Lol, i never thought i would be patriotic, or at least somewhat loyal to my school. But i guess when you bring out that competitive streak in me, everything is possible.
Wanna know what i'm talking about? Today, i went for the national basketball finals, and obviously (and surprisingly), TJC got in, after a 15 year absence. Let's start right from the top;)
To begin with, we took a bus from the school to the sports hall. It was really frustrating, and it really showed how incapable the school is of handling last-minute situations. The buses took FOREVER to come, and we were boarded in a rather haphazard manner. Areas for improvement?
1. Hire more buses 2. Allow the students to board cg by cg 3. Keep everyone who are still waiting for their bus in the canteen instead of allowing them to queue for the bus (we had 3 different queues) 4. Start allowing students to board the buses at an earlier time
By the time we got to the venue, we had missed the first quarter and half of the 2nd quarter.But nevertheless, when we got there, TJC was LEADING! Woot. We had a lead of about 8 points =) Well, during the 5 minutes intermission, we managed to squeeze ourselves into a decent spot. Top row, just slightly to the side of one of the "baskets" haha. That means we managed to enjoy the final 2 quarters of the match.
I must say though, the match was really exciting, and really close. Over the couse of the match, we watched as TJ lost their 8 point lead, and then saw HCJC gain a 3 point lead over us. From then on, it was a I-score-once-and-you-score-once game. And so, our deficit continued. It didnt help that when it came to "penalties" (pardon me, i really dont understand the technicalities of basketball, neither do i know the appropriate terms to use), HCJC had little difficulty scoring whereas the TJ players were missing left, right, centre!! But in the final quarter, our luck really improved. Suddenly, we were scoring, woohoo... we went from a 3 point deficit, to a 1 point lead, 3point lead, 5 point lead until we settled at an 8 point lead in the dying minutes of the game! Yay! And so, we ended the game with a win! Woohoo!! When that happened (final whistle was blown), every TJCian in the hall went crazy. We were screaming, shouting, cheering, applauding and erm hopping. Lol.
Throughout the match, we cheered on cue, we waited in anticipation whenever our team had a "penalty", and we tried to distract the HCJC players when they tried to score (lol, fancy that, but we did that in retaliation to HCJC, since they did that to our players!!). When the final whistle was blown, imagine our elation and relief? It took TJC 15 years to re-enter the finals, and 20 years for them to bring home the trophy. What a wait. When everyone went nuts in the end, my ears were ringing and my throat was pretty much hurting (i'm just waiting to see if i wake up with a sore throad tomorrow). Wow, i guess i must say the experience was surreal. Actually standing in the spectator stand and cheering your lungs out for your team, and actually winning. The best part was, that was the first time i have seen the school that united. On normal circumstances, we would waste no time lambasting the school and we're actually quite self-driven. Today, what i saw was a school of students who went crazy whenever our team scored. Although our cheering paled in comparison to HCJC, but being there and cheering was a start, i reckon. The school should actually do this more often if they want to foster a sense of school spirit, although they should really learn how to plan for such events.
Ok, this post has gone on long enough. To the basketball trophy, I'd say "welcome home"
I'm a 3rd year student in what is probably the largest autonomous university in Singapore majoring in a Science-related subject (well it sorta IS SCIENCE). I'm known to be introverted, sarcastic (at times), funny when I rant (which isn't a good thing lol) and somewhat of a loner. I miss LA and would move there in a heartbeat :(
