Blogger baffled by prep sports history in Turkey
Published: May 1, 2012
Regular readers of this space won’t be surprised to learn that the one who blogs here mangled the facts in an earlier posting about the Ankara Sports Association soccer tournament, played last weekend in the Turkish capital.
The ASA, which brought together five teams from the center and both ends of the country for its fifth annual soccer tournament, was founded in 2007 by then-Ankara athletic director Leigh Carignan, present Ankara AD Tim Redden gently corrected in a day-after email. Seeking an avenue for interscholastic athletic competition for his Trojan athletes, Carignan got together with his counterparts at Oasis International School, the Pakistani Embassy International Study Group and Bilkent School, all in Ankara, to provide the structure for a local sports league.
Redden reported he now shares oversight of the ASA with former Oasis AD Tolga Yesilkaya, present Oasis AD Greg Land, and Atahan Atsal, AD at the PEISG.
“Without these three guys’ assistance, the ASA wouldn't work,” Redden emailed. “The credit certainly isn't all mine, and by percentage, most of the credit should fall to Atahan, Greg, and Tolga.”
Wherever the credit lies, the movers and shakers in Ankara are to be complimented for expanding the opportunities for their athletes to perform at a location far from the center of the action in European high school sports. Judging from the shrinking pool of DODDS-Europe schools, the ASA soon might be a model for other parts of the continent, too.
