Do We Have Enough Sports at ZIS?

*Crack*

The sound of the bat on the baseball rings through the field, and the spectators' heads whip around, suddenly paying attention. Even Mr. Hart, flipping burgers in the back, gives his attention to the game for a moment, not caring that he might overcook the meat.

The ball soars through the air to the outfield, almost leaving the park, but not quite. The outfielder is running as fast as he can. Suspense fills the air. "Will he catch it or not?" is the question everyone is silently asking. Finally, the ball hits the soft grass with a little *plunk* as the batter sprints around the bases, getting to third before stopping. The crowd is going wild, and Mr. Hart smiles as he continues to flip his burgers.

Wouldn't that be nice?

As two middle school girls at ZIS, we have both had experience playing sports and experienced the joy of being a part of a team within our ZIS community. Still, we think that the teams we have could offer more options. Our school doesn't have some sports that many people may have grown up playing, like baseball, boys volleyball, badminton and more.

One of the sports we think should be added is middle school boys' volleyball. We talked to Mr. Sullivan, a teacher, and coach at our school. He told us about his thoughts on adding boy's volleyball to our middle school sports roster. He said, "It's a sport that I wish we had offered in the past… there's certainly a lot of boys interested in volleyball. I think that it's a nice opportunity for us to expand our ATAC program." It’s good to know that there are boys interested who would want to play for a team if we had one.

We also talked to Theo Sparks, a 7th-grade boy interested in playing volleyball, and he said, “I think it would be nice to do a sport in spring [because] I really only do basketball [in winter]. It could [also] be a good chance to meet new people in and out of our school… It's fun, just working as a team.”

“It could be a good chance to meet new people in and out of our school. It's fun, working as a team”

-Theo Sparks

Like Theo, some male volleyball players have played for a while or have just started playing not too long ago. These players want to play and improve, but they don't have a place or coach.

Another club that our school offers is badminton, but non-competitive and as a recreation activity. In P.E, we also have a badminton unit where some people love to show their skills and compete, and if we teach badminton, shouldn't we be able to compete in it? We asked Ms. Mullens about the possibility of badminton, as she works in the ATAC office. She replied, "Recently, there has been interest in badminton and boys volleyball. Mr. Hart has worked to find gym space and competitions for these sports." So, if it is gym space limiting the sports our school offers, maybe the new middle school will allow more opportunities for sports.

Even though adding badminton and boys volleyball might be an option with our new school's gym space, we still need to have competition for those sports.

Mr. Sullivan also told us, "There are other schools [and clubs] in the area that have boys volleyball teams, and I think it'd be nice if we could go and have competitions against [them]." The International Schools Sports Tournament (ISST) is responsible for organizing international school sports, so we looked at their website.

According to the ISST website, other schools in the area that Mr. Sullivan referred to include Munich International School and Frankfurt International School. They both have boys volleyball and are schools against which we frequently compete. As for clubs in the area, many throughout Rüschlikon and Kilchberg have badminton and boys volleyball. The clubs are also much closer to our school than other international schools.

Badminton and volleyball are examples of sports that people have shown interest in and grew up playing, but are sports our school still lacks. If our school offered these sports, it would mean that students would have more options when choosing the sport they want to play and could play a sport they are passionate about playing.