By Edina Tan/Red Sports
Edina Tan of Red Crew interviewing the Raffles Institution runners at the 2016 National Schools Cross-Country Championships. (Photo 1 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
As a member of the cross country team back in Cedar Girls’ Secondary, getting featured on Red Sports was The Dream for any young runner at competitions – be it SAA Cross Country, Wings Cross Country, or National Schools.
The sight of the Red Crew, clad in their bright red shirts, and stamped with an unmissable (and ironic) white ‘RED’ was enough to send thrills of excitement through our simple, impressionable hearts.
After every competition, we would log onto to redsports.sg to read the articles, hoping fervently for a glimpse of our names. If it did indeed appear, we felt like superstars worthy of media attention.
We would often joke that one of the key incentives to run well was to get featured; maybe even with an exclusive interview! And if that happened to any of us, we would share the link around, tease the “superstar”, but still feel a sense of pride for the achievement of our fellow team member.
As a keen writer, it was obvious that one of my job options post A-Levels would be to intern at Red Sports. I was initially rather intimidated by the prospect because I thought it would be difficult to secure a spot as an intern, and all the Red Crew looked so cool and I wasn’t.
But never had there been a better choice made.
Uncle Les welcomed all of us with open arms, acting as a dedicated and patient mentor to us newbies. We were treated to occasional meals and his funny stories of Red Crew long past.
My fellow Red Crew were enthusiastic, all of them inspiring individuals who had been student athletes one time or another, or at least involved with sports.
It was an amazing experience to be working with a team of people who love sports as much as I do, and I am extremely thankful to have had the opportunity to do so.
Other than cross country and track-and-field, I got exposed to basketball and floorball – sports which I rarely played, much less wrote about. It was challenging at first, but with the help of Uncle Les and my fellow Red Crew, I slowly got used to the various jargon and could churn out a few articles per session with relative ease.
Watching the student athletes through the lens of a spectator and a writer was a very different experience from being a participant; and I must admit – I did enjoy the feeling when athletes noticed me and looked all excited at the prospect of getting interviewed.
I often felt nostalgic watching the events – particularly cross country and track-and-field – and reporting about them brought back a lot of emotions as I reminisced about my time as a student-athlete.
The five months or so spent on the job was one of the best times of my post-As life, and I highly recommend this internship to any young student athlete who wishes to have the time of their life AND make a bunch of really cool friends (and meet a really cool boss!).
It has been an honour to be part of Red Crew.
About the author: Edina Tan, 19, is in her first year of undergraduate studies at the Yale-NUS College.
Interested in joining the Red Crew? Click here. Look forward to hearing from you!
Edina Tan of Red Crew interviewing the River Valley High runners at the 2016 National Schools Cross-Country Championships. (Photo 2 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Edina Tan of Red Crew interviewing a River Valley High runner at the 2016 National Schools Cross-Country Championships. (Photo 3 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Edina Tan with fellow Red Crew at the National Stadium to cover the 2016 National Schools Track and Field Championships. L-R: Teo Yun Teng, Chua Kai Yun, Iman Hashim, Ryan Lim, Edina Tan, Denise Chia. (Photo 4 © Les Tan/Red Sports)
Edina Tan taking a wefie with the Red Crew at a pick up basketball game at the Singapore Sports Hub.
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