Last year a monumental leap towards uniting international schools in Samui took place as four of the biggest schools for expat and local children on the island coordinated and formed the SSFL.
With the leadership and planning of Mr Sam Cosslett, Teacher of ICT & PE and now the Head of Senior School here at ISS, matches were scheduled and organised throughout the whole academic year. And since September 2017, a total of 12 fixtures had taken place among ISS, Oonrak, Panyadee and SCL international school.
The final match was on the 27th of April where the ISS football teams hosted players from Panyadee in our Sports hall. Our teams did really well and gave it their best for their final game of Season 1. Click on the image above to access full album on Flickr.
Our very own ISS girls played really well defending their teams. Both the U11 and U14 girls' matches ended up in a draw (1-1 and 0-0 respectively). That said, this did not change their standing in the league overall
-- both in second place.
For our U11 boys, it was technically a practice match since they had already scooped up the trophy in their category -- as we have written previously. ISS' U-14 boys just put their foot down and scored 3 against 1, however this wasn't enough to earn the trophy in their category. Congratulations to Panyadee U-14 boys team who amassed a total of 12 points, whilst Oonrak and ISS tied in second place with 9 points each.
Congratulations to Panyadee who bagged most of the trophies:
ISS topped the league due to technical default when SCL closed. This was a result of a unified decision by the coaches of all the schools involved. That decision was to stick with the original rules set when they formed the league:
Failure to compete: If for any reason one team cannot complete a fixture before the end of the season they will receive 0 points and the opposition will receive 3, each win will be awarded as 3 goals to 0. This is open for appeal pending evidence of attempts to rearrange fixture.
Overall, as part of the ISS British ethos, we emphasise to our students that it is wonderful to win but at the end of the day, it's not all about winning. Our main purpose is to train our students to prepare for any battle, take part, give their best and learn from the experience.
We are delighted to see that the league has taken off and should contribute to the amicable relations we have with other international schools on the island.