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I took this wonderful and brief opportunity to wish all Malaysian readers, Selamat Hari Malaysia! Yes, the country has some of their highs and lows, but there are no perfect place or country; as long as we live good and we serve well, we should be living in harmony anywhere we go. After all, we all are born as Malaysians right?
"Don't ask what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."
John F. Kennedy
This day is to be remembered and celebrated, as numerous achievements and milestones represent the greatness of the country as a whole and we should be proud of it as we are the nation builders, building towards a greater tomorrow in the future. This year, I celebrated the day differently. I am going to complete my second successive year of teaching and I was given the opportunity to land my mark on the school: coaching the basketball team. Next year inshaAllah, I'll be taking over the school basketball club from the current club advisor and I was given the task to coach a team for the Piala Menteri Pelajaran 1Murid 1Sukan Basketball Tournament 2013!
Let me tell you why this achievement is huge and a truly something me and my players should be proud of. First of all, for the first time, the school has their own basketball coach and as per usual, generally in Malaysia, basketball is known best as the Chinese thing, as Malays are known to be fond of football. Basketball among Malays here in my school is not something they have seen back in the previous years, and watching a Malay teacher balling around the court with his silky smooth dribbling and shooting, makes them wonder who is this guy and most importantly, why basketball?
Secondly, the team that I coached for this tournament is fully registered with all Malay players and even better, among the 10 teams competing in the tournament, the team is the only team which players age averagely around 13 to 14! Imagine yourself, an average of 170 cm player, playing against teams lined up with Shaq, Kobe and LeBron! Throwing back in 2008, my first amateur basketball tournament in Subang Jaya, Selangor. I took part in the AND1 Streetball 3-on-3 competition and to our surprise, we were drawn to play against this team called Team Cincai. As lousy as the team name would probably suggest, we were intimidated by the team name as we thought they are as 'cincai' as the name of their team. Watch the video and see for yourself.
So, the team, calling themselves as the Batballs, is braved enough to call for the challenge to play against the more senior players. Setting them up was not much a problem to me, as they all live in the hostel and we played every evening. Training them was quite a pain in the bum, as while we play every evening, we play for fun; the pressure and tension to perform at higher level are not there. After all, they are all boys and they will always be boys.
Yesterday was the tournament, and we were grouped with two other schools; SMK Seri Intan and SMK Kahang. They have never played against each other, and in fact, the tournament was their first real test of the strength, skills and courage in basketball. In short, we managed to progress to the quarter-final after winning and losing once in the Round Robin, but the team fell short to a better and well-organised team. They are bigger, too. Nevertheless, I told them, they have won the challenge, that is to be brave on the court and not afraid of the obstacles and the obvious differences they had compared with other teams. After all, this was only their first tournament and first competitive matches, so they should be proud of it!
I love their passion and spirits for basketball, as they are willing to pay for their own personalised basketball jersey. So, Redzman, Aiman, Shah, Aizaac and Muiz, you guys are still young and still a lot more to be learned. Don't give up and be fearless. Grow up, get up, get big and get tough!
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