ASYV's Interfamily Competition, ASYV Champions League is Underway!

The ASYV Champions League is the Village’s most competitive sporting event unparalleled in its ability to bestow prestige on a family or student.

The Champions League, an interfamily competition in basketball, volleyball and football (soccer), takes place each year from May through July. The competition is a big deal. Families game out strategies and organize practice days in advance. Mamas, Cousins, and Big Siblings coach and encourage their team. This year’s theme is “We Can Do it Better,” introducing the idea that we can always improve ourselves and our community. It also emphasizes that although we are competing against each other, we are still a family and one person’s success is a success for us all.

The competition takes place every Saturday after lunch when the Village community makes its way down to the sports field to watch their friends and families compete. For next two hours, cheers, laughter and shouts fill the sports field and carry throughout the Village.

Girls’ and boys’ families compete separately. Because we have 16 girls’ families and eight boys’ families, the girls’ league has four rounds and the boys’ has three. We’re still making our way through Round Two of the competition, but, as it stands now, there are eight girls’ families and four boys’ families in the running for each sport. Each round cuts the number of competing families in half. The championship is scheduled to conclude before the end of Term 2 in July.

Rene, one particularly enthusiastic family member of King Menelik II, was designated the job of “Cheering Captain.” He riled up the crowd with a boisterous chant: Tuzabatsinda! We will beat them!

Rene’s enthusiasm may have paid off: King Menelik won and is headed to Round Two in volleyball.

We plan to keep you informed on King Menelik’s progress and the reigning champions, so be on the lookout for our updates on the competition to come.

Submitted by Seth Moskowitz, Communications Fellow 2019