Eastern Mediterranean Activities Conference

Eastern Mediterranean Activities Conference
Abbreviation EMAC
Formation 1980
Extinction 2011
Legal status Inactive
Region served
 Middle East, Asia Minor, Egypt
Membership
 17 (mostly American and a few British international schools)
Official language
 English

The Eastern Mediterranean Activities Conference (EMAC) was a regional sports and activities league founded in 1980 that hosted tournaments in a wide range of athletic and academic activities. The conference consisted of 17 mostly American schools, with a few British international schools, from 11 nations - Bahrain, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Syria, and the UAE. Occasionally, schools who were not EMAC members were allowed to participate in occasional tournaments. It ceased to exist as a conference in 2011.

Activities

Athletic

The following athletic activities were offered:

Typically, each sport would have four separate tournaments, with a distinction made between boys and girls teams, as well as Varsity and Junior Varsity teams, resulting in Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, Junior Varsity Boys, and Junior Varsity Girls teams and tournaments. However, both gender tournaments were usually, but not always, hosted together at each level (e.g. Varsity Girls Basketball and Varsity Boys Basketball would usually be hosted simultaneously by one school). Varsity teams were for students aged 16 and older, while Junior Varsity teams for participants under the age of 16. The exceptions to this were the Track & Field and Swimming events. Both sports would have roughly 6 tournaments each (Varsity Boys, Varsity Girls, Junior Varsity Boys, Junior Varsity Girls, Under 13 Boys, and Under 13 Girls) happening at the same time.

EMAC also offered an activity called the Middle School Festival, a noncompetitive tournament in which participants played a variety of sports and gained exposure to athletics and team play.

Non-athletic

EMAC also offered three non-athletic activities:

The teams for all 3 events were gender-neutral, as there was no distinction between boys and girls teams. Academic Games and the Fine Arts Festival still had both Varsity and Junior Varsity teams, while Debate & Forensics did not; membership for D&F was open to students of all ages and genders.

Tournaments

The schedule of tournaments for the following year were decided around April. Teams from individual schools would typically prepare months in advance before an EMAC tournament, which was usually scheduled over a weekend, so as not to disturb school sessions (however, as most EMAC events would last on average from 3 to 4 days, some days would fall on a normal school day).

Participating schools took turns hosting the various events, meaning that they were responsible for facilitating the events on their own campuses, and housing the traveling athletes with their own students. Occasionally, some students would stay in hotels if there were not enough student hosts available for housing, or if there was a surplus of visiting students. Due to the large amount of participating member schools, most schools would host only one tournament each year. In some cases, a school might have hosted two events or even none, depending on the schedule from year to year.

The activities were played in the mornings and afternoons of the tournament, while evenings were usually kept free for team members to socialize and experience the host city. The teams were often taken to malls/shopping centers and to visit local or historical landmarks, and on many occasions were invited to a school-chaperoned mixer, during these times.

Code of Conduct

All EMAC participants were required to sign an official form stating that they agreed to adhere to the Code of Conduct, which prohibited the participant from possession/use of alcohol and illegal narcotics, as well as enforcing a strict curfew. Any participant found to have violated these rules may be punished with a 12-month ban from all EMAC activities, and would also likely face punishment from their school administration.

Member Schools

The EMAC member schools (full-time and affiliate) included, but were not limited to, the following schools:

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