The Columbus School held the CISA tournament for the first time this year. From April 17 to 20, four international schools visited the school to compete for the championship.
The tournament brought a lot of different and new concepts to the school, as it was the first international tournament held which made a dynamic change. The schools that assisted this year were the Baldwin School of Puerto Rico, the Cayman International School, the Colegio Nueva Granada from Bogotá, and the Marymount School from Medellín. Each team was assigned an NHS students from the school as ambassadors, which helped them with their needs.
“I volunteered to be the ambassador for Colegio Nueva Granada, I had to be there for all their games and helped them with anything they needed. I think it’s great that the school has ambassadors as I think it makes other teams feel more welcome,” Eva Morales, senior, said.
The ambassadors was a new concept that was introduced this year, but it is not the only one. The main difference from previous years is the globalization of the tournament. Before, the schools that visited TCS were all from Colombia, but now things have changed.
“It was a whole new challenge for us. We knew how other Colombian schools play, but we had no idea how people from Puerto Rico or the Cayman Islands played football. We didn’t know if they were good or bad at it,” Urbano Mesa, football head coach, said.
Other teams in different sports experienced similar challenges. The Cayman Islands speak English as their main language, being the only team in the tournament with this characteristic. The problem was, the referees that the school hired were not bilingual.
“They didn’t understand us, we didn’t understand them. It was hard being on the same page as them, and honestly, they were unfair to us,” Helen Maclaughlin, player of the Cayman Islands girl’s basketball team, said.
In addition, a new digital platform, Tournify, was used for the first time this year to facilitate viewing the times the team played, the place, the scores, and their position in the table.
“Using Tournify has been great as we are all now informed. Teachers and students can make decisions about what game to watch and at what time based on the information that the app gives us. In past years, I wasn’t able to watch many games because I didn’t know at what time they happened,” Sebastián Peláez, senior, said.
Alongside the sports event, the tournament featured small concerts prepared by the school’s band. These performances added a musical touch to the event, providing a space for students to showcase their musical talents.
“Although most people were mainly focused on the exciting games, I believe the concerts added animation to the event. I think that this was helpful for those who want to exhibit their musical talents,” Geronimo Botero, senior, said.
