Thankfulness.
Often times, a sports team is judged by the success it enjoys on the hardcourts. Whether it is a ‘W’ on the scoresheet or in the context of a sporting season, a championship trophy. Over here at Raffles Basketball, we rather seek not to be assessed on such terms. (If we were, then it would have been a tough ride during those barren years without a trophy). Instead, we zoom in and focus on what truly matters at the end of the day – training very hard to be the very Best that we can be and to bring out the best of each other as a team. Knowing that we have given it our all; that we have played the game in the right spirit and with the right heart is what we wish to achieve.
The 2016 season was one heck of a ride just like every other year. The feelings of pre-game anxieties, on court euphoria and excitement, camaraderie and selflessness shown by teammates putting themselves on the line for every ball… These feelings and memories stream back in 4K resolution even 5 months after the season finale.
About the Finals, this was the first time that we were back in the Finals with both boys and girls teams since 2011. Winning the Double Championships was also our first since our triumph back in 2000. Our boys also did excel in retaining the A Div title for the first time in our school’s basketball history.
But that is not the purpose of why I am writing this. Rather, I would like to capture a snapshot of our journey together as a team and to be thankful for everything had to fall nicely into place for this to happen.
Special thanks and appreciation goes out to the following (not ranked in any order of course):
The Gryphons Basketball Alumni who has been a great source of encouragement and support over all these years. It is great to see alumnus from the 80s sitting at courtside and coming by after games to offer their encouragement and affirmation.
It is always wonderful to see the seniors come back to spar with the current team. It shows that our Raffles Basketball Program works and that ex-students have that close affinity such that they would give up hours during their holidays to come back. Recent batches like Zaki’s batch dating all the way to Zheng Feng’s batch who all took time out to come back to play and scrimmage with our boys.
The Exco had to work very hard and deal with extra loads of pressure leading the team. On top of being a student athlete, they had to shoulder leadership roles on and off the court. Hats off to them who have learned and grown much over this period.
Families of all involved – staff and students. Without family support and understanding, our teams could not possibly get where they are. Parents who shower their kids with love and care as their kids recover after trainings at home, providing nutritious meals or even checking in on how they are doing. It was really nice to meet the parents before we flew off for our Taiwan training trip and to see some of them at our finals as well. Especially as this would be the high point and a fitting end for some of our players who are graduating.
The Coaches who have spent hours on court honing and sharpening the abilities of the players such that the team of 5 may play as one.
Coaches Baoling and Low Tong have been with our school for 10 years and it was great to see their efforts pay off as they lead our teams to glory and success. Our female assistant coach Ong also deserves credit for training the girls and complementing our main coach well.
For the boys, special mention has to be made for their year 1-4 coach, Coach Lim who drilled them on the basics and helped to build a good foundation for the boys such that we could then bring them to the next level for A Div. It was heartening to see him supporting his old boys at courtside for their games too.
Ms Elaine Wong has been an ever-present in Raffles Basketball this past 10 years and she has been a wonderful teacher and asset to the team. Her motherly concern and warmth for the players has helped to make sure all our players are well looked after. Together with Mr Tan Khoon Han (who just joined our CCA this year), our teachers have also started providing academic support for our players by having econs and math consultations before trainings during school term.
From the Year 1-4 side, the teachers from RI and RGS side have been most helpful in looking after our athletes during their younger days. Special mention goes out to Mr Jason Liu who assisted the boys to get their GAP Sem in Year 4 approved to attend basketball training camps in the USA.
I always tell the CCA members that we are not a team of 12 that only play in the National Schools Competition. Every member, selected or not selected are all part of the team. We usually have a group of players who will assist the team in logistical support, video and statistical capture of our games. This helps to free up our players so that they will be able to focus on their games and prepare well. Great job Ivan, Jaedon, Junyi, Marcus, Yufan, Shalleeni, Shriya and Jeannine!
Other than getting our photographic society to cover our games, we were really fortunate to have professional photographers like Mr Shawn Ho and a parent, Mr Tng who took really great shots of our players in action. These will serve as wonderful memories and keepsakes for our players in the years to come. These photos are great for our website and for making collages and player cards!!
Injuries are a mainstay of every team and every sport as we train hard, push ourselves to our limits and beyond. This year was no exception.
The girls team had mostly minor injuries like ankle sprains and tight muscles (Coach Baoling had her usual “STEP ON your muscle” remedy to help ease the tense muscles). Stephanie suffered an early setback in January when she popped her shoulder during training. Thankfully it wasn’t too serious and she managed to convince her parents to let her keep training and play for the team.
In November 2015, Jovi was away for holidays for an extended time. When he came back in end December, he had trouble adjusting to the pace and intensity of training and unfortunately strained his meniscus. He had to sit out of training a further 2 months and undergo extensive rehab under Dr Chook and Keng Ann. He only started really playing ball when we went up to Taiwan in March and he never looked back since. It was an amazing comeback for him as he was one of our pivotal and key players during the Nationals. Things could have panned out so differently if his injury was any worse.
Justin, Vignesh, Danny and Jieying all had two things in common. Training hard with the National Youth Squads and because of the exertions from training 3-5 times a week, they all had to cope with knee strains and pains. They too underwent much physiotherapy to help in the recovery of their bodies and it was really tough for them as they sought to balance studies, training and rest. At one point of the season, one of them commented that he felt burnt out and even grew tired of the game. Most of them were going through physio and training throughout the season.
It is quite amazing that with all these compounding factors, our squads all kept pretty much injury free – major injuries at least. As much as we tried to manage it on our end, often times, it is out of our hands and we are really thankful that we were blessed that all players could play for Nationals and no one had to experience the pain of not being able to step on court.
(Plus the fact that we managed to get good discounts on UA Basketball Shoes for this year!)
Thanks for taking time to read this long article. Well, hopefully everyone has been covered here in this short write-up. My apologies if I have accidentally missed out or overlooked anyone.
Lastly, we would like to wish our graduating batch of 2016 all the BEST for their A Levels and life beyond Raffles!! Remember to find your inner compass and give back to others for you have been privileged to receive much!
