Although Taipei American School (TAS) offers its students an array of sports and activities to participate in, the match results against other schools in Taiwan aren’t always as desired. When TAS sports teams play against local schools, they most often lose.

“I think that this is a bit frustrating,” says varsity baseball athlete Ryan W. (‘27) “Why are we so weak against our [local school] counterparts?” This seemed to be the popular opinion among the student body. But, although some athletes are frustrated with the scores, they also recognize that it can’t always be fair. “I understand it,” said varsity soccer athlete Jackson K. (‘27). “I’d get why we would lose to local schools who train 24/7, but we just can’t find a way to beat them.”

When we interviewed Ms. Kim Kawamoto, the TAS athletics director, she had a lot to say about this. One of her chief responses was time. “We really aren’t comparable to them [local schools] in terms of training,” she says. This is because TAS imposes a 90-minute restriction on the length of an average practice in both Middle and Upper School. This is coupled with a maximum of five practices per week for varsity and four practices a week (including matches) for Upper School.  In Middle School, the restrictions are three practices per week for Blue teams and two for Gold teams. Meanwhile, local schools often have a dedicated team that almost exclusively trains for their respective sports daily, often up to 3-4 hours a day throughout the school year. In addition, most local school athletes begin their training at a young age, giving them a competitive edge.

While the training restrictions are set by the  TAS administration, other factors also contribute to our athletic schedules. For instance, TAS being a member of the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asian Schools (IASAS) also plays a major part in setting regulations. “We are also limited in training time by IASAS,” says Ms. Kawamoto. As the IASAS rulebook dictates, sports must be divided into three seasons of playing. During a sport’s off-season, school coaches must not offer additional training to students. As a result, this reduces practice times even more, as an individual sport only runs for an interval of two to three months during the on-season.

So, how exactly should we evaluate TAS athletics? “I think that it would be more important to look at IASAS,” said Ms. Kawamoto. “Last IASAS, all of our athletes performed exceptionally well and won medals in all divisions.” This is because of the caliber at which they play. “IASAS is more of an equal conference or division for us. Because we did so well at IASAS, I’d say that our sports teams are pretty good and competitive.”

So, after our interview with Ms. Kawamoto, the message conveyed here is that comparing TAS athletics to local school athletics is like comparing apples to oranges. It would be quite unfair and odd to compare local teams who train for hours each day to a team that has a maximum training time of 90 minutes per day. So, it would be more fair to evaluate TAS athletics with comparable schools, such as IASAS schools competing of a similar caliber.

However, while we recognize that we are bound by different rules and regulations, we wonder if there is something we can do to bring our sports teams to the same level as local schools. This might involve an increase in maximum training time or a dedicated sports team that trains all year. Either way, it would also be more fair to players who are serious about pursuing their respective sports, or players who would like to practice year-round.