Summer’s out, school’s in, and the Varsity soccer teams are kicking back into gear. As they zealously initiate the season, the skillful players have aspirations and goals before heading off to IASAS in Kuala Lumpur this October.

With nine players whom had graduated and left ISB, the current Varsity girls’ team is fairly young, with players spread evenly across grades. They have already begun the season with immense positivity and determination, looking to improve on last year’s 3^rd place finish.

In terms of the girls’ anticipations, Varsity girls’ assistant coach, Lee O’Rourke has high hopes that the girls will (hopefully) “get a medal at IASAS.” However, success should not solely be measured by numbers, but rather by improvement.

Tori Alexander (12), one of the captains of the girl’s team believes that, “This is a very strong, hardworking team,” but “needs to work on playing together as a team through [their] communication and trust in each other’s abilities.”

Coach O’Rourke says fitness is an essential aspect of being successful since “on day 3 of IASAS when [the players are] exhausted, [the players] want to still be feeling strong & fit.” With fitness, she continues “our teams will be able to take it to our opponents.”

The boys’ Varsity team has started this season with prospects of reaching their full potential as a team this season.

Head Coach, Justin Wah describes the team as “quick, skilled, and intelligent,” being “similar to last year; [they] have a lot of technically good players, along with decent speed.”

Captain Nathan Scott (11), said that the team is “full of passionate football players which is all [they] need to reach [their] full potential.” Additionally, Jeff Kraprayoon (12) has noted that “everyone is showing great character and is willing to put 110% effort at practice,” and the determination shown already is “a really good sign, especially at this point in the season.”

The teams had mixed results at the recent exchange in Jakarta (Sept 12-13) with the boys winning two – 1-0 over SAS (Mingyu Shin) and 1-0 over ISKL (Hayuma Iwata) – while losing 4-3 to JIS (Shin, Iwata and Shafim Alam).  The girls beat JIS (2-0 with both goals by Margot Pottebaum), but lost to ISKL (3-1 – Grace Redding) and 4-0 to SAS.  The upcoming Friendship Tournament at ISB (Sept 26 and 27) will provide another test as teams continue to prepare for IASAS 2015.

by Sofi Sintes