APAC GIRLS' SOCCER

The girls’ high school football team travelled to Shanghai in the morning of the 9th of April to participate in the APAC tournament hosted by SAS Pudong. We lost our first game in a close match against SAS Puxi but retaliated with a win against AISG, the first win in UNIS APAC Girls’ history! We took confidence in that win and ended up with a 3-3 record, resulting in a 6th placed finish out of twelve teams. It was the first time that a UNIS team had ever finished in the top half of any APAC tournament. We are so proud that we managed to accomplish this even despite all of the injuries and setbacks that our team experienced throughout the season and during the APAC tournament.

We came in as underdogs but made sure that by the end of the three days, all the other teams had respect for us. With calm and determined coaches pushing us through cardiovascular fitness during the season, our legs carried us to tie for first in our pool (2nd after the tie-break), and although we were very unlucky with the draw of our quarter final, we kept on going. After beating AISG once again, we played a very tough SFS team and lost, but we celebrated all of our wins: the individual battles, the goals scored and the tenacity we showed.

We left as a team and came back as a family, and we highly encourage others to join football next year and get the same incredible experience as we had, and hopefully make sure that UNIS’ name is still feared and respected among the APAC schools.

Written by proud captains, Kim Lan Mallon (Grade 11) and Jemima Brennen (Grade 10)

APAC BOYS SOCCER

When the season first started I have to admit, I was worried. We’d just lost many of our key players from the year before, such as Laurids Poulsen, Ruan Hamer and Trung Nguyen. However, as time passed and our team started to form, it was obvious to everyone that this year, would be like no other.

When we arrived in Hong Kong for the APAC Boys Super Soccer Tournament, we were excited, inspired and most importantly prepared. “Super Soccer” means that all 12 APAC boys soccer teams were gathered together to determine who was the best team in the conference. Our first game was against SAS Puxi, a school located in Shanghai. We felt that this was the game to make a statement, to warn the other APAC schools that UNIS means business. That first game, we fought valiantly for the entire 70 minutes, and in the end we came out with a deserving 1-0 win! The feelings that we were experiencing after that game were indescribable, it was just unbelievable. With that winning spirit, we carried on through APAC winning 3 of our 6 games, finishing 7th out of the 12 teams represented at Super APAC.

I feel this year was the year where we announced ourselves to APAC, making it known that UNIS is no longer a lackluster team, but instead a team that must be respected, and feared. As well as that, personally I can’t wait till the 2015 season! Next year the APAC Tournament will be in Kobe, Japan, hosted by Canadian Academy. Time to start getting ready!

Simon McCarty, Grade 10