By Michelle Morrow
This past Saturday, while middle school basketball had their Island Shootout, the rugby girls headed to Bukit Mertajam on the mainland for our first Penang tournament this season. Twelve teams were competing in our division, and after 13 long hours of both playing and waiting for the pouring rain to stop, we finished first in the silver bracket.
We dominated in pool play, winning our first two games 3-0 and 2-0. We fell to the eventual tournament champions in the next game, sending us to the silver bracket. Commenting on the team’s resilience after this upsetting loss, Tia Emmanuel (10) said, “I really liked how after we lost our match and were all really sad and down, we prayed as a group about the next one and came back stronger.”
Although we faced challenging opposition in our third game, we persevered and learned from our mistakes as we won our final two HSBM National Touch 3.0 Tournament games by scores of 3-0 and 1-0.
After everyone’s games were over and the awards had been distributed, we met the other girls not as competitors but as fellow rugby players who, despite various cultural and religious backgrounds, shared a love for the sport. Besides the games themselves, meeting and interacting with those Malay girls was my favorite part of the tournament. Some were even players I had connected with last year, so it was fantastic to see them again.
My co-captain Kathryn Boyd (12) also shared these sentiments, and as she reviewed our season thus far, she said, “I’m going to miss this team, the coaches, the game, and also all the relationships we made with local Malay girls through rugby. This sport helped us connect, and it was so cool to see the girls interact with one another.”
Reflecting on the trip and tournament, Emma Emis (11) said, “I loved how well we were all able to bond over the trip. From screaming Megan Trainor to winning gold medals, it was awesome. During trips like these, we can spend good quality time with our teammates and get to know them better.”
I couldn’t agree more. We eagerly anticipate the following games and tournaments as a team and can’t wait to expand our rugby skillsets.
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