Welcome to another year of interscholastic athletics at Xi’an Liangjiatan International School! Last year was a major milestone for the XLIS Blue Dragons, as our high school students competed in the ACAMIS Green Division for all three core sports (volleyball, basketball, and soccer). We hope to build on this achievement by increasing the amount of training time for high school core sports teams, while investigating ways to expand opportunities for participation at the middle and primary school levels. In addition, the Blue Dragons Athletics Program will continue provide rewarding experiences to students from P3 to DP2 through opportunities to participate in organized and competitive sport within Xi’an.
Athletic Conferences
Locally, XLIS is a founding member of the Xi’an International Athletics Conference (XIAC), currently made up of six international schools in Xi’an. Each of these six schools has responsibilities to host core sport leagues and invitational tournaments that cover a variety of sports for international students in the city.
Regionally, XLIS joined the Association of China and Mongolia International Schools (ACAMIS) during the 2021-2022 school year. A core component of the association is the ACAMIS Sports League, which serves as an athletics conference for 94 international schools throughout the Greater China region. Since 2023 XLIS has been a fully aligned member of the conference and has competed in the Green Division.
Student Participation and Selection
XLIS encourages all students to try out for the school sports teams. However, due to logistical factors and league rules, each team has a limited number of spaces available for participating students. Therefore, while all students are invited to try out for any team within their age bracket, only a certain number of students will be selected for each team.
Students in the primary school will be notified of tryout times during PE class or via Seesaw message, while secondary school students will be notified during homeroom or via email. In some instances, all students will be able to participate in training but may be restricted from a tournament due to registration limits per school.
Coaches will conduct at least two tryout sessions and select students using the following criteria:
- Commitment
- Attitude
- Skill level
During a tryout, coaches will prepare a series of assessments to determine which students best fit the selection criteria. The coach will communicate all selection decisions to every student who attended a tryout in a personalized manner. This may be a face-to-face conversation or an e-mail. Students and parents may schedule a meeting with a coach 24 hours after selection decisions are made if they would like further information as to why a child was not selected to a team.
Training Time and Fees
Most core sport teams, with some exceptions, will have training on Mondays and Fridays from 3:30-4:30 PM. Other teams may train during ECA time on Tuesday and Thursdays or during lunch periods. U19 teams training for ACAMIS tournaments will have an additional Wednesday training session on Wednesdays from 3:30 to 5:30 PM.
In addition, any students selected for a team will not need to pay fees to participate. All uniforms, coaching, and travel to games in Xi’an will be arranged and paid for by XLIS. The only time extra fees will be required is if a student has opted to participate in a travel tournament as part of ACAMIS, where the hotel, inter-city travel cost, and tournament entry fee will need to be borne by the participant.
Swim Team Selection and Training
Swimming is unique and follows different protocols for team selection and training times than the other interscholastic sports offered at XLIS. Swim team selection takes place based on qualifying times, whereby interested students will need to meet certain time standards in at least one stroke to become a member of the team. The time standards for each age group and stroke are listed in the table below:
Swim team training will occur in the XLIS pool every Tuesday and Thursday morning from 7:00 AM to 7:50 AM. Transportation to school on these mornings is the responsibility of the parent. Participating student-athletes are encouraged to arrive with enough time before 7:00 AM to get changed and be ready for practice.
Student-athletes that are not able to arrive to school for morning training will need to communicate with the school’s Head of Aquatics, Mr. Vinson Gou (vinson.gou@xalis.com), to either apply for a training exemption or provide evidence that the child is training at a swim club outside of school.
Age Groups, Teams, and Season Information
U9 Sports
U11 Sports
U14 Sports
U19 Sports
2025-2026 XLIS Tournaments
One source of pride at XLIS is the school’s capacity to host exceptional sporting tournaments that engage the entire school community. This year the school will host three tournaments:
XIAC U14 Basketball Finals – November 1, 2025
For the fourth year in a row, XLIS will host the final tournament for the XIAC U14 Basketball league. The event started as a one-off tournament with three participating schools but has since grown into a culminating event for a league of six teams in both boys and girls divisions.
The Chang’an Cup – December 4-6, 2025
The Chang’an Cup is an annual invitational basketball tournament for international senior high school students hosted by Xi’an Liangjiatan International School (XLIS). XLIS created the Chang’an Cup in 2020 to promote exchange within the community of international schools in Xi’an. Like last year, the tournament will take place over three days.
XIAC U11 Mini-Volley Finals – January 17, 2026
Last year the modified sport of mini-volley was trialed among XIAC schools to provide U11 students the chance to play a team sport during the winter months. With the success of last year’s exchanges and tournament, mini-volley has become a core sport for U11 students in the XIAC and XLIS will host the final tournament this year.
ACAMIS Jr. Swim Meet – March 13-14, 2026
XLIS hosted its first ACAMIS sports tournament in 2024 by bringing the Jr. Swim Meet to Xi’an. After a one-year hiatus, the meet is coming back to XLIS for the second time. This is the largest event on the ACAMIS calendar, attracting more than 400 student-athletes every year.