Today I went for my first match support for IHG 2014. The TH floorball males were playing against Sheares. Screamed, shouted and cheered. And it all came back. Just last academic year, I was there in MPSH, screaming and cheering for my team at the benches. That was me, in my very first ever (if you excluded those from primary school) sports competition.That place held a lot of memories for me, and I felt a wave of nostalgia sweep past me just watching the floorball team play today. Some of those basic tactics that they used, the exhilaration I felt the first time I ran through the court to just have a go at the ball, the feeling I got when my fellow hall mates shouted my name... those memories all started coming back.

I remembered being at the benches most of the time, passing water to my team members and all when they swapped players, for that was the most I could help them with. A big part of me was hoping very earnestly that I would be put on court to play, even if it was just a little while. But a small part of me was afraid that I would drag the team down for I had not been attending the holiday trainings and I wasn't skillful enough. I remembered very vividly the first time I actually stepped into the court was also during the match with sheares. Somewhere near the end of the match, jheng had came over and said when xx comes out, you'll substitute her. I had felt really really excited even though there was only seven seconds left to the end of the game and I knew that all I had to do was just to try to get possession of the ball. And I actually did, which I felt was a teeny achievement for a beginner like me.

The second time I went into court was for another some other match, probably against KE7 or something. This time I was in it for a longer period of time and really felt the strain on my weak legs, tired from not running in ages and not working on my stamina during the holidays. At that moment I really admired how the seniors could hold out a whole match on their own even though they were really tired and all, and the amount of effort and training they had to put in to achieve that sort of stamina. I remembered straining to listen to Janelle (for I was in her line up) amidst all the shoutings and my bad dribbling. I could still remember her expression when she passed the ball to me, thinking that I would try to take a shot since I was in the middle and in front of the goalpost and then expression of frustration as she came back for the ball because I had stopped the ball to try to shoot it (due to once again, my lousy skills). Looking back, I kind of wished I had tried harder to score my first goal. Such opportunities lost would never return again.

My team, they really wanted to win so badly. There was so much frustration and disappointment when we lost the match against Eusoff then they had said then that next year they would win the title of being first back. And I'm sure they probably would stand a chance to actually clinch the title this year. I remembered trainings - all those drills, passing exercises and even the one time that we were doing some PT thing and singing twinkle twinkle little star at the place known as Butterfly gardens today. Most of the seniors were really patient, giving me loads of advice on how to correct my stickwork and shoot properly, while some of the seniors would seem rather fierce at times. But I understood that they really wanted the best for the team and I was genuinely happy to have been able to learn from the best.

For someone who has never been any sports CCA before and who knows that she probably wouldn't fit in well with the sports culture, moving a step away from the cultural side, joining floorball and learning everything from scratch was a challenge which really involved some amount of courage to have to interact with sportsmen with really different mindset, interests and personalities. But I'm glad to say that I've tried. I'm glad I took the first step, and these memories I would hold dear.