26 February 2008

As captain of the Netball Under-18 team, I decided to set a good example by arriving early. However, due to sheer nerves (and alright, I did oversleep – but just a little), I ended up arriving at school later than I intended to, only to find that most of my teammates had not arrived yet. That shows how punctual Cempakans can be.

7.00 am - “Where’s Ilyana? Where’s Laurel? Oh my goodness! Where’s Siew Lynn? She’s supposed to bring the icebox!”
Yes, the icebox. One of the most important things needed during a netball match. Well, I calmed down and started giving out the shorts which I had taken so much time to hunt for only the day before. Little did I know that the chaos of the day was about to begin.

7.15 am - Finally all my players had arrived and consented to wearing the shorts I had bought. Only one thing or should I say person was missing – Cik Zainab!

The day before on Monday, 25 February: “Si Lynn, you must tell all your players to come early tomorrow. Nanti if there’s a jam again and then we’re late; 7.00 sharp at the foyer.”
Then she had finally arrived and after we had found our team manager, Encik Azreen, we were on the road to Cochrane!

Chaos in the van.
As we were all happily chatting away our feelings of nervousness and the likes, Cik Zainab turned round and saw us in our shorts.
“Apa ni? You’re all wearing shorts? You can’t wear shorts! Mana boleh pakai shorts during MSSKL?”
“But, Cikgu, it’s not that short. I thought you said it was alright as long as they weren’t tight and short?”
“I never said anything like that. We can be disqualified. So now macam mana?”

Well, thank goodness I had informed everyone to bring long pants just in case something like this happened. The captain herself as well as two other players decided to be smart and did not bring their long pants. So, we had to borrow from the reserves. Chaos settled and Laurel got to wear her long pants after all.

Let the games begin!
I was nervous. We had a reputation as the defending champions. Plus, everyone thought we were rich spoilt brats since we came from a private school. Oh well, we decided not to change their views of us just yet so we kept up the images like spoilt little bimbos.

Our first match was against Bangsar School. We had the added advantage because they were intimidated by the defending champions. My team played brilliantly! Well, considering the fact that I was the only player left over from last year’s team, and that all the rest were newbies except Andrea, Laurel and Sivagamii, it was a pretty awesome game. However, we could not be too confident.

The last and deciding match of the day was a pretty nerve-wrecking affair. I can honestly say it was pure luck and definitely with a ton of God’s grace that we won. We started off quite well with a two goal head start and then right at the end of the first half, the other team caught up. During the second half, we managed to score another two more goals only to have them scored another one more.

From then onwards, it was a horrible four minutes or so for me. The ball kept being passed back and forth across the field. Neither team could manage to score a goal. Every time the ball went over to the opposite end, my heart literally stopped beating. I was so scared that they might score a goal and we could not afford that. Thanks to my awesome defenders and the opposite team’s shooters who had somehow temporarily lost their skills, we managed to win with a score of 4-3. We had made it to the quarterfinals!

27 February 2008

We were determined to at least get into the semi-finals because then we would at least win a medal for our effort. However, luck was not on our side that day.

Our first match was possibly one of the roughest games I had ever played so far. It was against Sri Petaling and they were a pretty mean bunch of players. The number of ‘accidents’ that occurred was proof enough. I even got whacked across the face and throat at the same time by two different people, got my foot stepped on to prevent me from running to get the ball, pushed and tackled! Pretty much the same happened to most of my players and although I should not be saying this, but I was ecstatic when we beat them by a substantial goal difference.

The last match of the day left my team and I in angry fits. We had wanted to badly to proceed to the semi-finals but we lost the game against Hartamas. We suspected biasness when we complained to one referee ”when a very obvious foul was committed by the opponent, the referee replied, “Speak to the other referee, not me”. Oh well, we’ll beat them next year. And hopefully our handballers will give the Hartamas players a hard time in the coming matches.

Captain’s Words
“I think for a team consisiting of mostly inexperienced newbies, we did an awesome job this year. Looking on the bright side, at least we did not lose our very first match. Next year, I’m determined to come back and play for school (the benefits of underaged players), and this time, we’re going to win the GOLD!”

And lastly, thank you all Netball Under-18 players for the time and effort you put into training. You were awesome and I definitely had fun with all of you. Thank you Andrea (assistant captain), Kit Yen and Sivagamii for ‘bringing the ball back’. And to Siew Lynn, Laurel and Ilyana, LAUYANALYNNLYNN lives FOREVER!

Team Members: Cheah Si Lynn, Ilyana Raisya, Goon Siew Lynn, Laurel Ong, Lee Kit Yen, Sivagammii, Andrea Tham, Ng Shi Ann, Tan I-Lyn, Vanessa Ho, Keisha Chandran, and Aqilah.

GO, GO, GO, CEMPAKA! NOLI ME TANGERE!