Fight on VJ, Fight on..
The soccer boys, pride of VJC, the image of our school, the thoroughbred winners, lost today to Raffle Junior College 6-7 in penalties after a 1 - 1 draw. There was half hearted playing by some and a lack of the inspirational Mr. Tan Yew Hwee, but its too late to grouse over that. The match was hard fought, and hard cheered and considering our lack of a motivating leader thats a pretty darn good achievement.
By leader i meant principal, for in a college as close knit as ours a principal can be seen as the parent, watching over us and giving advice. Unfortunately the newly apointed Mr. Chan certainly pales in comparison to Mrs. Chan, and i'm not talking about his skin colour derived from utter lack of sporting participation. Due to his crappy, pointlessly-running-around-the-bush speeches and lack of half days, i'm more than inclined to write a biased opinion on the man. But i don't like biaseness.
I remember last year, Mrs. Chan wasn't really a principal, she was more of the school counsellor, a student. While hes walking around trying to make himself known as a concerned man, she walks around making strangers become friends. While he sits in his office wiping his sweat she moves around the crowds, runs the cross country, cheers with us. The victorian spirit, or any spirit for that matter, isn't talking about it, its doing it.
Have we seen him down supporting matches? I remember Mrs. Chan was at practically all important (and even "unimportant") matches. In fact, on the day where VJC was playing SAJC for both hockey and soccer in the same day with clashing timings, she came down for both (rushing between the two matches) to show her support. She didn't go up to the teams and said "hi good luck guys, blah blah blah", she just stands in the crowd with her adoring students and just cheered - that does infinitely more than pointless mutterings.
From what I've heard, he didn't even know some of the performing arts had Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) performances. They didn't even ask for supporters and he did not even take the liberty to find out when they are performing.
Inspirational? Sadly its not. This year is probably the worst year for VJC sports, the guys side. In VJ, the sports are close, after all the small college grounds means we inevitably bump into everyone eventually. Like pillars we stand and when one falls, the others tremble. Soccer was probably the last male sport we had for a chance of making the finals and now thats gone.
As an injured softballer, it saddens me to see my friends devastated, to see teams falling one by one. As a year two it worries me that when batches to come look back, they might see the graduating batch of 2007 as a failure.
Mr. Chan, you still have 4 and a half more years, learn that in a junior college academic excellence isn't everything. You want lots of As? Sure, but RJ, HC, NJ and a variety of other schools can also produce such results. What made us different, what made us special, is-or rather was (now that you're here)-our excellent overall sports record and a school spirit unmatched in any other college. All that on top of excellent results. And even though you stress for us to mugmugmug while supporting matches, while training, you don't see that for a Victorian if you don't get days off just to feel good, if you don't see your teams winning just to feel good, you can't really study.
With our current negligible principal, the college is sliding into a slump. Why is it we are so dependant on a good one, to make us great? We should create a school identity, a school culture so strong, so meaningful that it would stand the test of time and laugh in the face of crappy leaders. Our thirst for success shouldn't be enhanced or destroyed by a person sitting in the principals office, it should be forever held up high by ourselves, our culture. There are many years to come, and many chances with them, we're counting on you year ones, to make them gold.
So Fight on VJ, Fight on.
By leader i meant principal, for in a college as close knit as ours a principal can be seen as the parent, watching over us and giving advice. Unfortunately the newly apointed Mr. Chan certainly pales in comparison to Mrs. Chan, and i'm not talking about his skin colour derived from utter lack of sporting participation. Due to his crappy, pointlessly-running-around-the-bush speeches and lack of half days, i'm more than inclined to write a biased opinion on the man. But i don't like biaseness.
I remember last year, Mrs. Chan wasn't really a principal, she was more of the school counsellor, a student. While hes walking around trying to make himself known as a concerned man, she walks around making strangers become friends. While he sits in his office wiping his sweat she moves around the crowds, runs the cross country, cheers with us. The victorian spirit, or any spirit for that matter, isn't talking about it, its doing it.
Have we seen him down supporting matches? I remember Mrs. Chan was at practically all important (and even "unimportant") matches. In fact, on the day where VJC was playing SAJC for both hockey and soccer in the same day with clashing timings, she came down for both (rushing between the two matches) to show her support. She didn't go up to the teams and said "hi good luck guys, blah blah blah", she just stands in the crowd with her adoring students and just cheered - that does infinitely more than pointless mutterings.
From what I've heard, he didn't even know some of the performing arts had Singapore Youth Festival (SYF) performances. They didn't even ask for supporters and he did not even take the liberty to find out when they are performing.
Inspirational? Sadly its not. This year is probably the worst year for VJC sports, the guys side. In VJ, the sports are close, after all the small college grounds means we inevitably bump into everyone eventually. Like pillars we stand and when one falls, the others tremble. Soccer was probably the last male sport we had for a chance of making the finals and now thats gone.
As an injured softballer, it saddens me to see my friends devastated, to see teams falling one by one. As a year two it worries me that when batches to come look back, they might see the graduating batch of 2007 as a failure.
Mr. Chan, you still have 4 and a half more years, learn that in a junior college academic excellence isn't everything. You want lots of As? Sure, but RJ, HC, NJ and a variety of other schools can also produce such results. What made us different, what made us special, is-or rather was (now that you're here)-our excellent overall sports record and a school spirit unmatched in any other college. All that on top of excellent results. And even though you stress for us to mugmugmug while supporting matches, while training, you don't see that for a Victorian if you don't get days off just to feel good, if you don't see your teams winning just to feel good, you can't really study.
With our current negligible principal, the college is sliding into a slump. Why is it we are so dependant on a good one, to make us great? We should create a school identity, a school culture so strong, so meaningful that it would stand the test of time and laugh in the face of crappy leaders. Our thirst for success shouldn't be enhanced or destroyed by a person sitting in the principals office, it should be forever held up high by ourselves, our culture. There are many years to come, and many chances with them, we're counting on you year ones, to make them gold.
So Fight on VJ, Fight on.
posted by slipperdan at 9:16 PM
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