and APAC.
Vivian Zhou