BY DANIEL BRACHO

Dust sweeps away from the court as the MHS Chinese class basketball team approaches the Guilin School team. In the aftermath, the boys’ score stands at 45-9. Guilin school is the victor. The MHS boys had to face the humiliating loss before the entire Guilin School. A basket would be scored by the Guilin team and hundreds of students would cheer, further discouraging the MHS boys.

It was mid-April and the Chinese class had already been in China for a week. The schedule for the day consisted of visiting Guilin School, located in the city of Guilin in the southeastern region of China. The purpose of the visit was to introduce MHS students to Chinese students so they could interact and share their unique and very different experiences. The event ended with two freindly matches of basketball between the boys’ teams and girls’ teams.

After a sturdy twenty point deficit, the MHS boys had lost all incentive to win, and simply continued to enjoy themselves and their mishaps. Everyone enjoyed the occasional MHS boy taking a shot that would miss the basket by over three feet. To be fair, it was an American chinese class facing a trained varsity team. There were however many impressive baskets and defensive plays by the MHS boys, including three-pointers, steals and stuffs.

Fortunately, MHS’ pride and reputation was redeemed by the MHS girls team in their stunning victory over the Guilin school girls’ team. With the impressive prowess of former varsity players, Randi Degina ’11 and Juliet Welcome ’11, the MHS girls kept a substantial lead throughout the game. Using exceptional teamwork the MHS girls were able to break through the Guilin girls’ defense. In the end, every MHS student left Guilin School with a memorable experience.