Final CAS Reflection

Increased awareness of their own strengths and areas of growth:

This learning outcome has been achieved in all of my areas in CAS. Last year during Event Crew, I struggled with planning events at first. But over the course of the tournament, I became aware of this and immediately worked to fix them. By the end of the tournament, I was planning events with Ravin and everything was running smoothly. 
When it comes to action, this outcome was achieved through Football and Track. In football, I realized that one of my strengths was y endurance and ability to run with the ball. I capitalized off of this strength many times during our final SAISA tournament (where we won). During track, I became aware that I needed to work on my ability to have a final kick and pacing my races. By realizing this, I have been able to work on fixing it and improving my pacing as well as my final kick. 
In service I came to realize that I needed to work on my communication skills. In SOS the orphans did not speak very good English and since I did not speak Sinhala, it made it very hard to communicate. But I realized that I needed to work on it and I came to be better at communicating with them. 

Undertaken new challenges:

This learning outcome mainly applied to my action aspect. In football this year, I undertook a new challenge and played another, completely new position: right back. Last year I played striker and to move from striker (the most attacking player) to right back (a defensive role) was quite challenging at first. It was a completely different mode of playing and I had to adjust to it. It turned out in the end that right back was a position that complimented my strengths. In track this year, the challenges that I have undertaken are my new events: 1500m and 3000m races. These races are brand new to me this year and it has taken a while for me to be completely adjusted. But just like any challenge, I tackled it head on and overcame it eventually. 

Planned and Initiated activities:

This learning outcome was met through my creativity aspect in my service group as well as track. In SOS service group, I have had to plan activities to complete with the kids. Most of the activities that I have planned are around teaching them English. I have had the kids write words down in English as well as do math problems (those were their favorite). When it came to track, as captain, I had to plan activities and workouts to do with my team as well as plan a warm up and cool down plan.


Worked Collaboratively with Others:

Football is one of the biggest team sports out there and you just cant win if you dont work as a team. I think that our team showed that this year at SAISA. We had to work collaboratively to play well and win all of our games and we showed that we can do that by winning the championship.

Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities:

Even though I have shown commitment and perseverance in many different groups, I think the group that I showed this the most in was Football. I would be at every practice and give it my 110% effort every time so that I gained the most out of it. And when we did not have practice, my brother and I went to kick the football around so that we would both get practice. I practiced football as much as I could and I did not miss practices because I wanted to be the best I could be when it came to the final tournament because I really wanted to win.

Engaged with issues of global importance:

Week without walls, IB orientation, and Gecko Inc. Service group were the three activities which had me engage with issues of global importance most. During week without walls in Jaffna we were able to witness first hand war affected villages and towns and historical sites from the war. this was very interesting to see the effects that the conflict had on the area and to see the communities that were devastated by it. 
During IB orientation we were split into groups to visit villages and people of different occupations to interview them. The Gecko Inc. Service group focused on meeting and interacting with local Sri Lankan school kids and teaching them various sports and games. Both these events involved me interacting with people and struggling with a language barrier. It helped me realize the difference of the lives we live compared with the locals and their past as well as their future. It definitely helped me see how fortunate I really am and the environment I was able to grow up in. 


Considered the ethical implications of their actions: 

Even though this was not one of the main outcomes that I focused on, I feel like I addressed this outcome through sport. In football and in track, I have had to understand and abide by the rules of the sport and consider the implications of my actions in these sports, For instance, in football I am a a very aggressive player and I have had to consider the implications of all of y actions and realize that I should maybe tone it down a notch.


Developed new skills:

This outcome was addressed through all of my CAS aspects. Over the past two years I have developed my planning skills through event crew and SOS village. This has taught me a lot about myself as a person and as a leader because a good leader can plan and initiate activities really quick and that was a skill that I was struggling with until I developed it. In football and track i have developed new skills such as: learn a whole new position and undertake that challenge, and pacing while running my new events. These are skills that I have developed very well over the past two years and I am really grateful that they are developed now because they are skills that I can apply to later in life if I do athletics. In service I have developed my communications skills over the course of the past two years.


CAS for the past two years has truly been an interesting and helpful experience. Thank you for taking time to read!
Peaceee

-Anthony

SOS Village: Final Service Trip

Last thursday, my service group traveled out to the SOS Village and visited with the kids. This was a very fun experience for me; since I have already visited the village, I did not need to take a tour and instead I just played with the kids. We started by playing a cricket match, OSC vs SOS. This match was so much fun because all of the kids were really enthusiastic and happy while playing. And they ended up beating us! After the cricket match I went to play some football with some of the kids and i showed them some tricks and they all loved it. After we all were finished playing games at the village, we had to say goodbye. For me, it was goodbye forever. This was a very heartfelt moment because I have spent this whole past year developing my relationship with Maric and Ishara and to say goodbye to them, that was very sad.
I will always remember and cherish the times I spent playing and getting to know these kids and hopefully one day I will be able to return to the village and see them once more.

Track and Field: ISAC

This past weekend, our track team participated in the International Schools Athletic Championship held in the Sugathadasa national Stadium. For the tournament, I competed in three different events: 800m, 400m and shot-put. For my first 800m race, I came 3rd place in my heat with a time of 2:14 minutes (2 seconds short of my personal best). And I made it into the finals. My next event was shot-put. I have never once competed in shot-put in my life so this was a good experience for me. I did not do so well in terms of the competition but I did well in terms of my personal best. I threw a 7.1 meter throw which is my current personal best. To conclude my first day, I had to run the 800m final. This was very nerve wracking for me but I used that nervous energy and used it to run. I cam third place overall with a new personal best of 2:11 minutes! This made me very happy because I not only placed top three, but I also got a new personal best! My next event was on the second day of the tournament and this was the 400m. For my first run i placed 4th in my heat and so I did not think that I would make it to the semi finals. But i did! This was great news for me! So a couple hours later I had to run in the semis. In this run I ran my personal best with a 55:84 seconds! And that put me through to the finals! I was very pleased with my performance because i did not think i would make it to the semis yet alone the finals! The next and last day of the tournament I had my 400m final. I was more nervous for this race than I was for the 800m final. I ended up coming 5th place overall for the 400m which I am very pleased with!

This was a very good experience for me because it has prepared me for our end of season SAISA tournament and im hoping that I can continue to strive and beat my personal best.

This was during my 800m finals where I came third overall!!

This is me running in the 400m semi-finals!

Semester 2 Goals

Creativity:

I have been nominated as captain as the Track and Field team and with this I get to make plans for certain workouts for my team. Also in my SOS service group, I work on teaching the kids English and I come up with certain activities for them to do to help them learn better.

Action:

For this final semester I am participating in Track and Field. My goals for this season are for me to break my personal records for each of my events. My events are 400m, 800m and 1500m. I would like to break all of my personal best and improve on my running techniques.

Service:

For this semester in service my goal is to further develop the relationship between myself and my SOS kid, Maric.

SAISA Boys Football Tournament: Kathmandu

For this years SAISA Boys Football Tournament, our team traveled to Kathmandu, Nepal. We had the privilege of spending the day traveling around Kathmandu and seeing amazing temples and getting to know the culture better.

We landed in Kathmandu in the afternoon and shortly after we arrived at our hotel we went and visited the main square and shopping area in Kathmandu called Tamel. This was a place filled with culture and history. We visited a lot of temples and learned about how Kathmandu came to be and about the history of Nepal. After we were done sight seeing, our guide took our team to a famous pizza place that is one of the 'places to be' while in Kathmandu. It was an amazing experience.
The next day we went to the famous Monkey Temple. To get there we had to climb a couple hundred steps to reach the top. But every step was worth it because the view was tremendous. We could see the whole city of Kathmandu. This was a very cultural rich experience for our team as a whole. After we completed that tour, we went on to practice football at an indoor pitch. This was a well needed practice because we had to become acclimated with the environment. After we were done with practice we traveled the the Lincoln School in Nepal (LS) where we then went and met our hosts and accompany them back to their homes.

The next day was the first day of the SAISA Tournament. Our first match was against Lahore American School and we drew 1-1 with them. Our next match was against the host school, LS. This was a very intense match because they were not only the home team BUT the defending champions. Their whole team was their watching our match and they really wanted the win. We were tied all the way up until the last 10 minutes because that is when we scored our first goal against them. Three minutes later we scored another goal to lead us to a 2-0 victory against the defending champions. This summed up our first day in the tournament.

The next day we had our last pool play match and it was against the American International School of Chennai. This was probably one of our easiest matches and we won with a 3-1 victory. Due to this win and us being undefeated in our pool, we were seeded first and that meant that we got to play the last seeded team of the other pool. For our quarter final match we faced Karachi American School. We started of poorly but then pulled it together and had a 2-0 victory over them. We made it to the semis! This concluded our second day of the tournament.

For our third and final day of the tournament, we had to face the LS for the semi final match. Since we beat them the first time, they were really determined to beat us and take revenge. We obtained 2 goals very early in the first half and then just played defense for the rest of the match and secured a 2-0 win and that put us through to the finals!! For our final match we faced the American school in Bombay (ASB). This was a very tough match for us because they were a great team and we just were not playing our best game. They had a corner kick early in the first half and one of our own players ended up kicking the ball into our goal. This gave ASB a 1-0 lead. We kept trying to equalize but we were not able to manage that for the rest of the first half. So at half time we were down 1-0. We started the second half off strong and then equalized! We were all so happy and excited and we kept playing our best game. We made it to overtime and still no one managed to score a goal. So finally we went into penalty shootouts. This was a very intense moment for our team. We scored our first penalty and so did they. We missed our next penalty and ASB scored theirs. We scored our next one and they missed theirs. This put us at a 2-2 tie with two people left. Everyone scored their next penalties and we went into the next set of penalty takers or the sudden death phase. ASB missed their penalty and it was up to us to score and if we did, we won the tournament. And sure enough we did! So we won SAISA!! At this moment all of us went and ran all around the field screaming, cheering and celebrating our victory! Our team made history for our school because we were the first ever boys team to win any SAISA championship ever! It was such a good feeling.

My last ever high school football season resulted in us winning the tournament. I am so proud of my whole team and we could not have done it without each and every one of us. I am so proud to have played in a Gecko shirt for my last football season in high school! GO GECKOS!

Sri Pada

IThis past weekend, my family and I traveled to the central province in Sri Lanka to climb Adam's Peak.

Adam's Peak is believed to be where Buddha put his footprint and where he step foot on Sri Lanka. Adam's Peak is a very important experience for all Buddhists throughout the country and it was a price late to climb. 

My family and I woke up at around 1am so that we could arrive at the base of the mountain at a decent time. Our whole reason for going there so early was so that we could see the sunrise. We started our hike around 2:15am. It started out as a relatively easy climb until about halfway. Then it got difficult. But it was all worth it when we got to the top. 

We arrived at the top around 5:10. So we were hiking for about 3 hours. At the top, there was a temple, and it was truly amazing. There were a couple hundred people at the top praying to Buddha and waiting for the sun to rise. Everyone was all gathered around and facing the east so we can see the sunrise. And at around 5:45am it happened. The moment everyone was waiting for. It was truly amazing. 

Climbing Sri Pada was an amazing experience and I am glad that I got to climb it! It was really nice to get more involved with the Sri Lankan culture. 

This photo was taken at the top of the mountain at the start of the sunrise.

A little later when the sun was coming up.

This photo was taken at the top of the mountain while the clouds were rolling in and the sun was coming up.

The reservoir and the sunrise.

A panoramic view of the valley and sunrise.

Adam's Peak on our way back down the mountain.

This was the view of Adam's Peak from the bottom of the trail.

Football

This past week during practice we have been practicing this new defensive covering technique. I have been talking with my other captain and we have been Planning and Initiating the types of plays to be used during our matches so that we are well prepared for our final season SAISA Tournament. 

This year we have a really strong team. Everyone on our starting squad has been playing football for a long time and we have been playing together for a while so we understand each other and our playing techniques. All of us have a really good feeling about placing in our final tournament. 

Every week on Friday we have practice games. We play these games so that we get maximum practice and opportunities to play against people other than us. So far we have played three matches and won all three. We have scored 15 goals in these three matches: Nikita- 5, Devin-4, Me-3, John-2 and Christian-1. This just shows how strong our forwards and midfielders are. We have only conceded 6 goals to the opposition. This ratio shows us that our defense is also very strong. HOWEVER, there are still things that we need to work on such as our covering and man marking. We need to Develop these Skills so that when it comes time to perform at SAISA, we will be the most prepared and best team out there.