On Thursday, April 9th of 2015, our boys’ and girls’ Varsity badminton teams headed off to Taipei, for the annual IASAS tournament. The teams worked incredibly hard all season to prepare for these final matches against the other IASAS schools. Although there was a lot of tough competition, our ISB Panthers succeeded in terms of staying determined and holding a positive attitude.
The girls’ team was intent on performing to the best of their abilities, and leaving nothing but hard work on the courts. The girls ended in a solid 3rd place overall, with 3 wins against ISM, ISKL, and JIS and 2 losses against TAS and SAS.
Co-Captain Mii Darakananda (12) exclaimed, “the team performed well beyond expectations.” She mentions, “there were nerves at the beginning. However, in the end, we put 100% on [their] efforts into all the games.” Furthermore, she says that the team’s main goal this year was to “work on teamwork and team bonding,” since “with a passionate and caring team comes being more motivated and determined.” She is proud to say their “goal was clearly met during IASAS.”
Mii also that the team’s goals for next year, which is to “develop accuracy and footwork, and keep up the team spirit.” The team will remain fairly young due to four members leaving this year; however, she believes that “they will be stronger than ever.”
The boys also started off with lots of excitement and high hopes for the next couple of days in Taipei. As they started off the season with only three returning IASAS players, extra work and determination were put into every practice leading up to the final IASAS tournament.
Co-Captain, Wit Charnsethikul (12) says that “throughout the season, [the] team trained hard in hopes of bringing back home a medal after last year’s second place in IASAS.” This was their main goal for the tournament, alongside “having a great team bond and for everyone to have fun playing badminton.” However, he goes on to say that he is “disappointed by the IASAS results this year,” as they finished in 6th place overall, although the team members “played strong, placing up amongst the top teams during exchange.”
Co-Captain Kris Ongvises (10) agrees and feels that “the team underperformed during IASAS.” However, Wit mentions that “this is still a young team full of potential, and this experience was definitely a lesson for all the younger players on the team to work harder next year.”
The boys’ team’s goal for next year is “to keep the support each individual had for one another and come to practice ready to improve their performance, running for every birdie hit to them whether it’s near or far.” Regardless of the final results this year, Wit acknowledges, “they gave it [their] best and was united as one.”
Both teams evidently worked hard all season building up to IASAS, and despite the results, they most certainly made our school proud!
Stella Kim
