By Daniel Ladeira
With the loss of several schools from CEESA due Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rumors have circulated that ASW may be leaving CEESA athletics. Unlike many rumors, this one turns out to be true.
Mr. Cuthbert, the ASW Athletics Director, reassured students that there will still be the same amount of competitions. Whenever ASW is missing a competition, the school will reach out to other leagues that have relationships with ASW, such as ESC or ISST, and participate in their competitions while not being part of their league.
Mr. Cuthbert justified leaving CEESA with the argument that since 3 big schools are out due to the war (Moscow, and 2 Kiev schools), there are only 3 big schools left including us, and the rest are small schools. It would be more beneficial for us to compete with other big schools and it would be more fair to the smaller schools, he said.
Under special circumstances, such as when the smaller schools want to have swim meets but don’t have pools available, ASW will still help CEESA out, Mr. Cuthbert said.
He also clarified that ASW is only leaving CEESA athletics and is still going to be in CEESA activities (speech and debate, conferences, etc).
Mr. Cuthbert also expressed sympathy for parents having to pay large fees for athletic trips (~2k PLN per trip), and said that there was a strong possibility of homestays coming back even this season.
Maciek S, an 11th-grade student and ASW swimmer, supported the decision to leave CEESA athletics, saying “CEESA wasn’t a good challenge for us anyways.”
Zelda S, a senior, had a similar opinion: “It means one less competition but most schools are moving to SCIS anyways”.
Mr. Szuter, the aquatics director at ASW, thinks that leaving CEESA athletics is a good thing to do. He said that the competition wasn’t strong enough, and that less competition would give our swimmers less motivation.
Mr. Szuter also said that to make sure that ASW has enough competition for the swim season, the school will host an invitational swim competition mid-season.
ASW swimmers this year participated in the ESC league. The school isn’t part of ESC, but this was a one time event since we hosted 2 swim meets, said Mr. Cuthbert, and he wanted to give ASW swimmers a chance to travel this season.
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