  The Lincoln Community School in Accra hosted the tournament this time and there was a great atmosphere at the LCS venues. Our coaches and athletics director, as well as our school admin team, did a fantastic job to organise and prepare everyone. There were many athletes from 10 groups - 9 international schools from Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, plus one swimming club from Ghana. Following the opening/welcome ceremony with music, dance and drumming, we launched into the competitions. This was a huge organisational feat – managing 10 school groups with many swimming races and basketball games to arrange over two days. The athletes stayed with host families - we all felt very welcome. The Jaguars looked impressive in their yellow and black school colours throughout the tournament.
 The swimmers - two 4th graders, four 5th graders and three highschoolers - brought back many medals in spite of being up against serious competition. The ISD girls' and boys' basketball teams participated very well, showed lots of skill with the boys taking 4th place and girls 6th (both out of 8 teams)!
 All ISD athletes displayed excellent sporting spirit and behaviour throughout the trip. They also supported their team mates during ‘down time’. The ISD swimming team, trained by Noah Balazs, won the overall Sportsmanship Award for the competition. Special memories for me will be the smiles on the swimmers' faces as they received their medals and the girls' team singing 'We Love You Jaguars' to support the boys’ basketball team!
I think WAISAL in Accra provided our athletes with a chance to develop their skills and gain race/match practice by competing against other international schools. It was an exciting and worthwhile tournament, as well as a terrific learning experience for all involved. We can be proud of our athletes and of how well they represented our school at this international event! It was a pleasure to travel with them. GO JAGUARS! Gráinne MacRae 2 March 2011 |
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