Let the Season 1 Sports Begin

On August 15th, the season 1 sports, Varsity Volleyball, Tennis and Cross Country, officially commenced. At the beginning of every school year, Mark Elliott, the head director of athletics and activities, gathers all the athletes and gives a quick yet meaningful talk and this year was no exception. With about 50 athletes seated, Coach Elliot emphasized on team spirit and the importance of coming to every practice by telling the athletes that “death in your family should be the only reason of missing practice”. Furthermore, he stressed the codes of conduct that athletes should follow at all times and advised all the athletes to be aware that “[they] are representing the American International School of Guangzhou at any events and must act like mature young adults”.

This year’s Varsity Volleyball team has very high expectations after the boys earned 6th place and girls earned 7th place in last year’s Super APAC. With Adam Tomassen and Luke Russell as the boys and girls coach respectively, the two volleyball teams will travel to Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) for Tri-Cities in early September and Taejeon Christian International School for APAC in October. Tyler Kydd, the sophomore setter, commented that he is “really looking forward to this year’s season and will do anything that takes to get first place”.

As of right now, the cross country team has 22 people and is a very young team full of potential. Rahul Samtani, a sophomore runner, was excited about the upcoming season and was confident that “the team is very fast and can expect good results at APAC”. From September 14th to 16th, the cross country squad will travel to International School of Bangkok (ISB) for the Invitational Tournament and will fly to Hong Kong International School (HKIS) for the APAC tournament held in late October.

Carrie Brinkman and Phillip Webster are the two coaches for this year’s tennis team. During practice sessions, the tennis players learn a new skill every practice and play short games in the end to simulate match situations. They will be traveling to WAB in early September and October for both Tri-Cities and the APAC tournament. With two strong players not joining the team this year, Tony Hess, a senior, is somewhat concerned but is confident that “[they] will play at their best and achieve good results at APAC”.