Bau school win in the Boys U18 and U15 categories in Kuching Inter-School Hockey Tournament
SMK Paku U18 and U15 players as well as officials celebrate their achievements after the prize presentation. — Photo by Jeffrey Mostapha
KUCHING: SMK Paku made a clean sweep of the Boys U18 and Boys U15 titles at the Majlis Sukan Sekolah (MSS) Kuching Inter-School Hockey Tournament at the Sarawak Hockey Stadium here yesterday.
In the U15 final, the junior squad of SMK Paku beat SMK St Thomas 1-0 in a penalty shootout after a 1-1 draw at full time.
SMK Bau on the other hand emerged third after defeating SMK Penrissen 1-0 in the play-off for third/fourth placings.
In the U18 category, SMK Paku blanked SM Sains Kuching Utara 3-0 in the final.
SMK Penrissen ended up in third spot after thrashing SMK Bau 8-0 in the play-off match.
For SMK Paku teacher in charge of hockey Glyn Goee, it was indeed a very good achievement as well as a historic one.
“This is the first time that we won the Kuching inter-school competition and we are very happy to have won a double (U18, U15) today.”
He attributed the success to the hard work, dedication and high discipline of the players as well as the strong support and full confidence from the school principal Jaminah Alias, teachers and parents.
One factor that contributed to their success is the excellent hockey facilities at the school where the Ministry of Youth and Sports built a hockey stadium there a few years back.
“The boys have been training very hard for almost one year and following a systematic training programme. They are very passionate about hockey and have sacrificed their holidays and weekend time to train and play at the school hockey pitch, as well as using their own money to buy hockey sticks,” he added.
“I would also like to thank the Sukan Pretasi Sekolah Tinggi Negeri for their assistance in providing us some funds to subsidise the costs of training and hockey equipment.”
Glyn took the opportunity to extend invitations to other schools to conduct their training at his school’s hockey stadium.
“Just contact our school and we welcome all those interested in hockey to come and play there,” he said.
Meanwhile, the two-day MSS Kuching Inter-School Hockey Tournament was participated by 20 teams from schools around Kuching.
Fifteen players were selected to represent Kuching in the Inter-Division Hockey Tournament which will be held here in June.
Present yesterday to give away the trophies and medals to the winning teams was SM Sains Kuching Utara principal Dr Norisah Suhaili.