Champions of ACSC Boys Soccer 2022

By Daewon No

The Dalat boys varsity soccer team became the champions and succeeded in bringing the trophy back home from the ACSC Boys Soccer Tournament that was held in ICS Bangkok from October 19th to the 22nd. Led by Mr. van, the main coach, and Coach Ben, the boy's soccer team triumphed and claimed the title of being undefeated the whole tournament.

The boys played 6 games in total, including the championship match. They played Faith and ICS-BKK on the first day and achieved big wins with a score of 4-1 against Faith and 5-0 against ICS-BKK. 

The game against Grace on the second day was a very tough and close game for the boys, but they managed to win by a last-minute goal. 

The boys continued to win both games on the third day and kept their winning streak. They won 2-0 against YISS and 3-1 against Morrison. 

They ended up in 1st place for Round Robin Play with 15 points. ICS-BKK placed 2nd place, so they were scheduled to play in the championship match the next day. 

The championship game was very intense, and it could’ve gone either way. Both teams played exceptionally well and were evenly matched. ICS-BKK had come prepared and were very different from their game against Dalat in the Round Robin play. 

The first half passed by with no goals, and both teams were getting into the game and careful not to be the first to concede. Then came the second half, which was even more intense and close. Josiah Andrews (11) scored the first goal of the game just a few minutes after the start of the second half, and Dalat was in the lead. Not long after, Dalat gave away a penalty. The opponent didn’t miss their chance and scored the penalty along with another open play goal throughout the game. Now the score was 2-1 to ICS, and people started to think it was over. However, with only around 4 minutes left on the clock, Soo Wei Goh (12) came to the rescue and scored an equalizing goal that saved Dalat from losing the game. The game carried on to extra time. Dalat pressed hard from the start of the game, which led to a poor pass by the opponent’s defense. Then Daewon No (12) intercepted the ball, went through multiple defenders while almost crawling on the ground, and scored a potential winning goal only a minute into the half. Dalat immediately changed to a defensive formation and fought hard until the end of the game to defend their goal. The final whistle blew, indicating the end of the game, and Dalat had won 3-2. They had now become ACSC Champions. 

Noah Kaney (12), one of the two captains of the Dalat soccer team, when asked about the team’s performance in the tournament, remarked, “I think we played well as a team; we fought hard the whole tournament and stayed focused. We never gave up and gave it our all to the end, and it paid off.” 

Apart from the team award, Jay Lohman (12), Romeo Kontsas (10), Noah Kaney (12), and Daewon No (12) received the All tournament award; Noah Kaney (12) also received the MVP, and Daewon No (12), the golden boot. 

Left Behind

By Haylee Douglas

As the ACSC teams head off to their countries to play in the prestigious tournament, the girl's soccer team is left behind to watch them compete from a distance and support them through live streams and cheers.

Being on the girl's soccer team is possibly one of the best things about being involved in Dalat athletics. We get to form bonds with different grades, we get to run and cry together, and we get to have ice cream after training together. But the saddest part of girl's soccer is we have to wait through a whole other sports season until we get to go to ACSC. While watching the other teams go on ACSC through Instagram, we have to attend classes. While the different Season 1 sports are eating out, we eat the same Dalat cafeteria food. 

The only upside of being left behind in season 1 is that we get to watch whatever ACSC is going on at Dalat. So like the good team we are, we went to cheer on our volleyball boys. We made posters and screamed as loud as we could. But sitting in the bleachers made us long to go on our wonderful ACSC trip to Korea. With the ACSC fever going on around Dalat, my dreams became consumed with the thoughts of the girl's soccer team winning our ACSC.

When we saw that the boy's varsity soccer team had won, we were so happy and proud of them. But that only made us want to play soccer even more, hoping we could win too. Senior and captain of the girl's soccer team, Lauren Worten, said, "Sometimes I wish I were a boy, so I could go on ACSC first season." While senior and midfielder of the girl's soccer team, Joycelyn Fung, said, "I felt unwanted and belittled, #girlsplaysoccerfirstseasontoo." 

With all this said, hopefully, ACSC will one day consider moving girls' soccer ACSC to the first season so that we aren't left behind while all the other first-season sports teams go on to achieve great things at ACSC.

 

Vocal Voyages

By Hazel Chan

On September 29th, some choir kids got to skip most of the school day to catch a plane. The BICF (Bangkok International Choral Festival) was an annual event, but it hadn’t happened for a few years, so it was nice to get to sing with other people again. Most of the students that went on the trip had never been before, so they didn’t really know what to expect. Adelina Chee (12) was one of those and when asked about how she felt, replied, “I feel like this trip will be a good opportunity to learn from a different perspective and I’m really excited to meet new people.” 

We ended up having to fly to KL first because our direct flight to Thailand got cancelled about a week prior to our trip. Most of us were quite hungry by the time we reached the KL airport, but there were no restaurants and almost everything was closed besides this one noodle shop. I went to the noodle shop with two other friends, and we all ordered the same thing. The noodles were edible, but very salty and incredibly overpriced. Everything in the shop was overpriced, even the bottled water. 

After the noodles, we all needed water to balance our sodium intake. Larissa Lee (12) ran out of water, so I decided to accompany her to look for a refill station because all the shops were either closed or didn’t sell bottled water. The closest working refill station ended up being at the hall that our boarding gate was in. As soon as we got water, the last call for our flight was announced so we had to rush back. “That was so stressful, but at least I got some water,” she said when I asked her if it was worth almost missing our flight. 

Our two days of rehearsals at ISB (International School Bangkok) mostly consisted of us slowly perfecting the pieces we’d been practicing for the last two months. The five pieces we had to perform were quite challenging because three of them were in different languages and there was one piece that included an intimidating amount of body percussion that we had to memorize. 

Overall, the trip was a good experience. Singing in a new environment with a different conductor, surrounded by different people was a nice change. 

Eagles Soar Over the Panthers in KL

By Kai Ru Bok

During a quiet Friday morning, nearly half of the high school disappeared from school. Last Friday, September 30th, the varsity boys and girls volleyball teams, varsity boys and girls soccer teams, and junior varsity boys and girls volleyball teams set off to Kuala Lumpur to write the sequel to their battle with ISKL (International School Kuala Lumpur) after the Spike and Strike Tournament.

The boys varsity volleyball team proved better after beating the ISKL boys on home ground, but tensions were high during the days leading up to the Twin Towers Tourney as people wondered how the team would fare playing in the home of the panthers. After a shaky first game against Blockbusters, the boys set their sights on showing their local rivals once again who was the superior team. 

The varsity boys’ team captain, Isaac Lee (11), recalled not being “intimidated by them at all, unlike [the] first game [in Penang].” He continued, “Sure, they were all half a foot taller, but I knew we had better teamwork. Knowing what our team and I can do, I knew we could beat them.” 

Starting the set, the boys fought the early-game butterflies but soon found their rhythm, creating a massive difference in points. ISKL struggled with miscommunication and simple mistakes, costing them the first set. 

Middle blocker, Aaron Andrews (9), huddled the team together before the start of the second set, reminding the team to “keep pushing and not be complacent.” Unfortunately, the Eagles fell short in the second set when ISKL quickly overcame their shortcomings in the first set. 

As the whistle sounded, signaling the start of the third and final set, the eagles huddled together one last time before stepping onto the court. The chant of the twelve boys echoed throughout the gym, followed by the cheers and screams of the varsity boys and girls soccer teams. 

After a hard-fought battle to fifteen points, outside hitter, Benjamin Yeoh (12), said, “Winning a close match against ISKL was the highlight of the trip. It felt great to beat our rivals at home and then a week later in KL. I am also really grateful for the soccer teams who came out to support us. It made us feel like we were playing back in Sandycroft.” 

In the short time the boys have been back in Penang, they have been working to patch up the holes in individual and team play in preparation for ACSC on October 18-22. Each of the team members feels confident for ACSC and hopes to bring home a trophy for Dalat. 

We Sing as One

By Adelina Chee

As the cabin lights dimmed, the pilot's voice crackled through the speaker: “The time is 8:45 pm, temperature is 28 Celsius. We will be landing soon and would like to give a special welcome to Dalat International School’s choir.”

Three hours earlier, our choir class boarded a plane to Thailand to attend the Bangkok International Choir Festival (BICF). Choirs from different schools gathered to perform with a guest conductor. 

On the plane ride, the group had another chance to bond. A lack of Wi-fi caused boredom for some of them. Others observed the surroundings while waiting in the flight. A seemingly attractive guy showed everyone demonstrations for emergencies on the plane. Some anonymous individuals discreetly expressed, “That guy is cute!!!” It clearly motivated some of us to listen during in-flight safety. Meanwhile, a stoic man in front of us gripped his device up to watch downloaded YouTube videos. As Hazel Chan described it, “He watched weird cartoons first, then car cleaning asmr videos, before turning to drum tutorials on his phone.” And of course, we watched along with him. Others took a good nap to refresh themselves. There were many ways to spend time on the short flight.

Quite a few of us went on school trips this week—for choir and for sports. Realizing that he would attend normal classes while many others traveled, David Kim expressed, “I feel that happiness and meaning can be found in the simple trivialities of life, and it does not require any special events… also, normal class is just normal class.” Indeed. The appreciation for simple things really enriches life. However, the ones who went on trips this week had many great things to say. 

Regarding our choir trip, Braden Abdulla said it was fun and that he especially enjoyed the “experience of performing in front of a large audience.”

“The best memory was that night at the hotel lobby when we were talking and having fun,” Abdulla added. After rehearsals, our group had free time to relax at the hotel before the next day.

When asked about his favorite song, Abdulla said, “I liked singing Huxi the most because of the melodic structure and how it incorporates two cultures.” Our choir sang with lyrics in different languages: Arabic, Mandarin, Bahasa, and English. The song Huxi by Ng Cheuk Yin featured lyrics in Mandarin and English sections that unified the whole piece. Its lyrics, including ‘breathe as one’ and ‘we sing as one’ inspired the choir and audience to express themselves in one voice. 

In the end, the choir class had a memorable experience attending the festival; almost all of us would do it again given the chance.

Concert at Chevron Theatre,  Photo Credit: ISB

An Expedition into the Heart of Art

By Trevor Nichols

On September 8, the world changed forever. For the first time in Dalat history, some art students finally got to go on an interstate trip - an event marking the beginning of a rise to compete with the all-revered Bangkok trip of the Music department. 

As the long awaited school bell rang at 3:10, the art students scattered across the school - seemingly controlled by a hive mind - began to assemble. As the students gathered at the upper field gate, the fizz of excitement in the air could easily compete with the hot Malaysian sun. As we piled into the bus, Julien Goh (12), an honorary art student, holds up a trash bag to me. 

Goh stated, “I believe that Mrs. Nichols did me a disservice by not letting me go on the art trip. Even so, I feel as if I was an integral part of the art trip as I contributed profusely by giving Trevor Nichols (12) a trash bag before he left. By bringing the trash bag, the otherwise boring art trip turned out a success. You are welcome, Mrs. Nichols.”

The seemingly unstoppable force of excitement of the students has apparently met an immovable object: the seniors’ singing chanting of Christmas music. It was, however, replenished the morning after as we went on our first expedition.

Memebank, the name of the first place we visited, was inspired by the unfairness of government regulated money, criticizing the oddly convenient printing of money by comparing it with the “printing” of meme currencies. Red Hong Yi, a famous Malaysian artist and founder of the Memebank, led our very first workshop, talking of her methods, art pieces, and life story, as well as about the importance of meaning, teamwork, and technique in art. After the talk, she led a quick group project on expressing emotions and feelings through art.

Next was UrMu, a five-story more modern art private gallery. In the words of Lei Tee (12) “URMU offered a lot of food for thought, and I was a hungry mind. I consumed a lot, and my mind became... satiated.” UrMu offered a wide variety of art, ranging from political satire, influential people, to places. As Tee carefully stated, it offered much food for thought, which the crowd of students much appreciated.

The last modern gallery we visited was the Ilham Tower. It contained some of the most modern art we viewed as a group on this trip. In my personal opinion, it sheds the most light on what art means in an age where technical skill can easily be mimicked by digital devices. We dove into the deeper meaning behind these art pieces, not only in technique, but motives as well. Steven Shen (12) said, “I think it’s intriguing to see art presented in a non-traditional manner, it really opened my eyes to what art is and the importance of presentation.”

The very last gallery we visited was the National Art Gallery. This gallery displays a variety of pieces, sorted into categories, each serving a purpose in describing Malaysian Culture or History. Shen (12) claimed, “I think most of the exhibits are created by Malaysian artists and it provided me with a better insight into how people from different cultural backgrounds view subjects differently.”

Overall, each gallery offered a vastly different experience for the art students, forever changing their lives and their view on art. In the words of Tee (12), “Each gallery had its own style and emphasis, but I enjoyed visiting all of them."