SILVER for the TIGERS

If you've been following our blog you'll know about the basketball team. This is the very first year the school has had a girls' basketball team. When the team started back in late November the girls had never played basketball and the only knowledge they had about basketball was through their PE classes.

They went to a tournament in Hong Kong and another in Shenzhen and on both occasions they lost all their games. BUT-they've been working hard. Very hard. 7 hours a week they have been practicing. They've had fitness sessions on Saturdays. They've learned how to dribble, pass and shoot in the span of a few months.

The school hosted an International basketball tournament the weekend before last and 8 teams from as far away as Mongolia attended. This was wonderful news because it meant the girls would have fans. And did they ever have fans! Almost the entire school of roughly 880 students came out to watch the games that were during the day on the Friday. I got to bring Amanda's class over to watch since she needed a sub in order to coach. It was unbelievable. The crowd was filled with kids who had made posters and painted their faces. They chanted and cheered. And I got to watch Kylisha play and win two basketball games in front of the huge crowd.


The next morning they won again and this put them in the championship game late on Saturday. A pretty amazing feat for a group of girls who had never played before.

Unfortunately they lost their last game, but walked away with silver on a weekend when they weren't even expected to win a game. Pretty unbelievable!

Amanda and her co-coach just can't stop gushing about how proud they are of their little team. Trust me-I hear about it FREQUENTLY.

Kylisha was also nominated as a member of the "All-Tournament Team" at the banquet and awards dinner they had on the Saturday night. Now it's my turn to be proud.

Amanda and Kylisha at the tournament banquet:




P.S. Soccer started Monday.