Nurturing the future

In the past one month, i have been preoccupied with my former college activity. Myself and a few friends had committed to our beloved college by agreeing to the boys plea to train and prepare them for the U18 Zon Bangsar MSSKL Hockey tournament.

We had little time do plan and with Form Four intakes have yet to report to the college, we were left with a handful of Form Fives with some of them just started playing hockey late last year. They came to field looking blurred sometimes confused when we put them through the training phases. They played with borrowed hockey sticks or sticks intended for PE, wearing all kind of shoes except turf shoes, the goalkeepers had never worn a pad before and some them came equipped with only elementary playing skills. If one had seen them earlier, no one would give an ounce of chance of winning a match. It was a deep concern for the coaching staff but we were glad, at least, these boys have the spirit, determination and hunger for the sport.

For two solid weeks, we trained them by concentrating only on fitness, basic skills, proper game play and set-up some friendly matches. They were scolded, shouted at, maki hamun, penangan but at the same time we treated them with as much brotherly love as possible. Along the way, a few of them couldnt take the intensity of the training and decided to leave withot us having to drop them. However, those who had stayed with the team, presevered, sweat it out, hanged in there and took all the blows whole heartedly.

Armoured with such attitude, yesterday, they became the Zon Bangsar Champion by winning the tournament surpassing their own expectation. They scored 13 goals and not conceeding at all. They triumphed over teams like Vivekanda, La Salle and VI hands down. One can see that their self-belief and self-confidence skyrocketed as they started to beat one team after another. In the short span of time, they have grown up so much and other team coaches just could not believe that some of them had just started playing only recently. I have only good words for them and betcha i'm proud of them. They are the RMC hockey boys, Class of 2008.

I hope that the education process will continue and prosper in moulding them into a true champion with winning mentality in the future. Orang tua2 cakap, merentung buluh biar dari rebungnya. Winning the Zon Bangsar trophy is nothing to shout about, however, winning against all odds and tackling challenges by the bull horns are what matters.

I had to sacrifice countless valuable family time just to be with them and i am blessed to have a very understanding wife eventhough sometimes she's annoyed whenever i say "i ader hoki petang nih, malam esok, pagi lusa and weekend nih". She didnt say it out loud nor she showed her dissatisfaction but i do know that she's trying hard to control her emotions at the same time allowing me to pursue my passion. I can't say thank you enough and i love ya, Yong.