- Sport
The school year 2024-2025 was another very successful year for our Hangzhou International School Golden Dragon student athletes, who continued to represent themselves and our school exceptionally well.
VOLLEYBALL
Volleyball started our Athletics calendar, as our Varsity teams again headed to Jeju, South Korea for their invitational tournament. The trip included a cultural day around the island, allowing the student to experience some of the rugged scenery, culture and cuisine. The action on the court was of a very high standard and gave our teams a gauge of the level they would be working towards throughout the season.
Later, ACAMIS success in Hong Kong was within reach of both teams with boys and girls in contention after the round robin games and ultimately placing 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Middle School Volleyball continued to be a positive steppingstone to the Varsity teams, with students from Grades 5-8 honing their fundamentals and enabling multiple teams to compete at both CISSA and HISAC tournaments. The U14 boys were the standout in this age group, with a U14 HISAC Championship to show for their fine season.
BASKETBALL
Varsity Basketball season is always a scheduling challenge, with Winter Break and Spring Festival interrupting preparations and making it difficult for players and coaches alike to develop consistency and build into the season-ending tournaments. Nevertheless, the boys started the season strongly with wins at both Ningbo and HISAC tournaments.
Middle School Basketball saw continued strong numbers in the boys’ teams, with the girls starting slowly but building into their season and keen to continue attending practices, even after the end of the season—a great sign!
Four boys’ teams attended the CISSA event and played their best basketball of the season, which highlighted the tremendous progress they had made from the very raw skills and understanding they presented with at the season’s first practices.
FOOTBALL
Varsity Football season was the highlight this year, with HIS hosting the Green Division ACAMIS Tournament—the first time ACAMIS Football has been to HIS since 2019. Our teams were excited to play in front of our HIS community as the sidelines were packed with students, teachers, and the always loud and partisan parent PAFA Cheer Squad.
With the tournament being held earlier than usual in March, it didn’t allow as much preparation as usual for the teams but they both went in full of confidence having already returned from HISAC and Ningbo tournaments as champions.
The overall standard of the ACAMIS tournament was the best I have seen in my seven years at HIS. After three days of hard play, the Boys team retained its ACAMIS Championship, going back-to-back with a convincing 5-0 win in their final, led by Grade 12 student Gaspard. The girls were hampered by injuries as the tournament progressed and fell a little short of their lofty pre-tournament expectations, finishing in 4th place.
Our Middle School football teams are going through a rebuilding phase with the boys having huge numbers at practice, including many Grade 5 and 6 players with plenty of development to come in the next few years. The girl’s squad was light on numbers but still put together some solid performances, including victory at HISAC which was the 5th consecutive win at that event dating back to 2020.
TENNIS
For the first time HIS was represented at SISAC in Tennis. Grade 9 student Simão was the sole representative and played a very consistent tournament which saw him come back from a loss in the early days play to progress to the final and win our first ever SISAC Tennis Championship.
The new 2025 ACAMIS Tennis Championships will now include a singles format as well as team event, so we look forward to seeing him and a growing number of HIS tennis players represent us at that event in October.
GOLF
Another individual sport with growing participation at HIS is Golf. This year we sent a team of seven students ranging from Grades 5 to 11 to Hainan for the ACAMIS Championships.
The younger students were thrilled to be playing in their first ever tournament and learnt a lot from the experience, returning to Hangzhou with renewed motivation to continue their development. Of our four Upper School student athletes competing, Grade 6 Mia was the standout with a second-place overall finish with an outstanding two-round score of 150.
TABLE TENNIS
Table Tennis at HIS has some great talent coming through the younger age groups, well-supported by a group of High School students who are helping to mentor the younger athletes.
The ACAMIS format this year reverted to a team event with no individual competition. Four teams of three players went to Beijing and competed against the best international school students in China. Our Boys team of Alan, Micah and Vidor finished in 4th place from 28 teams, and the girls’ team of Alice, Wendy and Amy also finished in 4th from 14 teams.
Our Middle School players also tasted success at the HISAC tournaments with a swag of medals and podium finishes across all divisions.
BADMINTON
Badminton is among the most popular sports at HIS based on student participation, particularly in Middle School. Our 14 courts are barely enough to meet demand when we have our practices, which is a good problem to have.
While our Middle School players were having fun at HISAC and Shanghai CISSA events, our Varsity Team went to Beijing and confronted an incredibly high standard of play at their ACAMIS event.
Our team of eight competed in the teams event and although they didn’t make a huge impact on the leaderboard, they certainly enjoyed their time there and learned a lot about what a high standard of badminton looks like.
ULTIMATE FRISBEE
HIS made its debut appearance at ACAMIS Ultimate Frisbee this year, which was another highlight for me. This sport is growing in popularity throughout China and the HIS students have joined in the fun.
Altogether 14 students made their way to Shenyang and despite being relatively new and inexperienced, they made the most of their trip by engaging with students from other schools, learning new techniques and movement patterns, and coming back to Hangzhou with a new passion for this fast-paced sport.
They were deserving recipients of the Spirit of ACAMIS Trophy, which recognizes the team with the best sportsmanship, team ethic and ambassadors for their school. Next year, the Middle School and Varsity seasons will be aligned in the Spring, which will enable both Middle School and High School students to experience the ACAMIS action.
TRACK & FIELD
Our Track and Field athletes continued to run, throw and jump their way to success this year. Over 30 athletes competed at competitions in Nanjing, Shanghai and Beijing during the season and produced results that saw them earn ACAMIS Championship honors in five events in Beijing—Grade 10 Joey in Long Jump and Triple Jump, Grade 10 Ayrad in 110m Hurdles and 400m Hurdles, and Grade 8 Jiyu in Discus.
The team continues to grow in numbers in the Middle School years, and this should bear fruit in coming years as they get more development and competition experience. From next year Track and Field will also be on the HISAC event schedule so the team will have many opportunities locally and nationally to compete.
THANK YOU, COACHES
As always, our student-athletes could not have had so many amazing experiences this year without the guidance of their coaches.
Altogether 42 faculty members were involved in coaching our teams this year and they continued to provide not just technical and tactical advice, but the role modelling, compassion, and motivation that students need through the ups and downs of an athletics season.
This year we bid farewell to some coaches who have made very significant contributions to our HIS Dragons teams so I’d like to send a very special thank you to them: Coach Hobson will depart as Head Coach of our back-to-back ACAMIS Boys Football Champions, and is a coach who epitomizes the qualities that a youth coach should have as a role model and mentor to many young men at HIS.
Coach Hendricks has also been very impactful in both our Volleyball and Track and Field programs for the last three years and has brought vast experience to our throwers in the Track team, highlighted by several ACAMIS winners in these events.
Coach Bull-Beddows has not only supported the Track team, but on numerous occasions been recruited to share his knowledge and experience in the field of sports psychology with various Varsity teams as they prepare for the mental challenges of a big tournament.
Shout-out also to Coach Nichola, who has not coached this year to focus on our Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award program but is a two-time ACAMIS Girls Volleyball Championship coach in 2021 and 2023 and much-loved by her team members.
LET'S GO CHEER SQUAD!
Finally, our HIS Cheer Squad continues to bring passion and support to all our teams across all corners of China and Asia. It is such a bonus for our students to have support of their parents, friends and family members on the sidelines.
Sometimes the cheering serves to motivate, on other occasions it serves to console and comfort our young athletes. Our Cheer Squad has developed a reputation near and far for their passion and spirit and on behalf of all of our athletes and coaches, I thank you for your support.
LOOKING AHEAD TO THIS SEASON
The year ahead for HIS Athletics will bring more exciting opportunities for our students. HIS has received an invitation to join the SCISAC Conference, which is for Under 15 athletes in the three core sports of Volleyball, Basketball and Football.
This conference includes Nanjing International School, YCIS-Chongqing, Xiamen International School, Hong Kong Academy, and TIS Macao.
Our Grade 8 and 9 students will get to have a 3-day residential tournament each year which will be a good progression from Middle School sports to the ACAMIS High School events. The Dragon Cup will also be revived next year, with four-team Division 1 and Division 2 Varsity tournaments in Volleyball, Basketball, Football and Badminton involving HIS, SCIS-HQ, SCIS-PD and SSIS-SZ.
Golfers will also have more regular events next year with closer ties with the China Junior PGA allowing for students to compete regularly in events through the year, earning points which could qualify them for Junior PGA tournaments in the United States.
And 2025-2026 will also see the introduction of a Sports Advisory Committee at HIS comprising of students and coaches, who will be sharing ideas and implementing new initiatives to improve experiences and opportunities for all student athletes at HIS.