From the Head of PE & Sport 24.02.2024

This week saw our U13’s FOBISIA Vipers take on 6 other schools from across Asia as part of the Orange Group FOBISIA Friendly Games. As you hopefully have seen through the school social media posts, it has been an exceptional week for the team full of highs and lows, but mostly making amazing memories and strengthening bonds of friendships through shared experiences. Read below the full report on the week from Mr Denyer. 

These trips would of course not happen without the continued support of parents. Thank you for seeing the potential value in what these opportunities present in the positive development of your child, and for doing your part in helping them achieve their goals. I hope that when your children wake up this morning (after a LONG well earned lie in) that they will be full of excitement and want to share with you all the amazing events of the past week. 

I’d also like to express my thanks to the staff team of Mr Denyer, Mr Richie and Ms Beresford who have ridden the emotional rollercoaster along with the students this past week. In every picture posted throughout the week you could not help but see the joy on every student’s face, the look of determination and focus when competing and the sheer pride in the smiles of those who claimed medals. Staff’s efforts over the 5 days ensured that our students were safe and well cared for and were able to enjoy the games to the fullest. Well done team!

U13 FOBISIA Games – The Vipers spirit is strong in this team! 

This week I’ve had the privilege to attend the U13 FOBISIA Games 2024 and I think it is quite possibly the best sporting opportunity I have seen in this region in my career for these young students.

Our journey started dark and early (5am) at KKIA where we had a lovely send off from the parents. We had a smooth but somewhat long journey through KLIA and onwards to Bangkok, arriving in Pattana Sports Resort in late afternoon. Throughout our journey curious travellers asked us about our trip and were intrigued to learn about the FOBISIA Games. I cannot express enough how well behaved our students were on the journey and have continued to be here in the resort. We couldn’t be any prouder and believe this is one small part of what makes up a great KIS student.

Day 1 is arguably one of the hardest with athletics in the morning and swimming after lunch. The great thing about this competition is that we don’t know much about our opponents so the main push all this week has been to “try their absolute best and whatever will be, will be”. Wow, have they done that! 26 medals;

2 x Gold

9 x Silver

15 x Bronze

All across such a wide variety of track and field events, truly showcasing the talent and determination they had. Their “best” was brilliant. This allowed us to finish in 4th place which they were extremely proud of when finding out in the gala dinner. 

In the afternoon we headed over to the pool for the swimming gala which consisted of 40 races. Arguably this is one of the hardest sports for us to train for, so coming away with 6 medals was an achievement. 

1 x Gold

1 x Silver

4 x Bronze

4 seemed to be our magic number as we lost count of the number of 4th place finishes we had that were painstakingly close to being a podium finish. Nevertheless the students remained in excellent spirits and rightly so as we took 6th place overall. 

Day 2 is basketball, with the boys playing a grueling round robin and the girls playing in 2 pools in order to progress into the semis and finals. Let’s start with the boys who won 2 and lost 4 to finish 5th place. There were no heavy defeats but luck was not on our side. We joked amongst ourselves that the shooting gods were not looking down on us that day as everything hit the rim and went out where as other teams took pot shots from anywhere and sadly for us they all seemed to drop. This joke kept the spirits high as they continued to work hard every game. The girls won convincingly in both their pool games, not conceding a single point. Progressing into the semi finals and finals, winning 9-4 and 8-4 respectively. I hope you have been lucky enough to see the video on social media of the boys counting down the end of the game for the girls and celebrating with them, this truly was their support for each other all this week. I have no shame in saying it brought a tear to our eyes multiple times. We are extremely proud of the girls becoming basketball champions.

Day 3 – Football. After an extremely taxing first 2 days of competitive sport, comes a day out in the sun playing football. It becomes a true test of courage, grit and sheer determination in order to be successful. Combine that with some luck of not having too many injuries from the first 2 days. The boys and girls followed the same competition setup as basketball. The boys drew 0-0 with a strong GIS team, followed by a convincing win against HIS, we then suffered losses to SIS and ISPU but redeemed ourselves against BXCL with another win. The tanks were well and truly depleted by the final game against TBS as we sadly suffered a defeat despite a spirited performance. They finished 4th overall which was a very fair result. The girls won 1-0, 3-0 and drew 1-1 with SIS, BXCL and TBS respectively to finish top of their group. They played ISPU in the semis and after drawing 2-2 during extra-time it went to a dreaded penalty shootout. Sadly, we lost 2-1 on penalties and the girls collectively rode a rollercoaster of emotions. Again the boys were brilliant in supporting them. Once they had collected themselves, they took a deep breath and went again for the bronze medal playoff game against GIS. With fatigue kicking in and another round of extra-time the girls managed to win 1-0 and add that bronze medal to their week’s collection. 

As I write this on our final night here I can’t help but look back on our exhausting, emotional and yet wonderfully rewarding week and be so full of pride for our KIS Vipers who represented the school so well. They portrayed the school in an excellent light with their behaviour, sportsmanship, support, care, success and effort. I look forward to them sharing their achievements and celebrating with the school community next week.

Go Vipers!!! – Mr Denyer

Liga SupaRimau Season A weekend wrap up

With some depleted sides as a result of the holidays last week and the departure of our U13’s FOBISIA squad, our Vipers teams did a great job to take the field and put in some commendable performances. 

Congratulations to the following players for being named Player of the match:

Under 12’s – Roy

Good luck to all teams taking the field today and tomorrow in their matches.

Round 5: Saturday 24th February/Sunday 25th February Matches below

FOBISIA News

With our U13 Vipers having returned late last night triumphantly, our full attention now turns to our ongoing preparations for our third and final Friendly Games with our youngest FOBISIA Vipers. 

Students were very excited to receive some of their Viper kit including their training shirt, hat and bag and are already wearing these with pride. 

Letters were emailed to parents yesterday with updates on flights, training and the amended final payment. There was a small error on the date of our outgoing flight from KL to BKK and so please see the corrected version below. 

Departing:

The final trip cost has now been confirmed as RM4800. This means the final payment is RM1800 and is due at the end of this term on Friday 22nd March. Please follow the payment directions given on the email. 

All training sessions will take place ONSITE next week. 

Vipers Fan Shirt Pre-order

It is with great excitement that I announce that all members of the KIS community can show their ‘true Viper colours’ by purchasing and sporting a Vipers Fan Shirt. 

Shirts will be available for purchase in the KIS uniform shop and also via the online shop shortly. However, we are offering a limited pre-order of shirts with a 5% discount and the opportunity to personalise your shirt with your name printed on the front. 

Shirts available for purchase in the store will be sold at RM50 but if you pre-order you can get them for RM45 with the added bonus of personalizing your shirt if you wish. 

Please complete the Google Form here with all your details and also attach proof of payment to confirm your order. 

Payments can be made in either cash to the front office or by bank transfer to the school account using the reference “Viper Fan *name*”

Beneficiary Name : Kinabalu International School

Banker : Malayan Banking Berhad

Account No. : 560 102 107 440

Swift Code : MBBEMYKL

Miss Catriona Watt

Head of PE and Sport