Phoenix Gym in the Korean International School. 2000/08/11

How did Seoul International School sweep all the basketball prizes—from KAIAC to AISA, in JV and Varsity, and in boys and girls? In the 2025-2026 basketball season, the SIS varsity boys’ basketball team placed 1st in both KAIAC and AISA. The girls’ varsity team placed 3rd in KAIAC and placed 1st in AISA. The JV boys team placed 3rd in the season and 1st in KAIAC. This success was only possible because of SIS’s open athletic system. In SIS, there is a system where students can use the gyms for free at almost any time. They can go to the gym as long as they have their student ID card. While SIS gets this convenient privilege, many passionate athletes in KIS, including me, do not have this access, so we have less practice time available. The only courts I can use are the dirty, dusty outdoor courts, which I can use only when the weather is optimal. To make KIS more competitive, we must ensure that athletic players have access to gyms comparable to those of SIS.

Why does this matter? Why should we care if our school produces good athletes or not? First of all, sports may look like just physical activities that people do for fun. However, sports give a better balance in life for many people. High schoolers need a break from the stress in school, and need time to exercise and be physically healthy too. The National Library of Medicine claims that “Physical activity was shown to help with sleep and improve various psychiatric disorders. Exercise in general is associated with a better mood and improved quality of life.” With all the stressful academics in life, high school students need to be active physically the most. However, this is not highlighted enough in KIS compared to other international schools in Korea. 

So, how can KIS become a more athletically dominant school? I believe we just need to follow SIS and implement similar policies for gym usage. Anyone with a student ID card should be allowed to access the gym at any time. We all know that this has not been enforced in our school because of safety concerns. To solve this issue, we can have a rule that students are not allowed to use the gym unless there is at least one adult with them. This enforcement means that our parents can also monitor us using the gym, and it doesn’t have to be a staff member of the school. With these sets of policies implemented, more students, passionate for sports, would be able to access the gym more easily. If our gym policy changes like this, the number of students staying active will increase significantly. So, let’s make the gym more accessible and bring KIS more KAIAC plaques to hang up on the walls!