hello hello pple!! look wad i found last sat morning while preparing to go for soccer.

hahaha, my old zhonghua basketball jersey!! nice rite?? our team chose the jersey ourselves lar, unlike other schools where the school chooses for them. theres another white one somewhere but cant seem to find it. =x

anyhow, damn nostalgic when i saw this lar. brought back all kinds of memories lor. den on sun while having brunch with xh, i saw our old coach's sports shop lar!! so coincidental. i thought it was no longer open lar, especially when they tore down the old joo seng market, thought everything went with it.

therefore, i decided i'll blog and talk abit abt zhss 'C' boys team of 99/00.

till this day, i still believe that we didnt live up to expectations lar. we were destined, i do mean destined, to conquer singapore lar. im not exagerrating lor, it sounds cocky but its true. of the 30 odd matches we played, we only ever lost 3. and many of our opponents were dispatched with ease lar. but we were knocked out in the second round of north zone competition partly due to over confidence and also bad luck.

mr ong, our coach, trained us to play a system of bball that is rarely seen in sec school level lar. we would employ full court press from the get go. full court press is darn tiring ah, 5 pple have to cover the entire length of the court when u compare it with half court zone defense with only half the court length to cover. therefore, our team always had superior fitness. and i particularly loved it during morning assemblies, where there would be announcement of our match results. the whole school would 'WAHHH', made me feel so proud lar especially since our school has nv had much sports achievements. and of course, no sec school team ever plays full court press cos its jus too much to expect from 13-14 yr olds. in fact, our team was cocky too. since there are members of bball club that are 'non-school team' pple, we would not even train with them, and our team jus stuck with each other everytime we were at the court, and i believe some of us even looked down on those 'non-school team' peeps.

the fact is, mr ong din wan us to jus win, he wanted us to win by huge margins, to win by 'humiliating' ur opponents. (i guess thats where i get my competitive streak from). im not proud of this, but he also taught us to win by employing dirty tricks. the elbow, tugging of jerseys, and pushing ur opponents out of bounds, etc. these are things that only happens in pro ball not sec school bball lor. and becos im a power forward, and its always physical, i would employ these tricks darn often, so much so that i became an expert at it lar. =P

of course, to be able to win, we were trained darn hard ah. after school from 2.30pm to 7pm every tues, thurs and on sat morning from 7am to 12noon were dedicated to bball training. and on other days, we would play ball among ourselves too. even during the school holidays, mr ong would book the old joo seng cc for us to conduct training lar. and during the holidays, training was a daily affair, tog with the girl's team. thats y everytime i pass by joo seng now, i feel kinda down cos the cc has been replaced by the gurkha contingent's camp and it jus feels like the glory days of the cc is no longer there. and also cos i had loads of fond memories of that place; the team going for lunch tog at the market, conning drinks out of the vending machine (70 cents and we could get like 5 cans of drinks to drop out =P), the many laughter while playing ball tog and how we'll gush over jason williams' play. the entire team was crazed with jason williams lar, he was like our point of reference and inspiration when we play ball. postition wise, and ultimately, my no.1 bball hero is still Dennis Rodman!! he is uber cool lar though very controversial.

even though we had fun, training was tough lar; lay-ups with a chair between u and the hoop so u need to jump over the chair, 1 missed free throw = running 1 lap round the court, constantly doing 'suicide' to improve fitness. (suicide is like shuttle run, to and fro the various lines on the court within a time limit). den some of us got resentful cos mr ong nv seems to be satisfied with our performance. we would always complain abt him after training among ourselves even though we still put in 100% of effort in everything we do.

north zone qualifiers came and we swept thru the first round but when we were knocked out in the second round, everybody cried like mad lar. really darn sad since we were expected to conquer and the school principal had serious high hopes on us. mr ong den retired while the team fell apart. in the end, only 3 of the original 12 went to play at upper sec level.

theres this regret within me, and i always tell josh abt it. its the fact that we didnt appreaciate mr ong more, cos he was a real coach and someone who taught us wad it really means to play bball, he taught us to love it even though it was tough love. i guess we were young then and only wanted to have fun. once, i took a cab and the uncle jus so happened to be coached by him during his younger days too. hahaha, it was the same lar, full court press and everything. mr ong always told us that he was a former national team player and that he coached the national girls team before coming to zhss. and none of us believed him, even up till i meet the cab uncle, i didnt believe lar. it was only when the cab uncle told me wad a legend he is in singapore bball circle did i realise how fortunate i was to be once coached by him. really really sorry for our ignorance and naivety back then. but up till today, bball is still my 'first love' lar, though im playing more soccer now, bball was still a major part of my life for a very long period. even now, i still wear the red bball shorts we used back then when i play soccer lar. its something like a superstition for me. =P

hahaha, i guess im done reminiscing abt those days le ba. but really lar, abit of regret within me especially everytime i see the gurkha camp. oh ya, if u say joo seng, most pple would go 'huh?' but when u say joo seng cc, they'll go 'orrrrhhh, that place ah, last time alot of bball tournament held there one mah'.

anyhow, heres a belated happy bdae to saf!!! had supper tog last nite and theres this super huge thosai lar. knew it existed le and always wanted to post a pic of it but forget. so ta dah!! the super huge paper thosai found only at jalan kayu. and doesnt sharon look pretty in her new hairstyle?i dun wanna be a musketeer; i wanna be the 300 spartans!! =P