MCOBA Fitsal 2007: Team Gemuk Dan Team Kurus

We did not manage to squeeze ourselves into a special league based on combined total weight so had to contend with trying to keep up with 18 - 20 year olds ha ha. Nevertheless Idzam as the new AJK Batch – Futsal (Ayien, the original AJK Batch for that portfolio has lately transferred his responsibilities to Idzam and Aiwa) successfully put together 2 teams roughly based on weight (looking at the team members ha ha) i.e.:

94A (hereinafter referred to as Team Kurus):
Faz
Champ
Picca
Gabai
Poqpeq
Khalid
Fitt
Epit (yg ni anomaly sikit ni)

94B (hereinafter referred to as Team Gemuk):
Aiwa
Syam
Idzam
KNO
Dayat
Foo (nak kasi balance sikit)
Joe (pun nak kasi balance)

I can’t recall the results exactly but Team Kurus lived up to expectation and if I am not mistaken did emerge as group champion; defeating 99B, 00C and through match fixing allegedly lost to 96A.

As for Team Gemuk, Aiwa did score 3 goals in the first game against 96A – not because of his fitness or futsal skills, but most probably through his “Raja Lawak” fame that somehow delayed the opponent and gave us a walk-over of 3-0 ha ha. They lost to 03 and drew with 95A.

OBSERVATION 1

I have never been to that place so arrived at another Sportsplanet in the vicinity to find 2 teams of 12-year old school children playing. I thought that as much as I was aware that this annual event usually attracts very young old boys from the classes of 2004 onwards, it cannot be that it also includes teams of future MCKK students. After a few frantic calls, I realised that it’s a different futsal centre but that does not help my defence when a few people summarily concluded that I purposely go to the other futsal centre to see under-age children playing futsal ha ha ha

OBSERVATION 2

Fadli, the self-appointed tea boy who drummed up so much publicity about his going to the tournament; failed to turn up.

I had late supper with him to catch up on the night before until 2 am, and he went on and on about what he would wear, what he would serve etc. throughout. He even went to demonstrate to Wawa (Class of 97) and wife Ta and Canoe; all were also present – how exactly he would pour the tea, just to show his so-called expertise in the small niche area; drawing from his experience serving tea after each rugby game in Scotland (nope, he didn’t play rugby, somehow we had to take turns to serve hot tea and coffee to teachers, parents and old boys who were present each time there was a hockey game).

When I called him to ask for direction the next morning, he had just woken up and as usual was still “bergolek-golek atas katil”. So we waited and waited but the tea boy never appeared.

I am lobbying that Ahmad house gets its points deducted for failing to fulfil its promise and obligation to the batch.

OBSERVATION 3

My plan was to “pow” anyone “berduit” to buy drinks for the team. Last year we managed to get Fadhil Datuk Haji Azman (whose projects go beyond the realm of our usual financial means and involve the trademark “juta-juta” he eh) – basically it’s a question of aku dengan muka tak malunya pi mintak duit and pi beli air, lepas tu bawak air macam aku la yang sponsornya.

But Fadhil could have learnt his lesson so he organised a kenduri on the same day, so he was not around. My target was to “pow” Fadli – but he too could have sensed my trick so decided to continue “bergolek-golek atas katil”.

In the end, I actually had to resort to Plan B to save water face and went and buy the drinks myself. Worse still, I had a perfect parking spot which I was not willing to lose, so ended up walking and usung the whole carton back.

By the time I was in the sports centre, I was more exhausted than the players and drank the whole bottle quicker than the players; which then spawned the question of “beli air ni untuk siapa ni since kau yang lagi banyak minum than players”..

OBSERVATION 4

People change over the years and do grow up; hence the importance of not being judgmental when you were in koleq (this applies to all – boys, teachers, parents). Both teams were made up of people from different spectrum back in koleq and it would have been impossible to put them in one team back then; but much has changed that I could have been considered as the rudest and “out of line” guy the other day as opposed to the usual suspects.

Our team also had a match with 95A whose team was made up of people who were beaten up by the very people who were playing against them from my batch – but the level of camaraderie, fun and laughter was even better than the game played against 96A, who traditionally by association should have been closer to us. Kalai spent considerable time chatting with Class of 95 guys (and not selling insurance ha ha); the very people who would have been at each other’s throat 13 years ago.

So we do grow up and whoever we were in MCKK is not an indication of whatever will be. It’s very difficult to stress this point to some adults nowadays, so that they would treat school boys going out at night for a supper; or boys playing outside the designated games hours as mischievous deeds rather than manifestations of pure evil.

OBSERVATION 5

There has been suspicion of match fixing ha ha. Class of 96’s team needed to win with us by a margin of 3 in order to qualify to the next round whereas come what may ours would have been the group champion.

It is not known whether any deal was made but they did win 3-0 and we did get a box of KFC after that ha ha (upon advice that jambu is no longer a strong currency with us, let alone jambus who are in the same BMI band with us ha ha).

OBSERVATION 6

The labelling of Team Gemuk and Team Kurus apparently went beyond our batch; Fitt overheard this conversation:

mcoba A : ko lawan team batch mana lepas nih?
mcoba B : budak2 94
mcoba A : team yg mana satu? yg gumok ke yg kurus?
.....


Thank you to all who were involved and thanks to the organizers too. Next year we will send an even fatter team!

TESTIMONIALS

Syam (Captain Team G):

Terima kasih bebanyak to idzam for succesfully managing two teams during the MCOBA futsal tournament, you rock man!! Terima kasih bebanyak jugak kepada players both 94A (team gemok) and 94B (team kurus), Faz, Pica, Syed Khalid, Gabye (mmg bagus la kau jadi keeper), Champ, PPeq, Epit (walaupun main quarter je), KNO, Aiwa (the first game he scored hat-trick), Joe (you improved a lot man, marking i give 8/10, thanx for the effort although kau demam hari tuh), Foo & Fitt yg sentiasa berkerja keras, and lastly tukidoe (lupa sorok controller masa penalty, ha ha ha), kalau ada yg tertinggal, tak disengajakan....terima kasih bebanyak jugak kepada semua supporters kat luar especially cheerleader, kalai and main drink sponsor Ruff (should i mention batch 96 since they sponsor Kentuck, ha ha ha)...summary idzam boleh bagi kut...in short, both teams berjaya mengulangi pencapaian last tournament, looking forward for the next tournament which is the 94 futsal inter house....to organisers, if you need any help organising the tournament, i am here to assist...call me anytime dude...

thanx again...it was an enjoyable day....

Aiwa (Star Team G):

and all the memories shall remain..... (tulisan di tilam pong east wing).



More photos @ Album Berisi
Videos uploaded by KNO

Den Doh Buet Kototopan

The last posting was nearly a month ago. It's not that we have not got anything going on; it's just that some of us have been really busy.

Fadli is around, back for a weekend escapade from Taiwan. He's stationed in Taiwan for the next few months. He messaged me early this week to go out for a dinner; but we still cannot find a match in our schedule. If I were to see him before he flies back; that means I may have to cancel one trip.

Car pooled with Sharap to go back to our respective hometowns; went to his house after nearly 13 years. I remember the occasion of my last visit well - it was 2 weeks after our SPM, 2 weeks before I was due to leave for Scotland and one week before we had to finalise Koleq Mag. I couldn't bring myself to go back alone so I dragged Sharap. His family's Toyota Corona (I think) had an air-cond breakdown at that time that I had to become a manual wiper lest Sharap hit something on the way to the bus station.

Much has changed since then. Sharap's late father; who in his life was an embodiment of properness, politeness and discipline (of which the same can be said about Sharap) passed away one year ago; so last night the whole family had a tahlil. His mother looked very haggard when I dropped by today; quite different from the time I last saw her almost 13 years ago.

Both Sharap's parents are of the same age group with mine. Sometimes we forget that many people closest to us are on borrowed time. I struggle with the realisation that any one of my parents can collapse anytime and pass away while I am busy flying here and there; chasing to fulfill people's expectation of ourselves (which will never be fulfilled) while we neglect those closest to us.

Fazurin has gone missing too. He has not updated his blog, has not replied to e-mails or there's no sign of life from Washington. Maybe I'll drop by at his parents' and enquire what has happened to him - but then again from his Tanggang reputation; I doubt his parents know any better (for the record, he was a cause for much concern to his parents back in koleq that they called koleq to find out what had happened with him; since he did not call for a very long time).

Fazurin would have been proud to see the junior debating coaches successfully conducted the last debate workshop (I guess a taboo nowadays since the brouhaha in January). On one hand I was glad that finally in them we can say good bye to the whole thing; that we can pass the batons and attend to other matters that we have neglected all this while. On the other hand the sinking feeling that koleq will never win any major tournament again saddens me; the fact that these boys; despite what they have achieved in their personal life will never achieve the one thing they work so hard for; is a struggle in itself to come to terms with.

But on our part; on my part - I have achieved what I set out to do in 2003. Almost 4 years in the planning and making; I can now take comfort that this time around I leave the teams in a much better shape, in safer hands - not the unceremonious way we left in the 1994-1996 period. I think the boys now understand what it means to be an MCKK debater; the pride and standard that we have to uphold and they will return to do their time; just as we did during our turn.

During CNY, Smash and his family came to visit me and my parents. We had lengthy talk as always but what was most striking was when he pointed out that Ben had lost so much weight due to his illness; something I did not realise all this while. Somehow it was like an awakening that while we chase all the intangibles in the world; we miss the changes happening with the people most important to us.

I hope Ben would have been proud too with the junior coaches and the boys; that this time around we will not be called from our retirement because they will hold the standard flying for us. Ben delivered a speech on the coaches' behalf that night - typical of his speech full of humour; catch-phrases and inspiration; yet it too could not hide the melancholy.

The melancholy of age.

I giggled at his speech; yet I am sure both of us have forgotten the journeys we went through since I was bedazzled into becoming a debater; into his team way back in 1990. I try not to be dramatic; but all of us have not just grown up - we have aged so much. With age and the burden of truth revealed to us as each day passes by; our own innocence disappears into thin air.

We still talk occasionally on the phone; but it's full of rants and rambling of frustration. It's never the same compared to those years when everything was almost always about adventure; almost about taking the might of the world; almost about changing for the better. Almost always about new ideas.

It is because of this, that spending time with the junior coaches and the kids provided us the privilege which we rarely are accorded to nowadays - to see the innocence; the energy and the foolishness of young age. Of age not yet poisoned with the burden of reality.

I always ask myself that perhaps the time has come for us to say good bye lest we poison their innocence and foolhardiness with our own melancholy; now that the junior coaches are ready.

There are other things happening this weekend too.

MCOBA Futsal is finally taking off; Idzam (as usual the self-appointed AJK Batch Futsal) apparently had assembled 2 teams and one tea boy (Fadli; dia kempunan nak jadi PBSM lari masuk padang dulu, la ni jadi tea boy cukup la, kononnya to use his experience as a Form 6th tea boy masa kat Scotland dulu). I would have loved to be around and would have been the loudest, but I have a program to run elsewhere during the same weekend.

Mighty Ducks is almost a reality with the launching expected in 2 weeks' time. The Duckies (as they call themselves nowadays) have quite regular meeting nowadays and if they maintain the same discipline they displayed as a team in koleq back then, I have no doubt there'll be something good out of it.

For now I can turn my phone off and have a standard reply message that "Pegi mampus kau aku dah update blog" for all those who bug me about the blog.

Note:
"Den Doh Buet Kototopan" is Fazurin's trademark each year after we completed one workshop. He would swear, he would repeat the oath ("kototopan") over and over again in the car on the way back to KL that he would never do it again in the future - because of the toll it takes on us. Only to come back 2 months down the line to kick-start the PPM preparation.

Kerja Gila

Baru balik meeting Mighty Ducks.

Now it's 2.25 am.

This morning kena masuk ofis on Hari Wilayah, and so will be throughout the weekend. It's 14 days non-stop.

Kerja gila.

Kerja gila.

But Mighty Ducks sounds nice. Thanks Joe for the idea.

There was one letter from Mpro to me in Scotland way back in 1995 when we joked about Mighty Ducks. And to think that almost 12 years after Mighty Ducks comes back in our vocab.

Kerja gila.

Kerja gila.

ps: Leman kalahkan Ahmad up to January. Point Sukantara dah keluar. Motto kami "Kitorang nak beat Ahmad je..." ha ha ha