Sunday, May 16, 2010
Hello guys and girls.
I'm back (to nag). Last match of the season, eh? Well, just a key point I'd like to drive across today, in poor English, is simply this: don't give chance.
Chase down the ball, go in hard (but properly) for a challenge, cover every shot, stay low and shield the ball, and follow your man. Every single second counts. Scoring one goal isn't enough. Leading by one point isn't enough. Blocking one shot isn't enough. It's only enough when the final whistle is blown, and win or lose, you bend over gasping for air, knowing that you'll be mauled by a mad dog chasing you simply because you have expended your last ounce of energy.
When the team is trailing in the scoreline, keep chasing it back. Don't you dare, for a moment, give up on the match. Your name isn't printed on your jersey. It's your school's name, and you better damned play like you earned your place in the team. It's "VJC", and you'd jolly well play like how Victorians do. Win it with pride, and if you don't, lose with dignity, that your opponents will respect you for the manner you conduct yourselves on-court (and, cough, out of the court, for that matter).
I was thinking about the college anthem as I was lying in prone position in the middle of nowhere (don't mock me), and I pondered this line:
For others came before and went, and carried to the world, Victoria's fame and our intent to keep her flag unfurled.
I was studying the etymology of the noun "intent", and I found that its Latin origin, "intentio", connotes the idea of effort and exertion in achieving something. For one last time, how much effort and exertion will be expended in VJC's name? Go the distance, that you may be held in esteem not so much for what you achieved, but for what you displayed. By the time everyone's tired, how much more will you squeeze out of yourself for the team?
Forget the online articles, write the story of your last match yourselves, that you will remember it as the match of your lives.
"Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even." - Muhammad Ali
"Some people want it to happen; some wish it would happen; others make it happen." - Michael Jordan
Here's to the excellence of VJFB,
Amos Nadan Mun En
@ 5:39 PM
