KUCHING: It was a trip out of the blue — an unknown and unexplored destination when Sarawak Hockey Association (SHA) president Datin Mary Saadiah suggested to head coach C. Sivasubramaniam to go to Long Lama.
Long Lama is almost unknown on the map but Sivasubramaniam with trepidation took up the trip to Baram and his trip to unearth talents from the grassroots paid dividends.
Sivasubramaniam was in for a big surprise when he saw the place and the enthusiasm of the students in their ability to pick up hockey, which was an entirely new game to them.
Apart from SMK Long Lama, Sivasubramaniam and his team of coaches and an MSNS sports official visited SJKC Kee Tee, a Chinese primary school, and SK Ubang Imang.
The trip to Long Lama, an outpost rural town in Baram, was a two-and-a-half-hour drive by four-wheel drive from Miri and cross the river by ferry.
At SJKC Kee Tee, there was another eye-opener – this time the students were all Chinese and it was the first time that a Chinese school had ever taken up hockey in its school curricular.
A total of 64 students and six teachers from the three schools attended the hockey clinic where the students were taught the basics such as pushing, receiving hits, Indian dribble, slap shots, close hit, jinking, overhead flick and gameplay.
Another surprise to Sivasubramaniam was a big number of 15 opted for the goalkeeper clinic.
The participants who took up the course had grasped the fundamentals of goalkeeping after just three days.
“The trip came about when president Datin Mary Sadiah mooted the idea of the trip to Long Lama.
“I’ve done developments in Kapit, Kanowit, Julau, Song, Mukah, Pakan but never been to Long Lama and our next trip is Kanowit followed by Belaga or Miri as there are many requests from the schools for us to go there.
“It is aimed at reaching out to the interior like Long Lama areas of the Kayans, Kenyahs, which are the Orang Ulus,” said Sivasubramaniam.
“I had trepidation when I heard the place Long Lama which I’ve never heard of in terms of the hockey map and I’d never set foot on.
“But to my big surprise, the trip was an eye-opener as the players were very disciplined, very focused and they seemed to have an inborn talent even though they had never played hockey before.
“They are very quiet but they picked up the basics very fast,” he enthused.
“The facilities could have been better as the basketball court in Long Lama was not conducive so we moved to SJKC Kee Tee, which is better.
“The hockey association gave them 25 hockey sticks, 30 balls and other equipment to help them in the programme.
“I’m sure we can find another Fazillah (Sylvester, a national hockey player from Mukah) or Dangerouslee (former national and now coach with the Sarawak men’s team) if they continue to strive at the game,” he elaborated.
“At the end of the day after the trip, we were very happy as we have reached out to another frontier in Sarawak to bring hockey development among the grassroots,” said Sivasubramaniam, who will be making a return trip in six months’ time as a follow-up.
Among the members who made the trip with Sivasubramaniam were women’s coach Janet Kadir, who is a warden at SMK Long Lama, and also a coach who set up the contact for the trip there.
The other coaches were S. Sakrunathan, Dangerouslee Matthew, MSNS coaches Pamela Tia (goalkeeping), Beatrice Sawing and MSNS sports coordinator for hockey Jolene Leong.
