By Joo-Hyung Park
June 6, 2011
On May 26, 2011, the Korea Kent Foreign School went to Osan, Korea to participate in the boys’ soccer Far East Tournament. The Far East Tournament is an annual event, which teams from all over East Asia attend to compete for one of the most valuable prizes. This year, nine teams participated in the competition and Kent was one of them. Although Kent had participated in past Far East tournaments, Kent is a small school that dreams to accomplish something that no school of its size has ever done: to win the Far East Tournament.
“It will be very exciting to win the tournament,” said Mr. Snipes, who is currently the soccer coach of KKFS. “No school in KAIAC Division II has ever won this competition so I think there might be a possibility that we can make history.”
In South Korea, KAIAC is split into two divisions. Schools with bigger facilities and a higher number of students participate in Division I while the smaller schools participate in Division II. Therefore, Division II tends to be at a disadvantage. However, there was still a possibility that the Division II underdogs could pull an upset and Kent was determined to win.
“I think we can win the tournament because I believe we can do it,” stated Beka, a sophomore who is on the Kent Varsity team. “We can win the tournament!”
Although Kent fought hard and tough, the team was unable to make history. The KKFS team finished 6th place out of 9 teams. However, this seemed to be a positive experience for the young team that consisted of many freshmen and sophomores. Considering that Kent was competing against other schools which had more students and better facilities, the Kent boys’ soccer team did fairly well.
Throughout this tournament, Kent learned the true values of unity and teamwork. Now that this young team knows what it takes to compete, many people have high expectations for the future.
“Now that our players have experience, all we need to do is keep developing,” says Mr. Snipes. “All we have to do is wait until next year’s tournament.”
