Relationship between Panthers and Eagles

By Chika Tsumagari

I stood at the centre of the court, on top of the huge logo of ISKL, The International School of Kuala Lumpur. I was ready for the tip-off, but there was some unknown complication among the referees, so I took the chance to talk to the ISKL panther standing in front of me. I offered my hand to wish them luck, and I shared with her that this was my last time at ISKL, and my last time competing against them. She took my hand to shake it but told me that she still had future games against Dalat since she was only a junior. 

The game started and I was able to tip the basketball to Lauren Worten (12), our captain and point guard, who was waiting for the ball behind me. We beat ISKL 29 to 16; it was a clean win. Our skills and teamwork lead us to 4 total victories against the Panthers this season. The victory was well deserved, and I have no doubt about that, but I couldn’t help but feel slightly sad when we finished the game. 

Sharon Kang (12), Joycelyn Fung (12), Haylee Douglas (12), Nicole Khor (12), and I have played in the same team since 7th grade and have played against ISKL many times. Not only for basketball but for soccer and volleyball as well. There were many defeats and victories, making ISKL our best rival school. But the thought of never playing them or coming to their school again was bittersweet. Our other captain, Haylee Douglas (12) says, “I think it was really cool that I was playing with the same people on my team at ISKL in 8th grade when we lost all our games to now winning all our games against them.”

Unfortunately for the boys’ varsity basketball team, it was more of a bitter finish in ISKL. Their skill levels were much closer to one another, so each game was always intense. Their last game was painful to watch. Three of their starters were injured, there were many biased calls against Dalat by the referees and much unsportsmanlike conduct from the panthers’ players. Though our boys came very close to winning, the panthers took the victory in the end. 

Nevertheless, the captain of the team Soo Wei Goh (12) took it as a growing experience and said, “I’m proud of the guys who stepped up their game and our team grew a lot. This experience prepared us for ACSC.”  

We’ve had our sweet and maybe more bitter moments with ISKL. We never really became friends, and they’ve said some nasty stuff about our school. But I’m glad we had a rival school that pushed us to become better and challenged our sportsmanship. I will admit, they made our basketball season more interesting.