The senior girls’ basketball team welcomes girls born in 1997 – 1999. Last year we had some very strong players but unfortunately we lacked in numbers, which meant that we were held back in practice and in games. This year however, plenty of new players entered the team and suddenly we realised that we could do really well this year. We practice twice a week after school – Thursdays and Fridays.
The team is as follows:
- Eileen Hahn (Captain)
- Flor Ruggia
- Hanae Nakajima
- Hazel Ferguson
- Rosie Ashworth
- Kiah Williams
- Daniella Swanepoel
- Daniela Andonova
- Mia Clerc
- Laura Hebbel
- Anna-Grace Ogden
- And last but not least, Coach McKinzie
The main leagues we play in are ADISR (Suisse-Romande), SGIS (international schools in Switzerland) and SCIS, which we joined last year, which involves international schools from all over Europe. We started this year strongly in the ADISR league. We had to play four teams: our fellow Ecolint school LGB, Leysin American School, International School of Lausanne, and finally Collège du Léman. The first two teams would get through to the final.
We played LGB first on 1st October. All our games this season were away games, which meant no home support and long bus rides. This bus ride was no exception – we spent ages in Geneva traffic to play four 8-minute quarters, running clock. Thankfully the time spent on the bus was not in vain, as we won 34-19 – a good start for the first game of the season.
The next game on 14th October took us all the way up the mountain to Leysin. We had to adjust to the narrow court and lower baskets, but managed to beat the home team 48-21 – feeling good as our score had been too high for the volleyball scoreboard.
On 26th October, we headed to Lausanne to play our third ADISR match. We felt confident following our two recent wins and the progress the team had made. We still hadn’t managed to bring the whole team to a match yet, but we all knew each other, and everyone was eager to play, so we were able to cope with a constantly changing team. This showed in the 50-20 win we got over ISL that day.
We knew our final game on 29th October against CDL would be the toughest – but thankfully we knew we had already progressed to the final as a result of our winning performances against the other three schools. Anticipating the same team in the final, we knew that this would not be the last time we played CDL, but that wouldn’t stop us from trying our best in this match. Unfortunately, not all of our players could come, and we didn’t play as well as we could have done, losing 46-27 to a great team. The senior boys’ loss managed to provide a bit of consolation for us. However, our hopes for the ADISR title are still alive, as we play at CDL on 24th November.
Our biggest success so far was at the recent SGIS tournament at Aiglon. Six other teams were present: ISL, Aiglon, LGB, KLAS (Kumon Leysin Academy of Switzerland), LAS (Leysin American School) and Zuoz. It was a round-robin, which meant that we played all the teams, and whoever had the most points/won the most matches came first. There was no final and the games were only two 8-minute halves, which meant that we could not afford to start slowly in any match. Our biggest competition was KLAS, the 2014 winners. We felt quite confident going into the tournament as we had already played and beaten three of the teams (LAS, LGB and ISL). This also happened to be the first time that all 11 players had been able to come to a match or tournament. Fortunately, we managed to win all of our games with convincing margins considering the short length of the games, pushing KLAS into second place. The sunny weather and the picturesque views of the mountains made for perfect photo opportunities outside with the trophies and the medals.
Looking towards 2016, we head to Vienna at the end of January for the annual SCIS tournament, our biggest of the whole season. In 2016 we have a lot more games at home, and would appreciate some support from La Chât!
The Update 