Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast where we dive into relevant topics and issues
related to the world of business, technology, education and design.
I'm your host, Mr. Jason.
Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders, and inspirational stories
with an international flavor.
This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International
Community School of Bangkok.
In today's episode, we'll be interviewing a few members of our local athletic department,
one coach and two student athletes.
We'll be asking them about the role sports plays in their lives and how it has impacted
them.
Before we begin our conversation with our guest, let's hear the quote of the day in
the headline news.
Our quote of the day comes from basketball legend Michael Jordan.
He said,
I have missed more than 9,000 shots in my career.
I've lost almost 300 games.
26 times I've been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life.
And that is why I succeed.
This is a great quote, not only to apply to playing sports, but also to life in general.
Success can only be achieved from learning from failures.
And the fundamental thing to do is never give up.
Michael Jordan is called the best basketball player of all time.
His team, the Chicago Bulls, were the best team in early to mid 90s.
Not only is he an accomplished basketball player, he is also a successful businessman,
as his brand Air Jordans brought in 5.1 billion US dollars.
Currently it's March and that means that it's the season of March madness.
It's time to pick your favorite team and bet on them to win.
Currently the Houston Cougars seem to have the best odds.
After them are the Alabama Crimson Tide, the Arizona Wildcats, and the Kansas Jayhawks.
Manchester United also just won its first trophy in the Kerr-Bowl Cup since 2017.
They won 2-0 against Newcastle.
Sadly Newcastle United hasn't won any major trophies in the last 54 years.
There were thousands of fans watching the match and that really gave the feeling of
a final cup match.
Staying on topic, Manchester United recently lost 7-0 to Liverpool.
This was their biggest defeat in 92 years, especially against their biggest rival, Liverpool.
The Manchester United manager, Eric Ten Hag, was very disappointed and stated that they
lost their heads and did not play as a team.
Our second question for you is, did you play sports in high school or university?
Both.
I played two years in high school, my high school in the US.
I played JV and varsity football.
I also played JV basketball and varsity baseball.
Then in college, my senior year I returned to Bangladesh and played for a semi-pro team
for about half the year.
And then when I went to university, I played my junior and senior year varsity football.
I didn't play a lot, but I got a lot of valuable experience of understanding and watching the
game and seeing how it flows out, learn different strategies and things like that.
I think that's where my love of coaching started.
How did that experience differ from ICS?
This question was a little bit tougher because it's such a, I've not played for ICS.
I've coached almost my entire time here, but one of the biggest differences that I've noticed
from the very beginning was the amount of practices we had.
In high school, I practiced five days a week and then you had games into that.
And then when I was in college, there's a lot of times where we trained, especially
pre-season, we trained two to three times a day.
You'd get up at six o'clock in the morning, do a mini practice, then you'd train a nine
o'clock session after breakfast.
And then you'd have an afternoon session, sometimes an evening session of two or three
hours each.
And then once school started, then you're practicing every day for two to three hours
every day.
I guess the biggest difference that I noticed is the amount of practice that we do.
And here I'd only train three times a week.
What are your favorite parts about coaching?
One of the big things I like is I love the in-game strategy when you're managing a game
and you have to make adjustments, try and outsmart the other coach or figure out what
he's doing so you can counter it.
I love that kind of stuff.
But I also love the interactions I get to have with my players, helping them become
not only better players on the pitch, but also better young men.
And that's the, I think to me, sports is a microcosm of life.
There's so many things you learn about yourself when you're on the field, how you, when situations
come up, how you react to those situations.
And that can, those are situations that come up when you get a job, when you're working
with other people, you have those things that come up and you have to learn how to react.
And the opportunity I have to build into the lives of my players and encourage them and
challenge them and make them and help them grow as young men.
And I do hope my guys know how much I care about them.
I think they do, but it's always good to have that reassurance.
I also love seeing success stories of my players.
And currently I love having the fact that I have two of my former athletes working with
me.
You may know them, Mr. Tent and Mr. Zach have followed in my footsteps and it is so encouraging
and it's so great to have them here back with us.
I coached Mr. Tent for all of his high school and Mr. Zach I coached when he was in sixth
grade, but interacted with him throughout his entire high school career.
So it's been, it's great having them back with me now working with me.
What are some challenges that comes with coaching a team of yellow men?
People and their different personalities.
Anytime you work with like 20 to 30 different personalities, you're going to have challenges
that come up.
Things like you don't always see eye to eye.
They may not agree with the formation that we're playing or the system that we're running
or what I asked them to do on offense or defense.
So you're trying to manage that playing time.
One guy may think he deserves more playing time, but as a coach you see, well, you're
not working hard enough in practice.
I have to manage that.
At the varsity level, playing time isn't guaranteed.
And so helping them understand that you may not be guaranteed playing time.
So that's another managing how they deal with that.
And then decisions that they make.
There's been some of my players that have made outside of football have made very poor
decisions and then you deal with the consequences of that, which not only affect them, affect
them, but affect the team because they may be suspended from the team for a certain amount
of time or, or whatnot.
So those are the, those are some of the challenges that you have to face.
But how you react to those challenges.
Are you going to come down hard on them as far as like be a monster or an overlord or
something like that?
Or do you say, Hey, we all make mistakes.
You try and learn from those mistakes and encourage them to be, to be better.
So those are some of the challenges I facing.
What are the benefits of playing sports, especially on a team?
Oh, there's, there's just so many.
I did a little research on this question, but there's just so many benefits.
One of the biggest benefits of being on a team is a sense of belonging that you get.
You're a part, I mean, you guys are a team for here for this podcast.
You work together, you learn how to play off each other in your conversations.
You learn how to use each other's strengths and weaknesses.
Same thing, same thing for a sports team.
You learn how to work with each other and that can translate again into down the road
as you get a job.
Like now I'm not on a team per se like a sports team, but I have a team that I work with in
the PE department and we learn how to work together and those different challenges that
come with that.
You're part of a family.
Like my guys know that they can come to me with anything and talk to me about anything.
And hopefully I'm there to be, I'm there for them to encourage them and challenge them.
You learn how to win together.
You learn how to lose together.
You go through the ups and downs of life.
And that's something that can translate again into real life.
In life, you're going to have ups and downs and learning how to manage those, learning
to lean on the people that are close to you.
You learn your family.
Those are important things that you can benefit from.
Those are some of the benefits, but there's also like physical benefits such as you're
fitter because you're exercising all the time, which then affects your mental health.
You are healthier.
It can be fun.
I'm always trying to tell my players, if you don't enjoy it, why are you doing it?
There's no point if you don't enjoy it.
If you're here to have fun and learn, great, let's do that.
But if you're not enjoying it, if you're not having fun, then don't do it.
It's a waste of your time.
It's a waste of my time.
I'm just lots of different things that you can benefit from from playing sports.
Following up from that question, in what ways do the students grow from it?
Learning how to interact with people.
I think I mentioned that a little bit ago, but you learn how to interact with people
that are different from you.
I mean, on a team, you're going to have, like I think said earlier, there's lots of different
personalities.
You have the quiet people, you have the vocal people, you're going to have the guys that
are just phenomenal athletes down to the average athlete.
You learn how to just interact with the different people in the squad.
You learn how to face adversity.
Every game you go through adversity, whether you're winning or losing, you go through adversity.
You go through adversity in practice at times.
So you learn how to face that and deal with it and handle that.
You learn how to manage your time.
Playing a varsity sport is a huge commitment.
And you guys as high schoolers have homework to manage.
You have to learn how to really take advantage of those times that you have to do that homework
and work on your practice as well.
With exercise, you sleep better.
You honestly do.
You really do sleep better.
You learn how to lead.
We went through a whole thing with my guys this year about leadership and not just the
captains, but all your players, all your athletes, whatever sport it is, whether it's football,
basketball, volleyball, whatever it is, that you're leaders.
People know you're on the team and they look up to you.
So learning how to lead.
Your cardiovascular health improves.
You gain confidence.
It reduces stress.
Exercise is known to reduce stress and you have more energy.
I exercise on a regular basis.
I run every morning just about three to five kilometers every morning.
While somebody's like, aren't you really tired of that?
Well, immediately after I run, yes, I'm tired.
But as the day goes on, I have more energy later in the day because of that.
Being on a team because you're going to exercise regularly is definitely a benefit.
And there's just so many more.
There's just too many to list them all.
What have been some of your favorite memories from through the years coaching the soccer
team at ICS?
Oh man, I have a lot.
I think my overall favorite was in 2013 when we won ACSC.
We went with a team that we had maybe trained one time for 11-a-side football and we went
up and won the whole thing as the only team that didn't play 11-a-side regular regularly.
And that was super exciting.
Yeah, and that was a fun team to coach.
Also we won BISAC in 2015, which is the league we used to be in.
The next year we won the ISB tournament, which we beat a team from Perquette, which was an
academy team.
We were the only team to beat them that year in a tournament.
We also, my first championship was in 2008.
We won a Pouquette 7s tournament.
In 2000, I want to say 2012, it was coach 10th senior year, we won.
We got second at the Pouquette tournament, but it was one of those teams that were just,
they were so fun to coach.
We worked really hard and we lost to this team that was just, the team that beat us
deserved to win.
They were the best team there by a long shot.
And we got beat, but it was a fun team to coach.
And they just, it was really, they're the only team that's gotten me to cry after the
end of the season.
This year's team was pretty close.
This year's was fun too.
It was pretty close.
I got choked up, but yeah, there was, and this year, obviously this year, being second
and being able to host ACSC and then doing as well as we did and finishing second and
having all of the students and teachers come out and support us, that was so fun.
That was one of the most memorable, probably one of the most memorable times I've had here
at ICS.
Our final question for you is, how do you motivate players who might be nervous or unsure
about their abilities?
I try to tell, encourage players to have, like I said earlier, have fun.
If you're not having fun, then why are you there?
There's no point, right?
And that's the biggest thing.
Most of us do something, do sports or do something that we do because we enjoy it, not because
we're forced to.
If we're forced to do it, you're not going to like it.
So I don't want to twist anybody's arm or force them to do if they don't like it.
There's no point.
So one, do it because you have fun.
And then I've seen players play at lunchtime, say, hey, why don't you try out for the team?
And they look at me like, I'm not good enough.
Well, and then I kind of give them that little, well, why don't you let the coach make that
decision?
And sometimes they make it, sometimes they don't.
Because once you put them with the better players, the team guys that are already on
the team, they may not be able to make the team, but at least they took the risk and
took that challenge.
If they don't make the team, I try to encourage them, here's what you can work on.
Maybe you can make, especially the younger players, maybe you can work on this part of
your game, get a little more fit, work on your ball skills, work on your shooting, different
aspects of the game that will help them improve if I see the potential there.
I'm trying to encourage them to not give up.
But again, to go back earlier, have fun, right?
There's no point, like I said, no point in doing if you're not having fun.
The one thing I always ask my PE classes and my players, if you've been in my PE class,
you know what I always say, Lion, what do I always say about what is my one expectation
of you in PE class?
Try your, try your best, try your best.
I always ask my students to try their best.
That's all you can do.
You can't do any more than that.
All right?
And it's going to look different for everybody.
So encourage kids to just do your best.
Don't do Lion's best, don't do Pucca's best, don't do my best, do your best.
And that's, and that's the thing that I try and encourage them to do.
And also, like I said, encouraging those kids from like lunchtime soccer or PE soccer to
go out there and they let me look halfway decent in PE, but you got to challenge yourself
against the better players.
And if you can compete and hang with them, then you have a better chance of making the
team.
So don't just sit back and, oh, I'm not that good.
Well, you don't know that you're not that good until you challenge yourself.
Any words of encouragement or advices?
Famous basketball coach, Jimmy Valvano, coached in the 80s, won the NCAA national tournament
in 1983 with a very much an underdog team.
And he ended up dying.
He died of cancer in 93, but two months before he died, he gave a speech at the ESPYs, which
is a big sports award ceremony in the U.S.
And the part of his speech that everybody remembers, I don't think people remember
most of the speech, but the one part they remember, he said, and this is it became the
the motto for his foundation for cancer research.
He said, don't give up.
Don't ever give up.
You see this all the time at the beginning of the tournament.
They'll start playing his picture, him cheering, and then you'll see him say this quote, don't
give up, don't ever give up.
And that is what I try and encourage my players to don't give up.
If you enjoy it, if you want it bad enough, just do it.
Don't give up trying.
You may not make it then, but down the road, you may make it.
My little personal story, my first two years in college, I didn't make the soccer team.
And it was frustrating because there was like, especially in my sophomore year, there was
four guys that I knew I was better than that made it.
And I was really frustrated.
So I was like, I'm not going to try out the next year.
And then someone came up to me says, George, why aren't you trying out?
Well, I want to get one more shot.
So I did.
And I made the team.
And because the head varsity coach finally got to see me play.
It was great.
It was a good experience.
I didn't necessarily play a lot, but it was good.
I didn't give up.
I look back to that as a time like, man, I could have given up right then and there and
be done with it.
But I didn't.
And I'm so glad I didn't because I learned so much after that.
And then I guess the last thing would be find something that you're passionate about, whatever
that is.
It can be sports.
It can be radio.
It can be science, math, whatever.
If you're passionate about it, you can pursue it and do it to the best of your ability and
don't give up.
I love sports.
I played high school sports.
I played college sports.
I still play soccer right now as an old man.
I love it.
But I also love teaching it.
And I found my passion in teaching and teaching sports, coaching and all that.
I may not make a lot of money teaching.
Teaching is not you don't go into teaching to get rich, but there's so much other rewards
that you get from teaching.
Seeing students become successful later on in life.
And that's that right there is the reward.
Seeing people how their lives change for the better.
Seeing them come back to you.
Either you're working with you or they just come back and say, hey, Mr. George, how you
doing?
And just that that that love that they have for you, the impact you've had on their life.
And so that's the rewards I get.
Pursue what you're passionate about and do it to the best of your ability.
OK, with that great advice, we will be right back after this short PSA.
Sports have been a part of life for more than three thousand years.
In the past, though, sports were primarily used as preparation for hunting or war.
The oldest sports came from Greece and included wrestling, discus, javelin throwing, chariot
racing and jumping.
The winner would receive a crown of olive leaves and have a statue made of himself on
Olympia.
These would occur during the Olympics and would be watched by many people from all around
Greece.
Ball related sports are way more recent, though.
Golf originated in the 15th century.
Cricket was created in the 16th century.
Baseball, softball, hockey and basketball all were first played in the 1800s.
We are back with part two of our episode.
We will be interviewing two student athletes about the sports they play and what they believe
are the benefits of playing team sports.
Lyon will start us off with our first question.
Can you please introduce yourself and state what sport you play?
Hello, my name is Dylan Nishiyoko and I am 17 years old and I am a senior.
I am currently playing for ICS's varsity soccer team.
Hello, I'm Nattyrannanthakun and I'm also a senior.
I'm currently 17 years old and I play for the varsity girls volleyball team.
How was your first experience playing sport?
Well, my first experience playing sport was pretty fun and interesting because one of
the first activities I did in ICS was actually joining the sport teams.
I joined many sport teams as an eighth grader because that was when I first joined ICS.
Volleyball was one of it and it definitely left a really good impression to me.
That's why I continued it for like the next five years.
When I did my first few games, I thought I knew what I was doing, but in reality, I was
not.
When I rewatched my performance from around 2013, I was embarrassed.
It looked like a bunch of kids running around and taking a ball back and forth.
So yeah, in the moment of playing, I had fun.
Back then, my stamina was crazy.
I remember I could run a six minute mile and that I would not get tired from playing soccer.
To this day, I still cannot figure out why I lost my stamina when I have been constantly
playing this sport to this day.
What would you say are the benefits of playing on a team?
I think that when someone plays on a team for a very long time, you build these new
and stronger relationships with your friends and other people.
As time goes on and you play with these people, you start to naturally feel like they are
somewhat family to you.
Once you're like family with these people, you feel like you could be more open with
the people who are willing to listen and help you whenever you need.
And another benefit is that you can practice your social skills with your teammates.
If you're a shy and introverted person and you play in a team, you are somewhat forced
to talk with your teammates.
Stepping out of the comfort zone is a step closer to improved lived.
I gotta agree with Dino because as I said in the beginning, I love playing sports, but
then it was really hard for me to adjust with the new school since I joined kinda late in
middle school.
And playing in the sport team has definitely made it so much easier for me to adjust with
in terms of friends and teachers and just getting to know a lot more people, which I
think I would have to suggest to all the new kids out there who will be joining sport teams
next year or have not had a chance to join any sport team if you want to make new friends
or grow a stronger connection with someone you just want to be close to.
You should definitely join any sport team you want.
Do you have any memorable moments from playing on your team?
The most memorable moments I had was definitely going to the ACSC tournament.
The first one I went to was in 2019 when I was in my freshman year.
We went to Taiwan.
It was really the best time of my life because I never really thought that I would have the
chance to travel abroad to go compete in a sport that I really enjoy.
But sadly, COVID hit, so it stopped for two years.
My junior year and my sophomore year was just kinda sad.
It was really sad because the tournament we had were just only in school and somewhere
in Bangkok, but then we were lucky enough that the countries are actually reopening
now.
As a senior, I get to go on my last ACSC trip with my teammates to the Philippines this
year.
The most memorable moment from playing on my team was playing in the ACSC tournament.
In this tournament, there were ups and downs for the team.
We won some, lost some, and most importantly, we lost in the finals.
After the game, our whole team was at our lowest.
While there were tears coming down some of our faces, we heard the crowd supporting us
and cheering us on.
Even though we had lost in the finals, the community was proud of us and still supported
us.
This shows that the community will support us till the end even if we lose.
This also shows that school is more than just like education, it's more of like building
relationships and having a new family here.
Here's our next question.
What was your proudest achievement in sports?
I wouldn't say I'm most proud of any particular achievement, but a cool achievement I made
was scoring a free kick against Mr. Tim Baumgartner in a 7-a-side goal.
As you may know, Mr. Tim, a huge man, a good goalkeeper, big biceps, big body.
Even though he is huge and covers the goal well, he could not save my shot.
Sorry, Mr. Tim, too good.
The shot was too fast and too strong for him to reach and dive for it.
My experience has to be definitely really similar to Dino.
It happened in the ACSC that took place this year at the Philippines.
We were against a team called Delat from Malaysia and they had this really tall girl who went
taller than me because I'm actually pretty tall.
I'm like 177 centimeters and for me to see someone taller than me was definitely fascinating.
She's definitely a great hitter.
But I thought that with my height, I just wanted to block her.
So in one of her hits, I kind of blocked her and we got a point from that.
So I was definitely really, really proud of that.
How would you say leadership plays a role in your sport?
It plays a really, really big role in my sport because if not, a lot of people might know
is that volleyball is a really mental sport since you play as a team.
If whoever on the team is just sad or down or their mentality is just really low, everyone
on the court could sense it and somehow everyone will absorb that energy and take that energy
in which obviously will cause a really bad effect to our team.
So for someone or maybe more than one person to actually bring the team up and lead the
other teammates through the hardship is just really, really important.
So I guess that's how I would describe leadership in volleyball.
For me personally, leadership is one of the most important things a player must have.
By being a leader, you are seen as a person who others should look up to.
If you have a bad character, you say a lot of profanity, you do these bad actions.
These younger players will learn from that and they will start to develop those traits.
So it is important to show the qualities of a leader.
Thank you for sharing everybody.
And finally, as you both are seniors, firstly, what advice would you give to up and coming
athletes?
And what's next for you?
Are you going to continue playing the sport in university?
An advice I would give to the up and coming athletes is that I recommend you not to do
any type of drugs because they will lower your performance significantly and that it
also ruins your mental health and everything and that like all the hard work you have been
working for, it just goes down the drain.
And what's next for me?
I think that I will still play in this sport in like some Sunday deep type thing with some
old men.
I'm like, yeah, it's pretty fun.
I get to play with other people.
I get to train.
I get to still stay fit.
And why do you continue playing this sport in university?
Me going to Japan, I think the competition there is insane.
I don't think I can keep up with that, but I will try to join a school team in university
because I still want to play this sport and stay fit when I am older.
An advice I would love to give to the up and coming athlete would definitely be to have
a lot of discipline because I've been on the city team for quite a while.
And one thing I definitely regretted on was going to practice really, really late.
I used to see that as something really funny.
But one thing I realized is that it sets an example to the younger underclassmen.
And once you become the oldest on the team, you're kind of put to the blame on it.
So it's not always nice.
And you obviously want to get the most out of practice.
So always be sure to be on time.
And for me, I'm still not really sure where I will end up in uni yet.
Hopefully I have the chance to play the sport and continue it because I just really love
it.
And it depends on where I end up too, so hopefully I might join a fun club or maybe the school
team.
Who knows?
Thank you for sharing some advice with some of our younger and up and coming athletes.
I hope our listeners have gotten to see a small glimpse of the positive benefits sports
can add to their lives.
As we end this episode, we'd like to thank our guests for sharing about their experiences
with us.
For our next episode, we'll be featuring the art and design department and we'll be discussing
the industry and business of art.
Again, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international
student production team.
All music and sound effects are courtesy of Pixabay.com, a vibrant community of creatives
sharing copyright free images, videos and music.
And we are signing off until next time.
For Students Incorporated, because your voice matters.