Tuesday, October 16, 2007

Unleashed Sports Camp

YAY! The camp finally came to reality after a long postponement. The camp was originally scheduled in March school holiday but was postponed to 13-15 October due to lack of responses. Targeted at Christian leaders who are passionate about sports, the camp was held at Chefoo Methodist Centre, Cameron Highlands. It was a very nice campsite (great environment, cool weather, and good food). And the plus point for this camp? We had Awesome Fellowship, Great Discussions, and Loads of Fun!

The camp kicked off with a great teambuilding activity. It caused some to feel uneasy about certain things that they needed to do in order to complete the activity but it certainly served as a good icebreaker. After that, there were lots of fun stuff that we did throughout the camp which came in the form of theoretical and practical sessions.

We are truly thankful to God for His divine blessing and favor upon the camp. For without Him, it would not have been possible in having the camp. We trust that many who attended the camp had been empowered by the Holy Spirit and unleashed to do so much more for the building of God’s Kingdom through sports ministry!

Here are some pics of the many exciting things that we did at camp:

Deswyn is obviously enjoying the ride in this team building activity.

Team debrief after the teambuilding activity.

Selina teaching on having a proper Nutrition and D.I.E.T.

Morning jog and excercise...

Warm up and stretching before a fitness test.

More stretching...

The balance test - Moving in a zig zag motion within a box as fast as you can. You can see Edward keeping time and making sure Deswyn keeps within the spaces as the rest look on.

How long would it take for you to stay in that position and still keep a smile?

The endurance test - How far can you run in 12 minutes?

Planning and sharing what the future will look like in their area of sports ministry.

Sam sharing with the rest of us his vision and strategy for his floorball club.

Everybody learning to do the Supine Bridge in a session on developing the core.

The first batch to be Unleashed showing off a little of what they have in them ;)

That was just a sneek peek of some of the exciting things that happened. Well, as we have had a small and and humble beginning in this camp, the Lord impressed upon our heart that we will be having a bigger and bolder version next year. So…look out for SPORTS LEADERSHIP CONVENTION 2008!

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Are You Running the Right Race?

Life is like a race! Everyone is involved in some form of race. Students strive to be straight A’s achievers. Working adults in the corporate world are into running the rat race. Everyone wants to be first in many ways. Some termed this wanting as ‘kiasu’ (in hokkien). In literal translation, it simply means ‘scared to lose or fail’. ‘Kiasu’ is a post modern disease where one tries to outdo one another; and everyone gets stress up by not having their wants met, and their positions secured. It’s about being at the very top that matters! Really?! Think about it…

Anyway, following the craze of The Amazing Race by AXN, Youthwave Penang organized its’ own version of THE RACE on 8 September 2007. Once again, Contact Sports had the privilege to be at the service of Youthwave Penang. THE RACE was targeted at those 13 years to 25 years of age. Each team comprised 4 participants of mixed gender, with one being the driver.

THE RACE was organized NOT with the aim of getting teams to just outdo one another, being at the top at the expense of others, but learning activities were incorporated into each station. There were a total of 10 destinations, spread out all around the Penang Island. Teams had to travel in their own respective cars to get to each destination, except for one destination whereby two in a team had to flag down a trishaw while the other two traveled using their very own legs to get to Little India.

Teams had to go through physical challenges such as canoeing; mental challenges such as memorizing Braille within a span of 20-30 minutes and putting it into practice by deciphering the clues in Braille while being blindfolded as well as emotional challenges such as trusting fellow team mates to give proper instructions while searching for clues in the swimming pool and being blindfolded at the same time. Many other fun activities were also included such as locating a tombstone. Did I say fun? ;) … and running into hypermarts and purchasing items to be given to charitable organizations. A short debrief were conducted at the end of THE RACE to challenge the participants to “run the right race”.

And the prize….. *drum roll…..ta-daa* RM100,000??? …But THE RACE was definitely not about money and the bling-bling! It was about coming together as a team and working hand-in-hand to achieve a common goal. It was about understanding life as a race, persevering through difficulties and learning to make good choices. However, we are proud to have very generous sponsorships from THE CARNIVALL WATER THEMEPARK, GOLDEN SCREEN CINEMAS and EXTREME CONCEPT HAIR SPECIALIST. These people ran with us to make THE RACE looked great! Awesome!!

To those who made it to the final mark on that very auspicious day….here’s a tribute to them *salute*
Champions: Timothy Kok, Sam Teoh, Nicholes Ong and Kao Cui Lin
1st Runner-up: Wong Yi-Wen, Serene Tan, Sheryn Ng and Seow Zi Yin
2nd Runner-up: Goh Shen-U, Yeoh Jun Wooi, Jacky Teh and Loh Cheng Lit.

Participants studying the instructions to their next destination.

Having fun in a trishaw getting to the next checkpoint.

"Forget trying to walk on water, just sit down and canoe!!!"

Blind participants getting their instructions in Braille.

The Blind Leading the Blind!

Participants "helping" a blind team mate locate objects in the pool.

The winning team with Pr Kok Aun and their prizes.

Monday, October 1, 2007

Tribute to our Goalies

This is a blog specially dedicated to our Goalies, namely THUM YUNG MING (Contact X) and JOSHUA LIM (Contact Y) for their splendid performance and goal-saving during our recent participation in the Dalat Floorball Challenge.

For without them, we could have lost! Well, we could have also lost quite terribly BUT they saved the day! Your excellent moves and goalkeeping truly made us proud!

It has been noted (not only by our team) that these 2 goalies performed extremely well during the tournament. In fact, someone even said that Yung Ming should be awarded the player of the tournament for his efforts.

We want to say that you guys are a gem to Team Contact. Hey people, 3 cheers for our goalies! *Hip! Hip! Hurray!, Hip! Hip! Hurray!, Hip! Hip! Hurray!!!*

Dalat Floorball Challenge

The battle of the best is ON again with the recent Dalat Floorball Challenge held on 29 and 30 September 2007. Here’s the unfolding story of our fellow comrades who fought a good fight, leaving the opponents awestruck by our performance throughout the entire tournament.

Pool A: Contact Y, Minden Underdawgz 1, Subang Rascals, Dalat 2, and Innebandy! Co
Pool B: Dalat 1, Minden Underdawgz 2, Contact X, Salibandy! Co and Frontliners.

CONTACT Y comprised in majority the junior players with exception to a few. They are Richard (Captain), Joshua Lim (Goalie), Serene, Seow Fei, Calvin, Joshua Lam, Eythan, Joseph, Ian, Ben Lim, Ben Ong and Isaac Ng.
Besides gaining exposure and experiences, the target for CONTACT Y was to beat at least one team. Although formed by majority of junior players, CONTACT Y was well known for tight defending. Rumours had it saying that CONTACT Y may end up in semi finals just by defending goals from the opponents. Well, that did not happen...
The 1st game against Minden Underdawgz 1 was indeed a very good match. Both teams had almost the same strength except for the size of individual players. The game came to a draw of 0-0. CONTACT Y could have won this game if not for the pressure of being the first to play in tournament.
The 2nd game against Subang Rascals was a very tough game. CONTACT Y was expected to lose sorely but the end result was quite bearable considering the fact that Subang Rascals had more experienced, skillful and fast players. Ian managed to block a few shots by opponent, Sasi who is very much well known for his air-hook and hard shots. We lost by 6-0.
The 3rd game was against Dalat 2. Great efforts by each player were shown throughout the game although we still lost by 3-1. Dalat had very aggressive and fast runners which was one of the factors why we lost to them.
The final game was against Innebandy! Co. Although the last game, and no hope of entering into semi-finals, it did not deter the team from playing a good game. There were a lot of shots taken but sadly not on target. Our Captain, Richard a.k.a. the young man showed extreme enthusiasm to keep the team together, playing their hearts out to beat the opponent. A lot of good shots taken by our attackers and good save by our goalie. At last, Calvin made the team proud by scoring a goal against the national keeper, Kao Lin Ken. End result 3-1 lost to Innebandy! Co.
Overall, CONTACT Y did an extremely great job. Although we did not meet our target of beating at least one team, we were able to get a draw against Minden Underdawgz 1 plus we did not get trashed terribly by the other opponent teams. Definitely there is still a lot of room for improvement. Given the time and discipline, I believe this team will be making waves and history in the near future. Hip! Hip! Hurray! For all in CONTACT Y!

CONTACT X comprised the more seasoned players namely Penny (Captain), Yung Ming (Goalie), Edward, James, Henry, Kenny, Bryan, Kit Soon, David, Irwin, Isaac Ang and Nicholas.
Our target was to make it to the finals thus our strategy was to win all games and with a big goal difference to secure the first place in Group B. We determined in our hearts to really make our efforts and presence felt in this tournament. With the leading of our Coach Edward, we are sure we will somehow taste our victories this tournament.
Our first match against Salibandy! Co is a MUST win. Thus our strategy was not to allow any room or space for their deadly attacker to take a single shot. As for us we will take all the opportunities to shoot at goal and go for rebound. This starter game did not have a good effect on the team as a whole. We were just not getting into our game. However, with the scuffle and shuffle in front of their goalie, an own goal gave us our first win in the tournament! 1-0 to us!
We expected our 2nd game against Dalat 1 to be a tougher one. Indeed it was. We were still trying to get into the game and were sucumbed to play at their pace. A mistake that gave the game away. With that, we were caught by their quick counter attacks. But thanks to our Goalie, Yung Ming for his very good saves that left us with just a lost of 0-3 to Dalat 1.
1 win, 1 lost?! By then, we believed we have very good chance to make it to the semi, and ultimately the final!
Our 3rd game was against Frontliners. Another game that we MUST win to secure our placing! After our first two matches, we were a bit more calmed and focus. There were a few changes to our initial line-up. With Nicholas as the centre in the first line, we scored our first goal within seconds after the first face-off. Subsequently, Nicholas and Bryan continued to make wonders to secure a win over Frontliners with score 3-0.
Our final match was against Minden Underdawgz 2. It was quite an easy game. We were in control of the game a whole lot better compared to the previous 3 games. With less pressure from the opponent, we won the game by a score of 5-0.

And finally…the next day….where the real battle began…

Semi-Final: CONTACT X vs Subang Rascal
It was not our target to meet them at the semi-final. However due to our lost to Dalat 1, we had to settle for this. We knew it was not going to be an easy game. With all that we’ve got, we were determined not to make the game any easy for the opponent. It was perhaps the most exciting game throughout the tournament (well, at least to me!). Bryan scored the first goal in a counter attack that gave us the lead of 1-0. However, Sasi returned us another goal to make it to a draw of 1-1. We expected that very goal from Sasi, but we were too slow to respond. With that we had the penalty shots to determine the winner and finalist for the tournament. Our chosen ones to take the penalty were Bryan, Nicholas, Henry, Edward and Kenny. We could have done well in the penalty if not for the disqualification of Bryan’s shot. Accordingly, there was a pull back thus it was considered a no-goal by the referee. But…interestingly…Sasi’s penalty shot was blocked by our amazing Goalie, Yung Ming! With all the hoo-haa…we finally lost to Subang Rascals with a score of 1-3.

Semi-Final: Innebandy! Co vs Dalat 1
It was quite an interesting match to watch! Innebandy! Co was given a total of 6-minutes power play against Dalat 1 (who was down with 3 players then). Even with this edge, Innebandy! Co did not seize the opportunity to attack. Daniel Cheah’s deadly shot could not secure a win for Innebandy! Co. They lost to Dalat 1 with just a mere 0-1.

3rd Placing Match: CONTACT X vs Innebandy! Co
With our failure to make it to the final….with our effort thus far…..we were determined not to go home empty handed. Innebandy’s advantage over us was the Goalie, Kao Lin Ken. We knew if we could break their defense, we could conquer them. With team effort and Edward’s strategy to block the goalie finally paid off to give us the THIRD PLACING and the BRONZE MEDALS! Goals scored by Kenny and Edward! It was indeed a sweet victory!!

Finals: Dalat 1 vs Subang Rascals
Very fast speed and high intensity match! Dalat 1 crumbled at the hands of Subang Rascals as both Sasi and Fabien were all over them. The Rascals taking the goal medal with a 4-0 win over Dalat 1.

This is our second time walking away with bronze medals! Our first time was also Dalat League, held in year 2005. Sweet memories, sweet victories! But we will not rest in our laurels…we will continue to strive and make our presence and effort felt in all tournaments to come! So….WATCH-OUT!!
Nicholas was awarded one of the top scorers alongside Sasi of Subang Rascals. Hip! Hip! Hurray! For Nicholas! Keep it coming and make history for Team Contact and Penang floorball!!!