ISKL Invitational: Balls and Giggle

Felicia Teoh

At approximately 8 o’clock on Friday morning, January 20^th, the girls’ and the boys’ varsity basketball teams boarded the bus to Kuala Lumpur. During the six-hour bus ride, some people watched Korean dramas, some played cards, some listened to music, some talked, and others slept. The students arrived to Flamingo Hotel at around 2:30p, where they rested for an hour before the girls’ game at 4:30p.

After the first game of the ISKL invitational, with an 11-48 loss, the girls showered and then cheered on the boys, who had a 54-38 win against ISKL. A little discouraged by the loss but mostly famished, the girls then headed on to dinner at Suzy’s corner, which served wonderful steak, curry, satay, naan, and much more. Stomachs filled and satisfied smiles on their faces, the girls trekked back to the hotel, depantsing each other and shrieking along the way. 

The girls had an hour till curfew, so they all gathered in the freshmen’s room. After going through some pertinent information about the day ahead, Coach Steinkamp left the girls to their own business, saying, “Remember, with girls, one giggle leads to another giggle, which leads to a whole mob of giggling girls.”

Inevitably, fits of giggles and muffled shrieks erupted that night. What else could you expect from a group of girls locked in a room together? Even through the one hour of bonding time, the girls grew a lot closer to each other. After all, teams who fart together, stay together—debunking all the myths that girls do not fart.

The next morning, the girls had a quick meal at McDonald’s before heading to ISKL for their morning game against ISKL. The other basketball club team had dropped out of the ISKL Invitational, so the girls would face the Panthers for the next two games yet again.

During the first game that day, the girls were able to practice running the play that they’d been working on for the past two weeks and take more shots in that game than they had in any other game of the season. Even though they lost to ISKL 25-61, it was the first game that the girls’ varsity basketball team had broken through 20 points.

In the following game, the Dalat girls ran a high-press defense against ISKL, which worked successfully for the first quarter. Dalat Eagles were able to hold the ISKL Panthers at 4-6. Unfortunately, the girls didn’t make any more baskets for about two quarters and ended the game and tournament with a loss.

“It was really fun to get to practice things we’ve been working on and to bond with the team,” said Mikaela Steinkamp (10). Even though the weekend consisted of loss after loss for the girls, they were not completely disheartened by the score and were, instead, motivated by the skills they had learned and the improvements they had made in their defensive and offensive plays. Not being bogged down by the losses, the girls were able to joke around and have fun with each other, which is the core of building strong team chemistry.