We are the Champion in Div 1

The one big happy family

The artice says it all, and our dear chairman has said it all...

To all the girls i love and admire,

We can sing the famous rock song with pride because we lived it. Queen couldn't have said it any better."We are the Champions my friends, and we'll keep on fighting till the end."This has been Yeeleen's and my theme song (other than Country Road) since we were 17 years old, and for good reason, we have believed in this song till today.The one thing Sneakers can always depend on, in the face of perceived superiority, in the face of a 7 goal deficit, in the face of everything they could throw at us, in the face of all other non-player factors, we kept focused, we kept playing, we kept wanting it more, we kept on fighting. This is the Sneakers i have always known.Young ones, learn from this, and learn to bring it into your game. It's not just about one person's fighting spirit, or stamina or guts or physical strength or even belief in yourself, all teams can have that, but what's different for Sneakers is its about bringing all that in individuals and culminating it into teamwork, like-minded thinking, being able to read one another, about collective mental strength and desire, about good leadership. It doesn't matter who takes the court, we think as one, we work as one. You've seen us play, you've seen us train, the understanding we have was not built up in a day. It was a commitment we made to one another, to ourselves, to the club. To train to become the best in Singapore and we've kept that going 5 years in a row. Force, although made up of players who have not played together before, took on Nike Air and Blaze with flair. They played beyond expectation and emerged fourth in Div 1. Speed made it to the final. It was hard fought and you did the best you could. Do not forget the journey you took, and learn from it. However, despite the result that we got, I now want all of you to think very carefully. We had a good result but players from all 3 teams had to be pushed to the limit to get this result. Even the best performing cars need tuning to keep performing. Could we have prepared ourselves better? I think we have to admit, the answer is yes. So what do we do from here. Let our tired bodies rest and call it a day? Or learn from this and become even better? If you want to achieve the understanding between players, the accuracy of passes, the variety of play....give yourself a chance. Who says only Ace can beat the top teams, any of you can too. But you must believe you can, and make the commitment to work toward it.Your bodies are tired, and need a rest. But i hope that the new friends you've made and the desire to become even better, will spur you to continue to train. When we're prepared, we play good netball, when we play good netball we have fun. See you at training. Let's have fun from now on.

J9

A sport story for you

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Prefontaine

Hi guys, the buzz word nowadays is to recycle, and so I am going to recycle this post I made on my Stingray blog 2008 to the Sneakers National League blog 2008...

Have you heard of Steve Prefontine? He was a high profile American long distance runner in the 70s. He died in a car accident when he was only 24. However, his legacy live till today. If you know anything about long distance running at all, it is all about strategizing and planning how hard to run at each phase of a race. However, Prefontine did not believed in holding back in any part of a race, he believed in giving all he had in the entire race. Although he contradicted his coach, the notion of "giving all you have" showed passion, conviction and determination, and these are qualities that all athletes should have.


So Sneakers, let us play hard on Sat and show them what Sneakers is made of. We might have lost to them before, but bouncing back is what we do best ! Go read what Yasmine posted (last entry), she urged us to play with all our guts and might! Also, if it is a physical game that they want, then we will play a physical game. If they wanna slap us hard, we will slap back harder!
Go Sneakers go, and by writing this blog... I am raring to go!

Ace is not the only one playing the final. Speed is also playing their final this Sat. All the best and go speedy go!

What was the mystery?

I asked chairman yesterday about the mystery of why do we need a huge goal difference before we can make it to the finals even though all of us knew that we should have made it to the finals by beating Blaze. She said, it was a ploy to make us play harder...

When the mystery ended, Force also played their last game yesterday. You might not have won, but you impressed many of the people whom were watching. The first half of the game was fantastic. I cannot really comment much as I was the umpire, but I remembered having to run down to your shooting end all the time.

You had a good season, and may the next season be even better.

You have a team photo don't you... post here in the blog please.

Ace vs. Blaze & Force vs Nike Air

Last Sat Ace plaed Blaze and Force played Nike Air.

The Blaze game was amazing as we just played so hard that we did not let our opponent have a chance to build up their momentumn. I was so glad we won.

Force might have lost to Air but I am so impressed by the fact that you led them in the first quarter! And this is something Ace has yet to do this year.

With all the mystery going on with Jeanine and Jiao Lian, I don't know if we secured our place in the finals yet, even though we should have. Everyone is just as puzzled as me. I don't know what to think now, but to wait for them to tell us whether we were in the final this Sat later in the week, and hope that we get in.

Let us pull ourselves together

I have not been saying much in this blog so far, not for any particular reason, and it is just because I did not have much to say this time. However, after reading this article, written by Beckham, I am starting to have something to say now.

Last Saturday's game was very much of a blur now. How did we loose the game? No one could really point a finger on a particular thing at all. Did we play badly? No one can out-rightly say so. Were the umpires horrible? Horribly so, but did they do that much damage that cost us the game? Not to that great an extent, and no one can say it for sure... So what actually happened? Jiao Lian had a great point in his debrief. He said their tactics worked. They challenged us legally or illegally at every ball. While they might not get the ball all the time, they were successful in rattling us. They did not rattle us big time, but they did it bit by bit throughout the game, and they did it just enough to gain an upper hand on us.

Come to think of it, our opponents were some great strategists, as they used the advantage rule and the time out rule to their fullest advantage. As we were all skilled players, even though we were contacted, umpire let the contact went as an advantage. While we did not tumble and fall each time (although some of us did at times), every bang and every little slap on the ball took a toll on us, bit by bit. Also, whenever we started to gain momentum in our attack, they would call for time with no apparent reason (and I say they planned every time out and every team change before hand), and all these little tricks were just enough to keep us at bay. Jiao Lian also said that we could have been physically tougher against them, but we were totally “ambushed” by them...

And what is the relevance of Beckham’s story… In Beckham's case, he became England's most hated footballer when he was handed the red card in the 1998 World Cup. He was provoked by the opponent but England did not empathize with him. Despite the adversity, he thought the best thing for him to do was to keep on working hard in the soccer field to prove himself to England, and he did. He not only redeemed himself , he also reinvented himself as a soccer player.

Like Beckham, we needed to reinvent ourselves! We know their trickery now and we should play smarter next time, and not fall to their tactics again. If it was a physical game they wanna play, then let us all get physical. Most importantly, we all have the skills and wits to outdo them. So everyone, let us all work hard for this Saturday. Let us beat our next opponent this coming Sat so we can get pass the qualifying hurdle for the grand finals. Also, we should all show that we are no not a push-over. We might have loose a game last Sat, but we have the “big hearts” to keep going and to keep improving ourselves.

Ace vs. Air

Pressure over the ball...

Hmm....

Double hmm...

Ace lost to Air by 7 goals. For those who came to watch the game you know what happened. While we tried our best, some things just don't go our way due to certain factors. Anyway, the league is not over yet, and we still stand a chance to enter the grand finals.

Force vs. llabten

Force played llabten last Sat, and beat them by 10 or 11 goals.

A giant reaching over ...

Great jump...