International Ballers!

By Alexia Nyul

Last week, both the girls’ and boys’ varsity basketball teams traveled to different countries to compete in ACSC. The girls traveled to Hong Kong to play against other schools in ICS Hong Kong, and the boys traveled to Jakarta to compete in SPH.

Aside from playing basketball, eating, and sleeping, players were also given the opportunity to serve the communities in which they stayed and even tour the city at night. For their service project, the girls’ team packed “shine bags” filled with first aid supplies and bread vouchers and later walked Hong Kong in groups and handed them out to the cardboard collectors who work for hours at a time on the streets of Hong Kong. This service project gave the girls a deeper appreciation for the people who do hard manual jobs and gave us a space to grow friendships with people outside of Dalat. 

For the seniors on the team, ACSC week was an emotionally charged week with wild rollercoasters of the joys of winning their games and mourning the end of their season. 

Kyra Brewster, a junior on the team, said “I really enjoyed having the opportunity to have such a great bonding experience with my team and to have the opportunity to tour around Hong Kong and play against other amazing girls.” 

Although the girls had a great start to the tournament, placing at the top of their pool, they had a hard time in eliminations, placing fifth overall. 

Drew Worten, a senior on the boys team, said, “ACSC was a really fun time hanging out with friends and other schools. We had a rough start, but we persevered, and we never gave up, making it all the way to third place.” After placing second to last in their pool, the boys were able to quickly pull it together and keep their heads up to make their climb in eliminations to third place.