A Labour of Passion

On the 1^st and 2nd of May 2010, Innebandy! Co. took part in the Labour Day Floorball Challenge which is an annual affair organized by Dalat International School. This year’s competition was graced by the participation of floorball teams all the way from Singapore which is well known as the powerhouse for floorball in the Asian region. Two teams which came all the way up to Penang were the NTU Hurricanes (having several Malaysian capped players as well as an ex-Singapore national player) as well as the SGS Juniors.

Innebandy! Co. & NTU Hurricanes

Day 1

For the competition pool, Innebandy was drawn in the “Group of Death” together with the top seeds for the competition namely NTU Hurricanes, Ztec 1 and Dalat 1 while the other pool consisted of Contact, Dalat 2, Ztec 2 and the SGS Juniors. The first 2 games in the knockout stage were against Ztec 1 followed by NTU. Having tough matches as early as this in the competition would mean that these matches would either make or break our qualification to the semi-finals.

Stepping on court filled with Insane Courage, we faced our first opponents of the day Ztec 1. Giving our all, it was a nail biting match as the spectators were seen screaming and cheering on for their teams. Throughout the periods, it was a cat and mouse game with Innebandy taking the lead through Ephraim. Ztec 1 kept the pressure on catching up point for point. Finally, the game ended 3-2 to Innebandy through another goal scored by Ephraim and the final nail hammered in by Sam.

The second match was against the titans of the competition hailing from Singapore, the NTU Hurricanes. The titans proved their worth by hitting 3 goals past us in the first period. With the vast experience and speed of the NTU players, we did not manage to dominate and only ended up scoring a goal. At half-time, we were down 3-1. However, although it seemed as though all was lost, we somehow found ourselves not fazed at all by the fact that we were trailing 3-1 thanks to the mental preparation that the coaches have put us through. We entered the court during the 2^nd half with more insane courage and determination and finally managed to hit 3 goals back against the Singaporeans to end the match 4-3 thanks to goals from Sam, Deswyn and Ephraim. The most memorable and inspiring occurrence during the match which led us to victory was the beginning of the 2^nd period when Linken shouted these very words “ COME ON GUYS! LOSING IS UNACCEPTABLE!” Hearing these words from our captain instilled in us a new vigor and determination which resulted in the final scoreline.

Winning both our early and hardest matches, we were ensured a spot in the semi-finals and made a grave mistake by taking our 3^rd game lightly against Dalat 1. Having won the top seeds of the competition, we entered the court resting on our laurels which resulted in us losing 3-2 to the Dalat side. This gravely disappointed the coaches and Coach Sam made us reflect on our game by making the team take a walk outside the gymnasium in silence and it was a walk which the team would never want to make again. It was a mistake dearly made but a lesson well learned by the team. We then picked ourselves up and promised to give our all in the semi-finals on the following day.

Day 2

Having lost the previous game and gaining a lesson well learned, we entered this game with a passion and hunger to do our best and it certainly proved essential as we went on to beat Contact 6-2. This win set us up with a date against our opponents from the group stage Ztec 1 who also qualified to the finals after cruising to an easy victory over Dalat 2.

The final match was extremely nail-biting and tension filled. The goalies on both sides were busy as the shots kept coming in from both sides and both goalies did extremely well to keep the scoreline to a minimum. This match however started with Ztec 1 scoring the first goal. Innebandy pressed hard and from then, it was a cat and mouse game all over again with Innebandy keeping up for every goal that Ztec 1 had scored by amazing efforts from Deswyn. During the interval, Coach Deswyn huddled the group and revived our strength and stirred up our determination to fight for victory through the 7 laws of victory. In the end, we gave it our all and our victory came when Deswyn executed an awesome turn to steer of a defender and hit home a bullet shot to the goal mouth which left the spectators in awe. Final score, 3-2 to Innebandy thanks to great team play and a marvelous hat trick from Deswyn.

Hence our journey ended in victory but what was more important was the realization of the boundaries we could exceed if we had the right mentality and the passion to always succeed. Team Innebandy would like to thank our Coaches and Captain for the “love” shared to us week after week . Apart from the effort put in by our coaches and the team, we would like to thank Deswyn for generously sharing with us his share of Power Bars which he received as a member of the Power Bar Team Elite. The team gained a massive energy boost through the wonder bars which indeed played a part in our rise to victory. We would like to thank Power Bar for sponsoring our Coach Deswyn as a Team Elite member and we believe that Power Bar has made an excellent choice for choosing Deswyn as a member of the Team Elite as he is an extremely great sportsman who is not only concerned in training us to win but also inspiring us to adopt the right and winning attitude as a sportsman. Thank You Power Bar!

Innebandy! Co. Labour Day Floorball Challenge Champions 2010

Next Up. PFL Division I