During the fall and winter seasons, JV sports teams travel to compete against various schools across Europe. This year, the JV soccer, basketball and volleyball teams, along with their respective varsity teams, traveled to competitions hosted in Brussels, Frankfurt and Zurich.
In the spring season, the varsity softball, baseball and tennis teams, as well as 20 competing athletes from the varsity track and field team, travel to compete in international tournaments. However, the JV tennis teams and non-traveling cohort of the track and field team do not travel.
JV tennis player Maya Daley (’26) said it was upsetting that only her tennis team didn’t get to travel.
“It’s really unfair that almost all the other JV teams get to go on sports trips, but tennis is one of the only teams that doesn’t go anywhere,” Daley said.
Director of Athletics John Farmer said because many ISST member schools lack JV teams for their spring sports, there are no tournaments abroad for the JV tennis teams to compete in.
“The majority of schools don’t have JV tennis programs,” Farmer said. “Though I’m surprised JV tennis isn’t something that happens more, sadly, I’m guessing that has more to do with facilities than it does with interest.”
In addition, Farmer said another reason the JV tennis teams don’t travel is because they do not require preparation for end-of-season tournaments abroad, unlike JV teams in the fall and winter which compete in JV ISSTs.
“We’ve kind of moved to travel more with JV teams than we were before, in large part because they’re competing in end-of-season tournaments, whereas that’s not happening in the spring season,” Farmer said.
Fede Formenti (’26), who plays for the JV boys tennis team, said trips would benefit the JV team as it would produce better results during LSSAs.
“Trips during the season would help us prepare better for LSSAs because we would have more experience with tournaments,” Formenti said.
Amari Victor (’25), a former member of the track and field non-traveling team, said the lack of trips drives some students away from the sport.
“When [you’re] someone who just loves the sport, and you know you won’t go to ISSTs, it’s kind of a deterrent because every other sport travels and this one doesn’t,” Victor said.
Furthermore, Daley said traveling would improve the JV tennis team since they would have a chance to play against a variety of players from other teams.
“It would definitely be nice to have trips because then you would understand a bit more how to play with people from different places,” Daley said.
However, Victor said given the large team, he understands why the entire varsity track and field team can’t travel.
“Track is on the larger side of teams and booking 60 kids to go to a country is a lot, especially because there are people that are less committed to the sport,” Victor said.
Ultimately, Farmer said he doesn’t anticipate JV spring sports teams being able to travel in the future as there’s “not an appetite at other schools” for them.
“I can’t say never, but we’ve never traveled with JV teams in the spring season,” Farmer said. “[Other schools] don’t have the numbers to support JV baseball and softball and other JV teams.”
