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December 1st, 2008
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Smells like team spirit

More focus put on inter-school sports activities this year

By Curtis M. Wong
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
August 27th, 2008 issue

JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
Peter Taufer, the popular new head of the Prague British School's physical education department, is helping to streamline sporting events this year.
JAN PŘEROVSKÝ/THE PRAGUE POST
Goal! Schools around Prague are hoping to organize a series of international sporting events, starting this fall.
When asked what they like best about the Prague British School (PBS), many students and parents cite the school’s close-knit sense of community. As one strolls around the halls of the school’s Prague 4 campus in Modřany, it’s possible to sense that spirited feeling in nearly every corner of the building.
This fall, the school plans to extend that spirit beyond the campus and onto perhaps its most natural realm — the sports field. Starting this season, PBS officials will be cooperating with the English International School of Prague, the English College of Prague and the Riverside School to organize a series of inter-school sport activities. For the first time in the schools’ history, the respective sports departments will be structured within leagues for boys and girls, and will hold competitive tournaments. Each school will adhere to a schedule of sports events, and, for the first time, teams will be able to compete in international competitions across Europe.  
In addition to local sporting events, the 2008–09 roster includes an eight-school basketball tournament in Budapest, followed by a smaller four-school tournament in Salzburg next February. Furthermore, members of the school’s football team are hoping to attend a tournament in Manchester, England, scheduled for early 2009, as well as other away trips.
In addition, physical education teachers from all of the participating schools have formed a special committee focusing on organizing inter-school leagues and events in the following sports — basketball, football, floorball, badminton, tennis, swimming, skiing and touch rugby.  
PBS officials and students hope that the new format will boost their existing roster of competitive sports, as well as foster a stronger sense of solidarity among the individual schools. Already, they say, it’s made a big difference for school athletes.
In previous years, “we didn’t dream of having a true football team,” says goalkeeper Dimitrije Solar, 15. “Now, we have proper teams with proper coaches. Now we feel like we’re representing our school properly, and we’ve made friends in other schools. It’s like we’re linking schools.”
Adds basketball captain Kang Hun Jo, 18, “Last year, we had no aim, no motivation, no sense of team spirit. Now, we have lots of goals. We want to be the best team in Prague and to compete internationally and be the best there, too.”
School athletes credit PBS’s new head of physical education, Peter Taufer — or “Mr. T,” as he is affectionately referred to by students — with promoting the department’s new changes as well as stressing the increased cooperation between PBS and the other schools. A New Zealand native, Taufer joined the PBS team in 2007.
“Last year, when we played, no one really improved their skills,” Dimitrije says. “But Mr. T really pushed and put forth a lot of effort to change the PE department. We really found our team spirit after he got here.”
While Taufer is more modest about the impact of his personal involvement, he says that he’s seen a significant difference in his athletes’ motivation since his arrival.  
“I think that [the improvements] stem from just having more fun with physical education and from having a more varied curriculum,” Taufer says. “Now, I see a strong desire among our students to represent our school. There’s some pride in saying ‘I made the basketball team’ or ‘I made the football team.’ ”
Team coaches have noticed the increase in students’ confidence as well.
“Our team has improved leaps and bounds,” says PBS football coach John Newton. “They’re looking more and more like a solid football team with each game.”
Taufer also credits increased financial support with helping to promote extracurricular activities, including athletics, among PBS students.
“Our previous athletic programs didn’t have the same financial backing or investment,” he says. “When the teaching staff and students can see there’s an investment being made, it makes the job of a physical education teacher a lot easier. I think it’s a lot more accessible and enjoyable to students now. We’re focused on participation more so than ability.”
While student athletes say they are striving to do their best, they know the pitfalls that come from being sore losers, too.
“Athletes gain experience from both winning and losing,” Dimitrije says.  

Curtis M. Wong can be reached at cwong@praguepost.com


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