It’s been an eye-opening year covering the local sporting scene, especially school sports. Nothing beats the atmosphere of a school final, not even watching a football game at the National Stadium with 55,000. Why do I say that? Because while a full National Stadium is something to behold, you never hear them sing in unison like at a school final. At a school final, the supporters sing in one voice to cheer their team. They sing with gusto, they sing out loud, they sing out strong. They SING. School pride is visible, tangible, electric and the place is one rocking, swaying house of fun. At the National Stadium, most of the time the only thing said in unison is a Malay swear word and you’ll never hear 55,000 sing in encouragement of the team (unless it’s National Day Parade but that’s not sports). Don’t let anyone every say we Singaporeans have no sporting culture.
If I had a magic lamp and the genie of the lamp gave me one wish, I would wish for spectator and player-friendly fixtures. All A, B and C Division championship finals are held in the afternoons. As a result, working parents and relatives cannot come and watch their sons, daughters, nieces and nephews. Wouldn’t it be thrilling to have a packed hall of students and family at a 7 p.m. final?
During the 2007 IVP basketball championship this year, teams had to play all their fixtures in a span of just 14 days. Teams had to play four games in four days in the preliminaries. If the team was good enough, they played another three games. Then it was all over. An anti-climax for the players after months of training, an anti-climax for sports fans after just getting to know some of the players. The fixtures were all played at Nanyang Technological University, not accessible for most sports fans.
At the peak of the A Division finals, there were some days where there were THREE finals on one day. If your college qualified for more than one final, spectators had to sadly split up. From my point of view, I had to choose which final to cover, a terrible decision to have to make.
So that’s my one wish for 2008 – friendly fixture scheduling.
And my memorable moment of 2007?
It’s not a beautiful three-point basket or a blistering spike. It’s not a spectacular goal or a heart-stop come-from behind victory. It happened at a game between Catholic High and Peirce Secondary during the national basketball championship. The Peirce player drove in and went for a lay-up. Benny Lam was in close, defending. His Peirce opponent fell, lost his footing and tumbled to the floor. The play moved on and everyone turned and moved up court. Benny Lam didn’t. He stopped, bent down and pulled his Peirce opponent to his feet.
That is sportsmanship.
That is character in a man.
That is the memorable moment of 2007.
You come this way but once and Red Sports will remember with you.
Happy New Year.
Red Sports. Always Game.®
les
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Really?!??! LOL
See, uncle Les here respects that kind of thing. I thing a real man does things like that.
lol and benny got scolded by his coach for doing that.
Track was damn memorable. It was a sad year cos my team dropped the baton during finals. But all these sad things on the stadium will remain significant in our lives. 07 tracks nationals was one helluva thing I’ll remember.
Haha Benny’s nice man!
BENNY, train harder for volleyball and clinch the national title back!!!
Wow… Benny, though i can’t remember having witnessed that incident… Well done!