READY TO STING: Players of Hornets Softball Club with Juraimie and coaches in a group photograph. Softball fans especially those in Kuching are invited to come and enjoy the matches played at SMK Green Road tomorrow from 8.30am to 11.30am.
KUCHING: SMK Green Road (Green Hornets) are proud to have a rare chance to play two friendly matches with a Singapore softball club at the school field tomorrow from 8.30am to 11.30am.
The school’s Boys Under-18 and Under-15 teams will play against players of Bedok Softball Club from the island republic.
This is the second international friendly that the Green Hornets will be playing after a friendly game against a Brunei team after the Sarawak Open last year.
“This is an opportunity of a life-time for our boys to experience a high level of softball and I am urging them to learn as much as they can from the Singaporeans.
“I have also reminded them to appreciate their opportunities to play at the international level as no other school teams in Sarawak have done it before,” said SMK Green Road teacher-in-charge of softball Juraimie Junaidi.
He said the school was proud to have received requests from two Singapore teams to play friendlies but turned down one of them because it was difficult to get enough players.
“Most of our players are sitting for their SPM and it is quite difficult for us to gather our junior players during the school holidays, so we are only agreed to accept the Bedok Softball Club’s request on a first-come-first-serve basis,” he added.
As time is limited, Junaidi said the Green Hornets had only two days of training to prepare for the friendlies.
“However, I am quite confident that our boys, under the effective training programmes conducted by coaches Muhd Sophian, Tomie Gus and Aliyah Qamarina, will perform their best in winning the matches with great runs (scores),” said Juraimie.
“We are also lucky to have former Sarawak softball advisor Awang Rosdi from SMK DHPA Gapor, Stampin as the guest plate umpire for the matches. His experience will allow the matches to be conducted accordingly to the standard rules.”
Juraimie also extended his invitation to the state softball fans especially those in Kuching to come and enjoy the matches.
“I am very happy that our small contribution has been able to make the world of softball in Sarawak more interesting and challenging.
I hope this will serve as a lead for other softball teams to face the challenges in developing softball as one of the core sports in Sarawak,” said Juraimie.
He also proposed that softball propagators in Kuching come together to form the Kuching Division Softball Association that will help to manage softball activities in Kuching more actively and effectively.
“Kuching has more than 15 softball teams and I am very sure that it (an association) will benefit softballers in the city,” he said.