Eagles Ready for Take Off!

Karl Chan

After a five-day Chinese New Year break, everyone is excited to be back in school to see all their friends. However, the varsity basketball players’ thoughts might differ from the rest.

On Monday, February 11, we, the varsity basketball boys, headed to Korea to compete in the biggest tournament of the season: ACSC; the same goes for the varsity basketball girls, but they went to the Philippines on Tuesday, February 12. Given that it’s the biggest tournament for our school, it’s not surprising that the varsity basketball players, including myself, are very nervous.

Out of the 8 schools in the conference, there has only been one time in Dalat’s history when we got first place in ACSC (which was in soccer). All the varsity sports teams would try to rewrite history by getting first place. Unfortunately, the varsity soccer and volleyball boys, as well as the varsity volleyball girls, couldn’t get the job done this year (the track team competes in ACSC in March and the varsity soccer girls in April). Now, it’s time for the varsity basketball players to make our shot at it.

With this year’s basketball rosters, the dream for reaching first place in ACSC could be a reality. Both the varsity boys and girls have trained extremely hard just for this annual tournament. While thinking about the team’s capability this year, the boys’ varsity basketball captain Sam Castro (12) said, “I think we have the opportunity to perform really well this year with the men we have. Our confidence grows as the tournament comes closer. I have faith in all the men that step on the court representing Dalat.”

It cost us lots of time and sweat to make these teams reach for its maximum potential; ACSC is the best place to show the results of our training.

If the varsity basketball team doesn’t come back with any medals, just know that we gave everything we could. Anyone who is involved in Dalat’s sports programs would know that we, as Dalat athletes, fight until the game ends. We would never surrender to any team, regardless of the score. Even if we’re down by 10, 20, or even 100 points, we’ll still give the opponent a hard time. Our mascot is an eagle for a reason: we don’t look down onto the ground, but we look upwards and soar up high through the sky—above all others.

ACSC logo. Photo Credit: ACSC main page