Middle school Sabers sports
セイバーズの中等部（MS）のスポーツチームの情報
現在のMSのスポーツ / Winter season I MS sports

• girls soccer 女子サッカー Coach Nikolic
• boys basketball 男子バスケットボール  Coach Ray, Coach Sala
• swimming 女子男子水泳  Coach Bertman, Coach Kano
• running 女子男子トライアスロン, ランニング  Coach Munemasa, Coach Cheney

Schedule: http://sabers.senri.ed.jp/season-schedule.html

• セイバーズの中等部（MS）のスポーツチームの練習は、毎週、火曜日と木曜日の15:45–17:45 PMです。
• Sabers MS sports teams practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays, after school, 15:45–17:45 PM.
• すべての中学生が、セイバーズのスポーツチームに参加してくれることを期待しています。
• All MS students are encouraged to join a Sabers team.

Swim practices: Tuesday, Thursday, 16:00–17:15  First practice: Thursday, October 18.
15:45 change; 16:00 on deck, in the water. Wait for PE swim make-ups to finish.

10月16日（火）TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16: Sabers Sign-Up, first practice
First Tuesday after previous season’s WJAA / AISA tournaments.
Too many boys and girls to host one joint meeting, so we split into 2 meetings.

• 15:45 - 16:15: boys basketball / swimming meeting, room 210; girls soccer start practice on field.
• 16:15 - 17:15: practice, basketball and soccer (swimming practice begins Thursday)
• 17:15 - 17:45: girls soccer meeting, room 210; boys basketball finish practice.
• 17:45: everyone go home.

Don’t forget SABERS SIGN UP  セイバーズ・サインアップ

• 一年に一回、シーズンが始まる前にセイバーズ・チームに参加することを希望する生徒は、セイバーズ・アスレティクス・ウェブサイトからオンラインでサインアップをしなければいけません。(sabers.senri.ed.jp - Forms).
• Once a year, prior to the start of a season, all students wanting to join a Sabers team must sign up online on the Sabers athletics website (sabers.senri.ed.jp - Forms). 

Three high school Sabers teams - cross country, girls volleyball, boys volleyball - wrapped up their 2018 fall campaigns with strong showings at AISA competitions Friday and Saturday, October 12-13, 2018. 
 
Top billing goes to Coach Hirai, Coach Yoneda, and the girls volleyball team who dominated the 2018 AISA tournament held at Seoul International School, conceding only one set in four matches, and dismantling the Dragons of Yokohama International School in the finals, three sets to none. All-tournament team members are Yulia Ikumi, Asumi Muto, and new SIS 11th grader Miharu Otake whose thunderous spikes were like many sale items from Amazon  - nonreturnable, no matter how hard you try. Otake, who spent the past four years in the US, credits her jumping ability and power to the strength training she did there. Otake says, "Strength, speed, and jump training has really benefited my explosiveness, flexibility, and coordination. And I think it has helped prevent injuries, for me, anyways. I hope more Sabers athletes, boys and girls, will learn how to do athletic multi-joint compound exercises like cleans and squats. It made a big difference for me. An AISA championship made all the hard work worth it."
 
Coach Mitsuhashi, Coach Majima, and the boys volleyball team traveled to International School Busan with high hopes of repeating their 2017 AISA championship, but fell short of that, losing to Yokohama International School in the consolation match to finish in 4th place. Richie Dix and Neo Yokoyama were named to the all-tournament team. With only one senior – Fumiya Okabe – and two freshmen, the Sabers are already looking forward to a better finish next year.
 
SOIS hosted the second annual AISA cross country meet at Senri Kita Koen. The meet featured freshly mowed grass (thank goodness), perfect weather (thank goodness), and a thrilling finish in the opening race (oh my goodness!). In the first race of the meet, the men’s 1st and 2nd seed individual race, OIS junior Riki Sampson came from behind in the final 50 meets to edge a surprised KIS runner at the line by 0.13 seconds. (See photos below.) A tired but elated Sampson told reporters, “I miscounted and thought there was one more lap, so I was saving my energy. Fortunately, I realized my error just in time. I was always better at sprinting than at math.” Sampson's AISA victory was the big highlight for an SOIS team that finished in 3rd place out of four teams, a long 89 points behind champions KIS. The Sabers had only four boys on the team, so their scores were “pushed” too high to make any run at a better finish. All-meet members were Miki Fujito, Karin Iwaki, Tyus Sheriff, and Riki Sampson. The Sabers won the “fair play” award, a great testament to the spirit and camaraderie of the team. Coach Munemasa and Coach Cheney look forward to building up team numbers and team speed in the upcoming years.

Be sure to check out the cross country webpage for more details and photos.
 
Congratulations to all Sabers 2018 fall season high school teams, managers, and coaches.
 
Below: Sabers 1st seed runner Riki Sampson (left, black uniform) chases down a started KIS Phoenix runner and crosses the finish line just 0.13 seconds ahead to capture the 2018 AISA men’s individual championship.

http://sabers.senri.ed.jp/ms-volleyball.html
​
SOIS hosted the WJAA middle school boys volleyball tournament May 11-12, 2018, in the Sabers gym. For the third year in a row, both the Sabers A and B teams won championships in their divisions, completing an unprecedented "triple double" title run dating back to 2016. The A team, under the leadership of Coach Sugishita, kept its composure after an opening match upset loss to win 5 straight matches for the title. The B team's championship was its 5th in a row under the helm of B team coach Michael Routh.

Sabers high school players Neo Yokoyama, Goshi Tanaka, and Leon Gonno were volunteer assistant coaches and helped greatly. Special thanks to the 4 Sabers managers for their vital work all season and during the tournament as scorekeepers: Marina Ninomiya, Janet Jones, Arisa Yoshikoshi, and Asuka Hong.

​It was a fun, competitive tournament full of parity. Both A and B divisions ended pool play with 3-way ties for 2nd place, sets of 3 teams with identical 2-2 records. Determination of who advanced to the finals came down to the final points of the final matches of pool play. Both championship matches went 3 sets - fun to watch.

Congratulations to Coach Sugishita, his first year as coach of the A team, and to Coach Routh. For Coach Routh, this was the 5th straight championship for his "Killer Bs" B team, a perfect ending to his legendary Sabers coaching career before he moves on to China.

Thank you to all players and coaches and managers and SSC members.

Four high school Sabers teams will compete at major events away from school this weekend, April 13-14, 2018.

• Swimming: AISA swim meet at Korea International School. (Coach Kano, Coach Bertman)
• Soccer, girls: AISA tournament at Yokohama International School. (Coach Frater, Coach Kono, chaperone Deklinski)
• Soccer, boys: AISA tournament at Seoul International School. (Coach Entwistle, chaperone Routh)
• Softball: Tournament at Nagoya International School. (Coach Hirai, Coach Hikosaka)

SWIMMING LIVE STREAM: Watch the AISA swim meet live on your computer starting Friday, 9:45 AM.
https://sites.google.com/a/kis.or.kr/athletics/
AISA swim meet race order, Friday: morning, afternoon (click to open pdf documents)

BOYS SOCCER (SIS) LIVE STREAM: https://livestream.com/sis 
​
​Good luck to all teams. Go Sabers!

Welcome, all new students and teachers, to SOIS and to the Sabers athletics program.
And welcome back, everyone else, from the spring break.

Several reminders as we start the new spring trimester:

• Middle school seasons: girls softball (Coach Ogawa), boys volleyball (Coach Sugishita, Coach Routh), table tennis (Coach Matsushima). 
• First MS practices: softball and volleyball, Thursday, April 5. Table tennis, Tuesday, April 10.
• First MS games: Saturday, April 7, softball @CA, volleyball @SOIS.
• New SIS grade 7 students: no practices or games this week; please wait until Tuesday, April 10.
• HS table tennis: Friday, April 6, first practice, gym, upper level. (Coach Takahashi)
• HS badminton: WJAA tournament @CA, Friday and Saturday, April 6-7. Players miss periods 5-6-7 on Friday. (Coach Hasegawa, Coach Ishiuchi-Ray)
• HS softball: tournament @CA, Saturday, April 7. (Coach Hirai, Coach Hikosaka)
• HS soccer: Saturday, April 7, girls @Sanda, boys futsal @SOIS.
• AISA, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, April 12-13-14: girls soccer @Yokohama, boys soccer @Seoul, swimming @Seoul. (Coaches Frater, Kono, Entwistle, Bertman, Kano. Chaperones Routh, Deklinski)
• HS softball: Friday-Saturday, April 13-14, tournament @Nagoya.
• HS baseball season begins after AISA soccer. (Coach Sagara, Coach Algie)

Remember, lots of info can be found on the Sabers website: http://sabers.senri.ed.jp/. 
Thank you, everyone. Go Sabers!

The high school boys and girls soccer teams played in Western Japan Athletic Association tournaments March 9-10, 2018. The girls, led by Coach Frater and Coach Kono, traveled to MC Perry High School on the US Marine Corps Air Station in Iwakuni where they finished the 2-day tournament undefeated in 4 matches and 2018 WJAA champions. The boys, led by the one and only Coach Entwistle, played at Canadian Academy on Rokko Island in Kobe, winning 4 matches and losing 1 - unfortunately the sole loss came in the championship match, so the Sabers eleven finished a respectable second. 

The girls team played for the first time on a US military base, spending the night in the large MC Perry school building and playing on a new, large field there. The Sabers made use of the big space, outscoring their 4 opponents 14-3, led by a veteran group of seniors: Keanna Ikeda, Suono Fujii, Hana Ikeda, Airu Mukaiyama, Haruna Tomiguchi, Elena Benfield, and Ami Eldridge. 

Special thanks to chaperones Yamashiro-sensei and Ito-sensei for accompanying the team and ensuring their safety.
Click here for photos and more details about the girls championship.

The boys soccer team coasted through round-robin play undefeated, but ran into a fired up and strong CA Falcons team in the final, conceding 2 goals in the final 3 minutes to lose 2-0 and finish as runners up. The Sabers were led by a strong contingent of SIS seniors playing in their final Sabers match: Tommy Ban, Hijiri Kamigawa, Daichi Tomi, and leading scorer Hiroto Inui. Leo Sakamoto, Evan Tsubaki, and Sola Lutringer are OIS seniors who played in their final WJAA event, but will play in the AISA tournament next month. 

Click here for photos of the Sabers boys soccer team.
Next up for the soccer teams: AISA tournaments, the girls in Yokohama and the boys in Seoul. Good luck, Sabers teams.

Good luck to the Sabers high school girls and boys basketball players and coaches as they travel to South Korea for their season-ending AISA tournaments. The teams travel to Korea on Thursday, Feb. 1, and return on Sunday, Feb. 4, 2018.
And good luck, too, to SOIS math students and student council leaders as they participate in the AISA math mania competition and leadership conference held at SOIS this Friday and Saturday. Thank you to the math teachers and student council advisors for their help in running these events and to the homestay families for hosting 20 visiting students from Seoul.
Click on links below for game schedule and live streaming sites.
 
Girls basketball at Busan International Foreign School

• Game schedule: Sabers play at 13:30 and 16:30 on Friday.
• Live stream
• Coach Sagara, Coach Okamoto, Chaperone Hirai

 
Boys basketball at Seoul International School

• Game schedule: Sabers play at 9:00 and 15:00 on Friday.
• Live stream
• Coach Heimer, Coach Routh

 
AISA math mania competition and leadership conference here at SOIS

• Event webpage​
• Math coaches: Mr. Bertman, Takahashi-sensei
• Leadership directors: Mitsuhashi-sensei, Mr. Welburn, Mr. Sheriff

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTOS, LINKS, AND VIDEO OF THRILLING GAME ENDING

The Sabers high school boys and girls junior varsity basketball teams wrapped up the 2018 season with first and second place finishes at their respective WJAA tournaments, January 13, 2018. The boys, playing at Canadian Academy in Kobe, held off the host Falcons in the last 30 seconds for a thrilling championship victory, winning 39-37. The girls, having traveled to Yokohama International School, lost to the host Dragons in the finals, 38-22.
 
The Sabers girls, led by Coach Okamoto and Coach Hirai, finished first in their pool to advance to the semifinals, where they dispatched the Canadian Academy Falcons, 41-22, before falling to a strong Yokohama team in the finals. All scores and game video can be viewed on the tournament website and YouTube page.

The Sabers boys, after narrowing losing their first-day opening game in the final minute to the host CA Falcons, were faced with the difficult task of having to win 4 games in a row to take the WJAA title. Three of those games came on the second day of the tournament with a depleted 8-player squad and little rest between games. On day 2, the Sabers first defeated the YIS Dragons 57-46 and then came from behind to beat the Hokkaido Huskies 53-40, setting up a rematch against the well-rested Falcons in the championship game in front of partisan home crowd.
 
In the final, the Sabers, facing fatigue, cramps, and injury, chose to forego their full-court press and fast-paced offense. The Falcons, fortunately for the Sabers, were content to slow down the game. The game was a back-and-forth affair with the Sabers up at halftime, 18-14, and the Falcons ahead 25-24 after 3 quarters. With 3 minutes left, the Sabers had a 6-point lead and seemed in control. But with 35 seconds left, CA tied the game at 37. On their ensuing possession, the Sabers, who struggled with rebounding throughout the game, came up with 2 crucial offensive rebounds to set up a Takayoshi Nakagawa midrange jumper that found nothing but net to put SOIS up 39-37 with 18 seconds left. The Sabers then made one last half-court defensive stand and CA’s last-second off-balance shot fell short.