Season 2 sees the students head inside, away from the cold, for the Winter sports. High School basketball, Middle School volleyball, and swimming.

The season culminated with the KISAC (Korean International Schools Athletics Commission) tournament where we competed against schools from Jeju, Seoul, and Busan.

We were proud to enter our first girls' basketball team into a KISAC tournament. Ellay Merana spent a lot of time getting them prepared and their steady improvement saw them score 14 points against KISJ in one game. Spirits were high and they never gave up, finishing the tournament in 7th place.

We hosted the High Schools boys basketball championships, welcoming 12 teams and over 130 students and coaches to the two day tournament. Saturday was finals day, after some narrow losses in the pool games our junior varsity team won three in a row when it mattered, to clinch the Shield and win their division. The top division culminated in a much anticipated final between our varsity team and KISJ. Down by 14 points early in the match things were looking very one-sided until the crowd started getting behind our boys. With three minutes left in the game, we had come back to lead by 1 point. In a frenzied last minute KISJ’s stamina pulled them through and they took the match by 5 points. In our first showing in the A division a silver medal was a great achievement. Coaches, Jonathan Stein, and Colin Levitt, were very proud of their effort. JeaGuen Kim and DongGeon Kim made the All Tournament Team.

Volleyball is proving to be a popular sport at SJA Jeju. After a very enjoyable season 1 for the high school team, season 2 saw middle schoolers come out in their droves. Coach Spiller and Coach Nam took two boys teams up to KISJ to compete. Both teams lost narrowly in their respective finals, each taking home silver. The A team can be commended on beating the number 1 seeds in the semifinals. Min Gyu Lee captained the A team, leading by example throughout. Yang, Ju Ho, and Lee, Dong Rim were impressive young 6th grade students, showing that we are looking good for future teams.

Our middle school girl volleyballers started out the season as complete beginners, with barely enough girls to make a team. Coach Dwyer worked tirelessly, encouraging, mentoring and training what grew to be two full teams. International School of Busan were the hosts, this meant our first ever sporting teams to travel to the mainland. The girls were great ambassadors for our school, paving the way for what will be many trips to come. Not only was it a fantastic learning experience but the teams came home with the B division trophy! Thank you to Gina Lappe and Jimmy Lee for accompanying the girls and ensuring everything ran smoothly.

Swimming is still in its fledgling stages at SJA Jeju. Coaches Emily Lantaigne and Jordan Dusting have a small but committed squad of swimmers. Jasmine Kang, Wonsuk Song, June Hygo, Kybin Park, Aiden Gilhu, Aiden Choi were a formidable team. In some races we took all three podium finishes, winning others by more than 10 seconds. These students are our swimming pioneers in an ever-expanding program. Watch this space.