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By Michelle Huang

In the last few months of 2018, SASPD participated in APAC Basketball, Table Tennis, and Forensics. This year, SASPD hosted Junior Varsity APAC Basketball, a tournament in which up to six different schools participated for the championships.

Although this might just mean exciting Flex periods and a convenient excuse to cut down on class time for non-participating students, these APAC events hold a common significance to all athletes––a final milestone of all the shared efforts and memories accumulated over the past few months.

The general consensus on their personal views around the teams seems to be chiefly positive.

“Going into JPAC, I have a good feeling with the group of guys that we have,” says Luke Cheung, point guard of the JV1 team. “We’ve overcome so many injuries together over the last few months that it really is an honor to play with the team in front of our own school.”

His sentiments around the abundance of injuries in the boys’ JV1 team echoes that of Galen Gibb, stretch-forward, who jokingly remarks that he remains confident about their team “besides the fact that [they have been] plagued with injuries.”

As the teams prepared in the final days leading up to the event, views on the biggest competitors were consistent in both the boys’ and the girls’ teams. Henin Cao, shooting guard on the JV girls’ team, notes Concordia and SASPX, which was later shared by Grace Liu, their power forward. Cheung and Gibb also have a consensus on HKIS, ISB, and the ever-present SASPX as their top rivals in the event.

Finally, the interviewees shared some of their fondest memories of the season. “It would be a home game we played against SMIC,” says Liu. “I was getting lots of rebounds and I had performed the best all season during that game.” The fondest memories for Cao was “just every single game,” where “everyone would cheer for [the team]––whether or not they were injured, or in the game, or on the bench.” Cheung’s favorite memory was the home opener on SAS’s Thursday Night Lights at the beginning of the season. “We were able to experience the home court crowd that our upperclassmen told stories about,” he recollects. For Gibb, what stood out as the most memorable was a slice of the game not many spectators witness: “The most memorable part would have to be the huddles during timeouts. It’s an incredibly intense environment, but knowing that you’re all working towards a common goal of winning is very encouraging.”

Both JV teams ranked 4th out of six schools after the JPAC tournament.