A HISTORY OF IASAS

Harold Albert (IASAS Conference Administrator submitted 2022)

The 40+ Years of IASAS

IASAS, the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asia Schools, began in the fall of 1982.  The seeds of the organisation, however, were planted long before that with sports competitions that were arranged between many of the international schools in the Southeast Asia region.  For example, Singapore American School (SAS) and International School Bangkok (ISB) participated in an annual, multi-sport event called the Singapore-Bangkok Games, which started in the spring of 1962. If you look into the history of athletics at your home school, you are sure to find instances when your school competed against another IASAS school prior to 1982.   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 international school athletic conference began to develop.

It was probably at an EARCOS Conference in Hong Kong in 1981 that the idea of forming IASAS became a reality. Primarily spear-headed by the Heads of School from ISKL – Gail Schoppert,

SAS – Mel Kuhbander, and Jakarta International School (JIS) – Everett Gould, there was expressed a desire to create an international athletics conference in the region.  This organisation was to be modelled after similar conferences that were active in South Asia, SAISA, which was familiar to some of these gentlemen, as well as the ISST Conference in Europe.  

It wasn’t too long after that that the Athletic Directors and other individuals from schools in the region met at the old Singapore American School campus on Kings Road tasked with creating the organisation.  Participating in this meeting were Al Daniel and Dave Hagan from ISKL, K.S. Kasinathan and Dick Lewis from SAS, Derryl Franz from ISB, along with other participants from JIS.  The result, as we now know, was IASAS, which formally started in October of 1982 with four schools: JIS, SAS, ISKL and ISB.  International School Manila (ISM) joined the conference the very next year, while Taipei American School (TAS) joined the group in 1986, creating the six-school conference that has flourished ever since.  At the urging of SAS Kuhbander and Lewis, a cultural component, the Cultural Convention, 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- 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 are ready to enjoy the 43rd year we can only thank those who came before and helped to create such a remarkable organization, and can only hope that it will prosper for many decades to come.

SARS and COVID 19

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.

Harold Albert

IASAS Conference Administrator