Saturday 19th of October was a big day on the Guangzhou International Schools Elementary Sports (GISES) and Grizzlies sports calendar, as CIS hosted the GISES Swim Competition!

This years competing schools included CIS, BSG, ISA, UISZ and UISG, making it the largest elementary school swim competition in GISES history. It was an honour for CIS to host such a landmark competition in our new, awesome swimming pool.

All the athletes arrived early and eager to compete! The competition featured students from Grades 2 to 5, competing over a number of swim events, both individually and with team relays.

A shout out to our very own CIS student council members who organized and ran the refreshment area and were all around campus helping parents and swimmers with directions. They all did a fantastic job and the day couldn’t have happened without them.

A grand total of 61 races were swam in an action packed day. The CISGZ swimmers were great throughout the day, showing great sportsmanship and swimming ability in every race. CISGZ finished with 9 medals, including five gold medals, two silver medals and two bronze medals.

A special mention to Henry Zhang in Grade 3 for his 25m backstroke gold medal and Bonnie Bao, also in Grade 3, with an outstanding four gold medals!!!

As I reflect back on this year’s sporting events, we achieved tremendous success athletically. I continue to be amazed at what our student-athletes and coaches continue to accomplish in enriching our sports programs. It takes a real team effort to accomplish these achievements!

Click to watch the yearend video of Grizzlies

The 2018-19 season was our first season with the new Grizzlies sports membership, which attracted over 200 athletes across 21 sporting events. We welcomed all athletes to partake in our sports teams throughout the year because sport provides CIS students with important life lessons, such as teamwork, self-discipline and commitment. Being part of the CIS Grizzlies teams not only promotes a healthy lifestyle but it also provides opportunities for skill enhancement, competition and collaboration. As a department we also believe that physical education and discipline can help promote academic success, and we expect out athletes to take pride in their performance in the classroom as well as on the court and field.

Here are some highlights of the exceptional achievements from this past year:

• Full time members of the Pearl River Conference
• Fielding over 200 athletes
• Competition in 21 sporting events
• Lower Elementary Champions (Soccer)
• Lower Elementary 3rd (Soccer)
• Higher Elementary girls 3rd (Soccer)
• Middle School girls 2nd (Soccer)
• Middle School Boys Sportsmanship (Basketball)
• Participating in High school sports (Basketball & Soccer)
• High School boys 2nd (Basketball)
• Canadian International School Sports Association 3rd (Basketball)
• Canadian International School Sports Association 3rd (Soccer)
• Canadian International School Sports Association 3rd (Hockey)

Our progression as a program is a direct result of the passion, perseverance, and commitment year-in and year-out from our student-athletes, coaches, administration, parents and friends. I sincerely thank you for your dedication to CIS Grizzlies Athletics. All of you are critical to our continued growth and success.

Sidney Bartlett
Athletics Director

Go Grizzlies!!!

As the second season get underway our Grizzlies sports teams have been busy representing our school in different sports at different age groups. Elementary are currently competition in Soccer, Middles school are competing in Volleyball and our High school are competing in Basketball. Our third season will begin in March and run until the end of the year. Elementary will be competing in Basketball and Badminton, Middle School will be competing in Basketball and High School will be competing in Soccer. 

Season reviews are as following.

Season 1 Middle School Badminton

The Badminton Grizzlies had a great season this year, performing well in all three tournaments: one at Clifford International School, one at home here at CIS, and one in Shenzhen. The team played skilfully and with great intensity, supporting one another with a robust feeling of camaraderie, putting many personal victories under their respective belts. And we had fun doing it! Coach Stone is proud of his Badminton athletes and is grateful to have been a part of this commendable team.

Coach ：Mr. Stone

Season 2 Elementary Girls Soccer

As the second season is underway, the G4/5 Grizzlies girls have got off to an unbeaten start. The first game was against Canton Global Academy Cobras, the girls ran out 4-2 winners with goals from Hannah Uren, Rahaf Muthana x2 and Anna Chen. Our second game was against ISA Dragons, the final score in this game ended 4-0 to the Grizzlies with goals from Hannah Uren x2, Rahaf Muthana and Apple Yang. Our third game was an entertaining 5-5 draw vs Yew Wah International school, goals from Hannah Uren x2 Rahaf Muthana, Ivy Zhang and Anna Chen. 

Squad：Hannah Uren, Rahaf Muthana, Ivy Zhang, Anita Zhang, Apple Yang, Anna Chen, Samantha Buhl, Tota Hassan.

Next games: 9th March GISES (Guangzhou International Schools Elementary Sports) tournament. 

Coach：Mr. Bartlett

Season 2 Elementary Boys Soccer

Season 2 saw the start of the Elementary Boys’ soccer. This is always a really popular sport within our Elementary grades, and this year was no exception! We were delighted to have a strong squad of 13 boys join the team this year.

Training started in late November, with enthusiasm and great passion from all the boys! Some are new to the game and some boys have played previously, giving us a lovely balance of experience and excitement within the team.

We have played three games so far this season, things are progressing well with one victory and two very close games that unfortunately resulted in loses. We have 6 more friendly matches planned and two tournaments. We are excited and prepared for the big GISES (Guangzhou International Schools Elementary Sports) competition, which is on Saturday 9th March. Keep looking at the CIS WeChat updates to see the results!

Squad：Feras Muthanna (c), Danny Chen, Alan Zhang, Issac Hui, Ryan Uren, Bryan Chen, Majed Alhussain, Lawrence Cheng, Henry Cross, Delcio Fernandes, Mohammad Al-Areqe, Kyle Horracks and Kyle Kim.

Coach：Mr. Bowden

Season 1 & 2 Swimming

Students first jumped in the water mid-September and others joined in November. Since then, we have seen substantial progress from all of them. Each swimmer has proved themselves to be able to adapt to new challenges and strive through hard workouts. It has been a blast coaching all the swimmers. They show up with bright smiles and work hard everyday in the water. We have gone to three swim meets so far; one in the British School, one in Shenzen, and one at our very own pool! Each time, those that competed tried their best and it showed as they crushed their old times in their races! Looking forward to continuing with this wonderful bunch of kids and working to achieve their goals.

Coach：Ms. Dryden & Ms. Bush

Season 2 High School Basketball

The 2018/2019 Senior Boys basketball season was one of firsts. It was the first year we managed to field a team at the senior level, the first year we competed in the PRC athletic conference, and our first series of home games in our beautiful gymnasium. These milestones are enough to call the season a huge success, but the team also performed well above expectations from a basketball perspective. Despite the youth and relative inexperience of our team, we managed to compete with all other schools we faced. Thus far, the highlight was finishing second in the YWIS invitational tournament in November. To top it all off, we host the PRC finals in our gym!

Coach: Mr. Turner

Season 2 Middle School Volleyball

The junior girls’ volleyball team is off to a great start to their season. Our team is very young and new to the sport, but they are determined and fast learners. We have a small team, with only eight girls total this year. With a small squad, each team member needs to work extra hard, and everyone gets a lot of game experience! In our first game the CIS Grizzlies played against the Clifford Cougars. The Cougars came out strong and ended up beating us in two straight sets. However, we learned a lot from this loss and had our second game the very next day! 

In our second match the Grizzlies played against NCPA. The first set of the game was a little shaky, with our girls losing 25-8. In our huddle we made the team goal of scoring more than 8 points in the second set. The girls played extremely well, and our team ended up winning the second set! With our first taste of winning the match went to the third set. The Grizzlies played well, but the NCPA girls fought back and won the match. Again, even though our Grizzlies lost they have learned and improved so much in two short games. We are looking forward to our up coming tournament, and to the rest of our season.

Coach：Ms. Zacharias

Season 1 High School Table Tennis

This year was the first season for our Grizzlies high school table tennis team. It was an excellent season for growth and sportsmanship. We worked hard to develop our skills during practice and travelled to UISG and NCPA for friendly matches. These experiences playing other schools were very beneficial to our players, and we are grateful for the opportunities. 

At the end of the season, CISGZ participated in the Pearl River Conference High School Table Tennis Tournament. This competition matched our students up with some of the best table tennis players attending international schools in Guangzhou. While we did not win any trophies, the Grizzles played in some excellent matches. All of our players improved over the season, and it showed at the tournament. We are looking forward to next season, and growing even more as table tennis players.

Coach：Mr. Volk

Swim Meet 游泳比赛

The students of the Grizzly’s swim team arrived bright and early at CIS on Saturday, December 1st, to make their way to Shenzhen. SWIS (Shen Wai International School) hosted our third swim meet of the season, which our swimmers were very excited to compete In. We had a total of 8 swimmers compete in backstroke, freestyle and breaststroke events throughout the day.

Lianna Chen came in third place in her heat and everyone dropped time! For some this was their first swim meet and it was awesome to see all the swimmers trying their hardest. Everyone showed how much they had improved, especially every time their feet hit the water. It was fantastic to watch them compete. A special thank-you to all the parents who donated their Saturday to come support the team!!

HS Basketball 高中男篮

On Wednesday, November 28th, CIS hosted their first basketball game of the season. The match featured our senior boys team (grades 9-12) against ULink College. In what proved to be a very competitive match, CIS was unable to overcome a late surge from ULink. The result was a loss for the Grizzlies, but not one we are disappointed with. The team demonstrated sportsmanship and teamwork while continuing to improve their skills. We look forward to our next home game versus NCPA.

 

On Dec.12th the senior boys basketball team had a game against Clifford International School. Mr. Turner, who is the regular coach, was away and Ms. Zacharias stepped in to coach the team in his absence.

The Grizzlies started off the game quite strong and took an early lead in the first quarter. The team was running their offence well and played great man to man defense. We ended the first quarter up 11 to 6. The second quarter started off slowly, and the Grizzlies were outpaced by the Cougars. Although they were outscored in the second quarter, the Grizzlies still held on to their lead ending the half up 14 to 12.

   

In the second half of the game the Cougars played tough and went on a scoring run. Our Grizzlies ended the third quarter down 21 to 29. In the fourth and final quarter the Grizzlies began to make a comeback. They played hard and scored more in the fourth quarter than Clifford, but unfortunately came up just short of a victory. The game ended with Clifford winning 38 to 31. The Grizzlies learned a lot and will continue to practice and grow. Great work, Grizzlies!

CIS VS Basis

Wednesday 28th November was an historic day. It was the first boys elementary soccer game of the 2018/2019 season!

Our grade 4 boys were in high spirits and excited during the bus journey to Basis International School.

The game started at a frantic pace, with both teams trying to get the ball on the floor and play good football. The first half was a solid defensive display from both sides, resulting in a score line of 0-0 at the half way stage. Particular mention to our goalkeeper Ryan who made two super saves!

The game burst into life in the first minute of the second half. With the Basis number 10 scoring a stunning half volley. This sparked an energetic come back from our boys. We started attacking with real ferocity and five minutes later, a good passing sequence involving Shine, Henry and Majed allowed Lawrence to score an equalizer.

With the score level and Grizzlies growing in confidence, the attacking football didn’t stop. Bryan showing great energy and athleticism in the midfield. With ten minutes remaining, Majed showed skillful footwork on the half way line and drove forward, blasting a super goal to put the Grizzlies 2-1 up.

The last ten minutes really highlighted the Grizzly spirit. With our boys defending as a unit and tackling very well. Kyle, Henry and Shine all made crucial tackles.

We got the victory and started our season in the best way possible, congratulations to the boys and to Basis for hosting the match.

Roster: Henry (c), Ryan, Shine, Majed, Lawrence, Bryan and Kyle H.

Coach Bowden

 

CIS VS CGA

On Wednesday this week, we welcomed Canton Global Academy to the CIS campus for our first home fixture of the season.

The boys were in great spirits after our victory last week in the season opener.

We soon realized that CGA were a talented side, they raced into a 2-0 lead in the opening 10 minutes. The Grizzlies then composed ourselves and played some good passing football. Issac in defense was starting the plays well with our midfielders growing in confidence. Henry scored two good goals in the first half as we went in at half time 3-2 down.

We showed tremendous team spirit and I was so pleased with our effort levels in the second half as we scored 4 goals, particular mention to Feras, Shine, Delcio and Lawrence who played very well. We unfortunately did concede a couple more with the final score being 6-4.

A great learning experience and we will improve in the coming training sessions and be ready for future matches.

Roster: Danny Chen, Ryan Uren, Isaac Hui, Shine Hu, Alan Zhang, Majed Al-Husain, Feras Muthanna, Henry Cross, Delcio Fernandes, Kyle Harrocks, Kyle Kim, Lawrence Cheng, Mohammad Al-Areqe and Bryan Chen

Teeball CIS VS CLS

Thank you to all the super fans that came out and cheered the Grizzlies to victory last Wednesday. The riotous crowd definitely helped the Grizzlies scratch and claw their way to a 23-22 victory against CLS.

The school spirit was exuberant and the kids played outstanding. They learned a lot and had a blast. Even for a lesser sport like Teeball, the growth, development and interest has been extremely positive and magnetic.

Lastly, big shout out to the utter legends in the Athletic department who helped make this event possible. Couldn’t have been a success without you fellas.

CIS Table Tennis Team

On November 17th the CISGZ table tennis team attended the Pearl River Conference U19 table tennis tournament. There were many excellent matches with intense action. We are very proud of Mike, Derek and Potter for representing the Grizzlies with pride, and congratulations to Potter for making it to the 5th round of the tournament! Our players all improved as athletes, and we look forward to next year’s table tennis season.

 

Upcoming Games

Nov.27 High School Boys Basketball VS MAH

Nov.28 Soccer VS Basis

Nov.29 High School Boys Basketball VS ULink

Dec.1 Swim Meet @SWIS

Dec.3 Soccer VS CGA

Dec.6 High School Boys Basketball VS NCPA