ACAMIS hoops tourney

There are many international schools across China, but only a handful that are within range of each other for playing sporting events. They tend to only play a handful of games that counts as a regular season followed by a big tournament. This tournament is called ACAMIS.

This is the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools. HIS is hosting the tournament this year and we have five visiting schools. Only one came by train from Shanghai. The other four schools are far enough away they came by airplane. This tournament wraps up their basketball season and has the feel of a state tournament back in the states.

Each school brings a boys and a girls team. They play five games in two days to gain entry into a bracket on the third day with the potential of playing three more games. Yes, eight full games in three days. These kids are going to be crazy tired Saturday night.

Both the boys and girls played two games today. The boys lost their first and won their second in a barn-burner. The girls won 32-6 in their first and lost by three in their second. However, the girls were down 16-2 at the start. Head coach Kaitlyn Hooper gave an inspiring coaching effort to get her girls to fight back. They had it tied at the end before falling behind.

I've been involved with both the boys and girls teams this season. I've tried to attend at least one practice each week with both teams. They only practice three days a week and it's for about an hour and a half. Lately due to the weirdness of my schedule I've only been able to attend girls games. Both the boys coaches won't be here at HIS next season and I can see them trying to get me to take over the boys program, but I think I'm more likely work with the girls full time as an assistant. The boys struggle to play team ball. It's sort of like watching an NBA game. A lot of one on one. The girls are much more open to coaching and have more fun.

Competitive level? The boys teams have a few athletes, but they would struggle to compete with most JV teams in the league that I used to be involved with. The girls teams are even lower. More like middle school level. Most of these girls just lack experience. These kids don't devote their lives to sports. This is purely for fun. None of them are playing college sports at any level.

Day one in the books. Looking forward to day two. However, I'm going to miss the end games tomorrow. I'm hosting a ladies night for a group that's interested in learning how to play poker. Should be fun.