Frontliners+Roses=Champions

*this post is written by fellow Frontliners Roses, Kew Pei Li, on her personal experience in YouthWave 2007.

A goal to savour and a gold to keep. Could it get any better?

Welcome to the 4th Youthwave Floorball Tournament. Welcome to this place where months (or days, for some) of hard training should pay off. Welcome to this place were dreams are born and legends made.

Welcome to my world.

My first inkling that this tournament would be different was when I first heard of my team's name: Frontliners 'Roses'. Sure, when I mentioned my disbelief at the name to Mr. Jason, he said the England rugby team were called the Roses, but has anyone ever noticed that anything to do with English sports just isn't successful?

Anyway.

The Roses walked through the entrance with high expectations by Mr. Jason (if you could call "having fun and showing the Frontliners' Spirit" expectations) and, I believe, each of our eyes (at least mine!) set on the ultimate prize.

*I know, Mr. Jason, there is no 'i' in 'team', but since this is my personal experience report... I'll just leave that principle out this time.*

Adrenaline pumping, I chose my spot at 8.30 only to be told that our first match would be sometime around eleven. What an anticlimax...

Come the first game... finally. Uni loyalties were thrown aside for a moment (not I, I'm only fourteen) as we faced off against the USM team of Minden Underdawgs. Still warming up (perhaps it's just me, I take some time to get going), the whole team seemed to be rather asleep (except, of course, for Ms. Reliable Sarah Ng) and we were lucky to get away with a win and not a draw.

With Sharron Tan defending the goal, Rosalyn and Alice helping her out, Sara Aida contesting strongly for every ball, Sarah the balancing fulcrum and creativity tap and me, Pei Li, pressuring and harassing (it's not as harsh as it sounds, believe me) our opponents, we blazed our way through to the fourth game (in the second one I scored!!!).
Confidence brimming, only the Innebabes were left unharmed by us. I decided the Roses would just pass by so fast that they wouldn't even notice we were gone.
But really, that didn't happen. The Roses matched the Babes stick for stick, and a goalless draw, I suppose, was more deserving.

And next... came the lunch break. Haha.

The semis game wasn't much; the only thing to watch out for was overconfidence. The real action was going on over the other court where the MGS Dashes were playing against the Innebabes. Wish I'd watched the full game...
Drawn with Innebabes again, this time in the finals (I won't go into details about how they got there). We had a second chance to prove to them that the lovely Roses did indeed have thorns. Before the game, our coach and Captain Marvel Sarah Ng eyeballed each of us and said:

'Do you wanna win? [Pauses for effect] I want to. We already came this far, so let's get the gold (although silver would still be okay). I want that gold.'
It worked. We stepped into the court and knew the gold was ours for the taking.
It was all pretty much of a blur, really. All I can vividly remember were the goals and the final whistle (coming to that later). The first goal, to me, was the most important as it relieved the huge tension hanging over us (we didn't want to go into penalties with a flat 0% conversion rate and the semis drama between the Dashes and the Babes) and caused some smiles at the striking simpleness of the strike by Sarah. The second goal by Sara Aida, sealed the game and we had only to wait for...

The final whistle! In the court I dropped my stick and rushed to the already-hugging Sarah and Rosalyn. Sharon and Sara Aida joined in soon afterward and we all just stood there, exhilarated that the Frontliners Roses were the champions of the tournament.

...Now all I want is the overdue nasi kandar water promised by Mr. Jason if we won. Oh, and of course, another gold next year... and the next... and so on.