After a long morning of intense, quick-paced matches, the rugby tournament hosted by UWC Southeast Singapore had left the Varsity Girls Touch Rugby Team with an energy that had nowhere left to settle. The competition, though deceptively demanding, left our bodies fatigued from the soreness of a vastly major triumph in the games that had preceded the evening of rest.
As the latter half of the day settled in, the girls and I were accompanied by an unspent alertness—a collective restlessness that refused to dissipate. This anticipation, of course, was due to the team bonding activity that the coaches had revealed would take place after dinner.
We entered the laser tag arena knowing precisely where we were and what we had come to do. Still, the moment we equipped our heavy vests, the excitement immediately gave way to tension. The first team consisted of seniors, coaches, and our very own freshman. The second team, a mix of excited sophomores and juniors, was separated from the team of upperclassmen and began strategizing. Before we knew it, the release cue announced the start of the game, causing a parade of excited girls and tense coaches to stumble on one another as they rushed into the dark space beyond the curtain of separation.
The arena itself revealed itself as a large room filled with vertical platforms designed to conceal players as much as to expose them. The dystopian beats of the overwhelmingly loud house music accompanied the screams and warnings that each team yelled out as the ten-minute countdown began. As each player dissolved into the maze of tall wooden platforms, the dim purple lights only faintly illuminated each individual until they materialized behind their targets.
Surprisingly, the coaches moved through the arena with an unsettling calm derived only from experience. PB, Mr. Daniels, and Coach Brooks—who had strategized before the game—targeted specific individuals and cautiously navigated throughout the arena, with zero hesitation and resolve.
Every corner was approached with a tension that was only matched by the morning’s tournament. Disorder and chaos soon dissipated into a familiar excitement full of rapid movement, laughter, and teamwork. The first match concluded with a decisive victor (the first team, of course) that defined the rest of the night. Anna Chand (12) noted that “[p]laying laser tag was probably one of my highlights from the weekend. It was such a good team bonding activity and was very rewarding after a long tournament.”
The games that followed were the same: filled with passion and endless laughter. The two hours of laser tag that followed a weekend of exhausting travel and rugby allowed the team to grow even more in trust and love for one another. The memories I’ve formed with the Dalat Varsity Girls Touch Rugby team are ones that I will truly and verily treasure for many years to come. :)
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