SAISA Basketball Kathmandu

This SAISA was by far one of the most important I have played in at OSC. It was the strongest our team has ever been, certainly since I have been at the school. After 6 long weeks of practice we went to the competition with higher expectations than I have ever had for a result at SAISA. We knew it was our year. Our chance to place in the top four, THE TOP TWO!
Going to Nepal also played on our minds, it is without a doubt the most amazing venue for SAISA. We had persevered as a team for 2 years, and we felt it was our time. We would be gone for a week in total.

When we arrived, adrenaline was high not only were we excited to be in Nepal, but excited to show off our newly learned skills and development as a team. It helped that this year was our second year as a team, and much the same for many other teams. It meant we had friends in other teams from 2 or 3 years of playing together, which made the experience much more social. The games began and we played our first match against the Delhi Falcons and held them up until half time with a strong lead. After half time the story was a little different they faught back hard and went on to win by two baskets, at this point the delhi coach announced he would see us in the finals :)

Our second game was against Lincoln, we played again a hard game and held them the entire first half but the story was the same as in our first match. We lost by 3 baskets, in the last 3 minutes. Lincoln would go on to win the championships.

We knew in order to have the opportunity of making the top four we would have to win the next game against Chennai, and we succeeded in doing so. Next up was Lahore, with an incredibly worrying and shaky start we went on to win the match but not by nearly enough.

Our semi- final game was against Dhaka late in the evening. It's one of those things that isn't very easy to write about. One of those times when you would really rather not remember anything. We were winning, our dreams of coming in the top four were there. There were 3 minutes to go, we were three baskets ahead. Then it all went wrong. No matter what we did, we could not get the baskets in. At all. They ended up winning by one basket in the last 20 seconds. Without a doubt that was the saddest moment from all the 6 SAISA's i have taken part in. No doubt about it. For our team the competition ended there. WE lost our next match against Chennai, to finish 6th overall.

In need of some serious therapy for the most part(!) we spent the next three days out of Kathmandu and up in the mountains. It was an amazing experience. Especially for my photography, we watched both the sun rise and sun set over the himalayas. We stayed in a very small farmhouse clinging onto the side of a mountain. We woke up for a sunrise hike, and then hiked down the mountain to a bus and then to the airport. The three days were surreal.

I think the main thing I learnt from this experience, is how to persevere. Its a skill our team lacked, we were capable of gaining a lead but not of persevering and maintaining it until the very end. It wasnt our lack of skill but our lack of mental strenght as a whole. Next year there are only 2 definate returning members of the team. Me and May. Hosted at OSC we wont have the same chance, with such a new team, but we will have the mental strenght the memories of the worst loss to drive us. Something i think next years team can feed off.