A History of IASAS

by Harold Albert (ISB)

The seeds of the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asia School (IASAS) organisation were planted long ago with sports exchanges that were arranged between many of the schools. For example Singapore American School (SAS) and International School Bangkok (ISB) participated in an annual multi-sport event called the Singapore-Bangkok Games that started in 1961. In 1980, the International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) asked to participate in this event, creating what then became known as the Triangular Games. It was around this time that the idea of forming an athletic conference began to develop.

It was at a conference in Hong Kong in 1980 that the idea of IASAS really started. A number of interested individuals began tossing around some ideas of creating a larger, formally organised entity. Primarily spear-headed by the School Heads from ISKL, SAS and Jakarta International School (JIS), there was expressed a desire to begin an international athletics conference. It wasn’t long after that the Athletic Directors from schools in the region met at Singapore American School. The result, as we all know, was IASAS, which formally started in the fall of 1982. Along with International School Manila (ISM), the initial conference was made up of five schools: JIS, SAS, ISKL, ISB and ISM. Taipei American School (TAS) joined the group in 1986, creating the six-school conference that has flourished ever since. Originally the idea was limited to athletics, but at the urging of an art teacher from SAS, a cultural component was also instituted that very first school year.

In the early days the conventions included soccer & volleyball (first season), basketball & swimming (second season), softball & track and field (third season), as well as a cultural convention (dance, drama, debate, forensics, music and art) and even a mathematics competition. Over the years various activities were added to the agenda, and today the wide-ranging IASAS activities include:

• 1st Season: Cross-Country, Soccer, Volleyball
• 2nd Season: Basketball, Rugby, Touch Football, Swimming, Tennis
• 3rd Season: Badminton, Baseball, Softball, Track & Field, Golf
• Cultural Convention: Drama/Dance/Tech, Art/Film, Music, Debate & Forensics
• Model United Nations
• Online IASAS- Math and Chess

For everyone involved, students, coaches, administrators, parents and community members, IASAS is one of the most memorable times of any school year. As we enjoy the 38th year we can only thank those who came before and helped to create such a remarkable organisation, and can only hope that it will prosper for many decades to come.

Feb 2020 and COVID 2019

IASAS third season 2003 was affected by the SARS virus, and with the novel coronavirus causing difficulties world-wide, it has caused me to reflect back to the spring of 2003. SARS did not become a problem until we were well into third season as IASAS was able to conduct the Cultural Conventions (Art/Music at ISM and Dance/Drama/Debate/Forensics at ISKL) as well as various third season exchanges throughout March of 2003.

Third season IASAS tournaments were another story. IASAS Softball was scheduled for TAS, Badminton at SAS, and Track & Field at ISB, but the number of SARS cases world-wide got so bad that many of the IASAS schools were reluctant to either host an event or send their kids to an event. In the end, 3rd season IASAS was for all intents and purposes cancelled, although we did have IASARS events (excuse the pun) April 9-13, 2003 at ISB (T&F attended by ISM and TAS) and TAS (Softball with ISM and JIS participating). There was no Badminton event at all that April. In each of these events home stays and host families were still part of the equation. As I recall there was no talk of having the student participants stay in hotels.

On a personal note I was also the ISB boys' softball coach at the time and recall how awful I felt when Bob Connor made that terrible announcement which cancelled the 3rd season IASAS events.

In the winter/spring of 2019 the COVID-19 pandemic reared its head and we had to cancel the S3 exchanges and the season ending IASAS Championships. Schools all over the world moved to online learning and all athletics programs were curtailed.

Sincerely, Harold Albert ISB