A HISTORY of IASAS

Harold Albert (IASAS Conference Administrator)

The 40-Plus Years of IASAS: 1982-2023

IASAS, the Interscholastic Association of Southeast Asia Schools, began in the fall of 1982.  The seeds of the organization, however, were planted long before that with sports competitions that were arranged between many of the international schools in the Southeast Asia region.  For example, Singapore American School (SAS) and International School Bangkok (ISB) participated in an annual, multi-sport event called the Singapore-Bangkok Games, which started in the spring of 1962. If you look into the history of athletics at your home school, you are sure to find instances when your school competed against another IASAS school prior to 1982.   In 1980, the International School of Kuala Lumpur (ISKL) asked to participate in this event, creating what then became known as the Triangular Games.  It was around this time that the idea of forming an international school athletic conference began to develop.

It was probably at an EARCOS Conference in Hong Kong in 1981 that the idea of forming IASAS became a reality. Primarily spear-headed by the Heads of School from ISKL – Gail Schoppert, SAS – Mel Kuhbander, and Jakarta International School (JIS) – Everett Gould, there was expressed a desire to create an international athletics conference in the region.  This organization was to be modelled after similar conferences that were active in South Asia, SAISA, which was familiar to some of these gentlemen, as well as the ISST Conference in Europe.  

It wasn’t too long after that that the Athletic Directors and other individuals from schools in the region met at the old Singapore American School campus on Kings Road tasked with creating the organization.  Participating in this meeting were Al Daniel and Dave Hagan from ISKL, K.S. Kasinathan and Dick Lewis from SAS, Derryl Franz from ISB, along with other participants from JIS.  The result, as we now know, was IASAS, which formally started in October of 1982 with four schools: JIS, SAS, ISKL and ISB.  International School Manila (ISM) joined the conference the very next year, while Taipei American School (TAS) joined the group in 1986, creating the six-school conference that has flourished ever since.  At the urging of SAS’ Kuhbander and Lewis, a cultural component, the Cultural Convention, was also instituted that very first school year.

In the early days, the conventions included soccer & volleyball (first season), basketball & swimming (second season), softball & track and field (third season), as well as a cultural convention (dance, drama, debate, forensics, music and art) and even a mathematics competition.  Over the years, various activities were added to the agenda, and today the wide-ranging IASAS activities include:

  • 1st Season:  Cross-Country, Soccer, Volleyball
  • Model United Nations and Cultural Convention Art/Film
  • 2nd Season:  Basketball, Rugby/Touch, Swimming, Tennis
  • Math Contest, Chess and Service [virtual, non-travel activities]
  • Cultural Convention:  Drama-Dance-Technology, Forensics-Debate, and Music
  • 3rd Season:  Badminton, Baseball/Softball, Track & Field, Golf

For everyone involved, students, coaches, administrators, parents and community members alike, IASAS is one of the most memorable times of any school year.  Now in its 41st year of existence and widely recognized as one of the premier international school activities and athletics conferences in the world, we can only thank those who came before and helped to create such a remarkable organization.

While in-person events were curtailed during the COVID-19 pandemic, we are happy to report that IASAS is now back in action as we had a full-slate of live events last school year.  With the 2023 – 2024 school year underway, we are ecstatic that our amazing athletic/activities conference will thrive as always!

Harold Albert
IASAS Conference Administrator