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By Gerry Steiert

Athletics Director

 since 2001

HS Basketball is open to male & female students in grades 9-12. As an international school with an American curriculum this is called Varsity. In many cases competitions require a team roster of 12, so eliminations need to occur. Students not making the final 12 will usually be able to play on a 2nd team called Junior Varsity & will quite often be called up to play if something happens to a starter.

2007-2008 Boys coaches: Clay Moss, Greg Stenlund, Karl Steinkamp

2007-2008 Girls coach: Gerry Steiert

Our 2-day Dalat International Invitational Basketball Tournament has been running since the year 2001 for boys, capturing the title on 4 separate occasions & girls since 2004 winning it once. This invitational opportunity takes place in Mid November for girls, the weekend prior to American Thanksgiving; The boys’ weekend is the last weekend in November which sometimes cuts into the 1st weekend of December. Tourney generally begins Noon Friday with trophies/medals handed out & the cleanup completed by 7pm on Saturday evening. Rarely do we have fewer than 8 teams & quite often will have 10 or more. The KL Big 4 really enjoy attending our 2-day tourney: International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL), Garden International School (GIS) Mont’ Kiara International School (MKIS) and Kuala Lumpur Alice Smith School (KLASS). Several local Penang teams from both the Island & mainland also join the fun: Chung Ling, Berapit, St. Xavier, Bukit Mertajam, Heng Ee, Chinese Girls, Union, Convent Green Lane, Phor Tay, Penang Free, Air Itam, Jelutong, Valdor, & Georgetown. When the “Internationals” meet the “locals” it has a spirit that is Malaysia, truly Asia! Plus, this tournament is the only 1 of its kind in Malaysia!

With our refurbished & re-lined indoor gymnasium floor, complete with seating for 200+ it makes for some very comfortably exciting action! We are excited about the 2008-9 season as our outdoor court surface has been completely redone and summer 2008 a lid is being installed, providing us with the most viable facility option for the sports of basketball & volleyball in Penang and in fact anywhere in Malaysia north of Kuala Lumpur!

Semester 1 Basketball season begins after soccer in Mid October & then resumes in Semester 2 with MSSPP competitions which generally run from March through April. MSSPP is short for Majlis Sukan-Sukan Sekolah Pulau Pinang which is essentially Penang’s Zone & State playoffs. These combined seasons provide the interested athletes with about 15 weeks of basketball during which athletes & coaches are provided with 3 quality tournaments plus several “friendly matches” each year. The term friendly here in Malaysia refers to any game which is not for a local tournament or for MSSPP.