By Les Tan

One of the joys of covering the local sports scene is this – the people you cover actually live on this island.

I used to cover the English Premier League and after prattling on about the different teams, you go home and realise the English teams don’t care about what you have to say about them in any case. You can provide insightful analysis, ask thoughtful questions, make provocative comments, but all for what? It was like shouting into the wind.

So by covering the local sports scene, I’ve gotten to meet many sports loving folks, and they give feedback. Of course when the feedback is glowing, you feel good. When the feedback is a valid criticism, you take stock.

I recently met a thoughtful coach who is in the school sports scene and he expressed some misgivings about the negative tone in some of our stories and in the comments section, particularly with regards to the school sports scene.

I listened.

By the time I got back to my computer, I decided that it was a good reminder to me that the school sports scene is special. At the school level, it’s not just about winning, but about building character, sportsmanship and perseverance through sports.

School sports is by no means perfect. Those who have been in the school scene for years will know the problems better than I do. By covering the scene, some of these negative points have come up on this website. Human nature being what it is, many people have jumped in to add fuel to the fire, sharing their negative experiences.

As a result, the wrong impression is given – that it is alright to put people down, to give unfair criticism, to put down authority figures. If that is the impression you have been given, then that is not the intention of this site.

I set this site up to tell a Singapore sports story, to help give Singapore sports, especially school sports, the oxygen of publicity.

Why?

Because this island is our home and we grew up here. The time we spend on the field of play, representing our school, our club, our country, is a special time, a memorable time.

Long after we’ve left the school team, the club team, the national team, we’ll remember that we once pulled on that jersey, walked onto the court and played our hearts out. To play for school, club and country is an honour and a responsibility. Many aspire to it, but few achieve it.

That’s what Red Sports is all about – remembering that special time for posterity and inspiring the next generation coming through.

Thanks for the reminder, coach.