The Mighty Ducks Cup celebrated its third birthday last month. We thought since it has come of age, it was time to make it an invitational tournament because what the boys need most was lots and lots of game exposures. Besides, after 2 years of giving free t-shirts to boys who only turn up for fun and free t-shirts, we learnt the lesson not to repeat it for the third time.

As we went along, the planning and organising got more and more erratic; and we spent less and less time coordinating. The only time we allocated for MDC09 was a short 10 minutes during KNO’s farewell party – even that, there were so much confusion that the discussion was ended prematurely.

2 months ago I went on a rampage telling off Ben (Class of 08) how disappointed we were that they did not seem to be interested to come back to help. Being proper as always, Ben must have rallied his batchmates and one week before the tournament, we realised that we had to transport 7 teenagers (and none of us looked forward to that!).

Usually there would be at least one person who took charge – either I was shouting, or Chamat went running around with a whip, or Badut throwing sarcastic remarks – but this time around, it was nearly a complete silence. Idzam tried his best to coordinate but his emails were not even read. I was struggling with thousands of batch emails in my Blackberry; Badut never reads emails anyway. Chamat opted out this time around; Epit and Mpro could not make it – Joe and Chibix were waiting for Badut to confirm the no of teams participating (and Badut was incommunicado) and KNO was already in Pakistan. Canoe rarely responded to emails.

The school, as always, adopted a hands-off approach to the whole thing so the command and control was executed from KL throughout.

It was only in the last week that things started to gather momentum; with each of us doing our bits on our own without cross checking whether others were doing their bits, thinking that all would be doing their parts. There was no command and control at all eventually; but slowly the turf was confirmed, we managed to get the six teams we wanted, lunch was arranged after being redirected a couple of times and the banner was ready at the eleventh hour.

In the end, it was the smoothest Mighty Ducks Cup ever. Class of 08 boys were a great help that for once, we could enjoy the game and had some rest.

Koleq did not win of course. We sent 2 teams – the first team was made up mostly of Form 3s and the second team of Form 2s and Form 1s. Our first team could have made it to the second spot – they won against MC 2^nd team, STAR and SMK Hutan Melintang, but lost to both Clifford teams.

Clifford’s 1^st team was ranked top together with SMK Hutan Melintang, so it was understandable that we lost to Clifford; yet our boys were controlling the game and could have won against Clifford’s 2^nd team.

Perhaps their biggest achievement was defeating SMK Hutan Melintang – as koleq’s 1^st team was the only team in the tournament to defeat the Hilir Perak’s champion (they drew against Clifford 1^st and defeated Clifford 2^nd).

We concluded that the boys, as always, took too long to warm up. Their defeats to Clifford’s teams were their second and third game respectively and they were definitely still sleeping.

Despite all this, we were quite optimistic that the boys can be a major pretender to the SBP’s throne next year (at least for North Zone). But then again, we were almost too optimistic all the time as it was the only way to keep doing this after 3 years.

What made MDC09 most memorable was Koja’s presence. Koja (En Muzaffar Shah) was an old boy from Class of 81 and was a Perak champion for two times (1981 and 1982). He went to the States and came back to teach in MCKK from 1988 to 1994. He was MCKK’s coach in that period and was credited for the tagline “Rain Or Shine” that had become a permanent motto for the team (each day, he would write a notice at the foyer’s notice board to remind hockey players of the daily training; and that the boys must come down “rain or shine”).

Badut and Kalai managed to trace him down and we invited him as a guest of honour. He didn’t say it out loud, but I think he was really proud with what we were doing.

We spent a lot of time catching up and we updated him with what was going on in MCKK since we first got involved. Koja always took a deep interest in budak koleq’s affairs; in fact in our first year, the first political coup was instigated by him – so Koja and I went a long way back (ha ha).

We finished with a thrashing of the boys, at Mr Thaman’s request. He felt that we (the old boys) have more right to tell the boys off, so we agreed for a pep talk session. At the end of it, after one hour of Badut’s and my curses – it made him felt so bad that he gave the hampers we bought for him (and other coaches) to the boys ha ha.

I no longer think that MCKK will ever win any competition after this – even our hockey boys will not win a tournament; because winning would have been unfair to other schools and the respective teachers which put a lot more efforts and sweat and toil compared to their counterparts in MCKK.

But that does not kill the magical feeling of how Mighty Ducks has changed our lives – bringing together people from various races, backgrounds, beliefs, ages and nationalities for the love of a school and a game.

Rain or shine, it was simply magical!

HEADLINE

7 old boys from Class of 08 joined us – Ben, Abe, Acap, Anding, Hairy, Kay and Farid. Three (Ben, Abe & Acap) joined me and Pak Tuan in my car; whilst Anding and Kay were supposed to join Badut and Joe; and Hairy and Farid in Chibiok’s car.

“Badut, mana kau?”

“Aku kejap lagi tapi kau bawak dulu la diorang kita jumpa kat Rawang R&R”

Sejam kemudian

“Badut mana kau? Aku lama dah tunggu kau kat sini”

“Alamak aku dah lepas Rawang la, since kau dah jadi father figure budak2 tu”

Maka bermulalah kisah manja Abang Chibiok jadi baby-sitter kepada 4 orang super juniors, sambil bukak lagu lullaby yang digunakan untuk menidurkan anak2nya. Selain menjadi father figure, Abang Chibiok tidak mengecewakan reputasi balak idamannya – membeli NGA TA kepada jambu2 juniors.

Talking about jambu, Acap had the saddest and most frustrated look when we asked kenapa tak de orang nak layan kau as jambu? Seolah-olah dia nak jerit “why not me…”

Selepas berjam-jam menunggu Chibiok sampai sebab kitorang nak ligan rumah dia, kitorang give up and decided duduk kat Homestay di Bukit Chandan, nasib baik ada.

Bila Chibiok & jambus and Badut/Joe sampai, tak sempat pulak nak tido sebab banyak innuendos, especially bila Chibiok berkongsi air mattress dengan Badut.

“Chibiok, jangan lah bukak baju”

“Chibiok! Kau bukak seluar”

“Badut! Janganlah henjut”

Dan sebagainya sehingga ke larut pagi. Ada lah juga pengakuan2 yang mengejutkan seperti kisah berkongsi satu duvet dengan Fadli dan kejadian panas di kaki (tak payah lah dielaborate di sini) dan macam-macam lagi.

Kesimpulan yang dicapai pada malam itu (5 orang pak cik boroi share satu bilik) adalah:

1) Jangan bagi Epit arrange makan2 (ha ha)

2) Mungkin Mighty Ducks Cup jadi lancar sebab Epit tak de (ha ha)

Last-last sekali, sebelum semua orang balik lepas ambik gambar ramai2, Thorsten suruh kita paksa budak2 ni watch Might Ducks I for them to understand what we are doing.

Photos here

# posted by Noni Kapet : 10:45 PM  11 Comments

We (the Mighty Ducks madness – fathers, mothers, babies and including staunch supporters like Pejal and Aini) had a simple gathering to say good bye to KNO since he was leaving the country for at least a few years to a posting in Southern Asia.

I could not join in the planning from the beginning because the last few weeks had been very hectic; but we ended up in a restaurant in Subang.

In a way, the farewell dinner was a lot more meaningful than just a farewell for KNO.

Most of the Bapak and Mak Itiks were there – Mpro came all the way from Melaka. I can’t remember the last time we had had such a gathering, it has been really busy since the beginning of 2009 that we hardly had the time to catch up in spite of the time we spent together looking after the team.

So to see everyone including the wives was so good. I wanted to organise one during Ramadhan on my treat but never get around to doing it (so I guess they must have factored that in when they only brought only half the cash to pay for the food ha ha; leaving the rest to be topped up by a credit card!)

KNO’s departure also marks the first of the many after this.

We drew a very specific timeline for Mighty Ducks and 2010 stands prominently in the timeline and the many versions of exit strategies that we had. KNO has been instrumental from day one and there would not have been Mighty Ducks Project without KNO. In a way, Mighty Ducks without KNO will not be the same.

Personally, it is a series of pieces that are falling into places to mark our gradual withdrawal from MCKK.

We have done our time – no MCKK products before or after can question whether we had given back.

There are still some loose ends to tie for Mighty Ducks. After that, all of you can sleep well knowing I will not bug you for money or time or anything.

The boys are beyond us in the near future, it’s time that they pursue their own fate while we only watch from afar.

I hope – knowing this, KNO will not feel too bad not being around because a gradual withdrawal is not as exciting as pushing for acceptance in the early phase.

Good luck KNO and come back in one piece – rain or shine, we still need someone to print the certificates for future Mighty Ducks Cup.

FOOTNOTE

I selected the songs because some of the words bear crucial meaning, if only the boys care to decipher them.

“Memang ini jalanku, Ku kan tetap menyayangimu

Tapi cinta tak sekadar, Kata-kata indah”

The clip recounts the journey from 2007 – most of the kids had left the school since. History will judge them whether they will honour their promises. Ben (Class of 08) was the only beneficiary of the project who joined the farewell dinner last week.

# posted by Noni Kapet : 6:46 PM  4 Comments