Our last nationals

In the end we were only dream chasers.
Going after the ghost of our hopes and wishes.

Our last nationals ended in bitter disappointment..
we could have done better,
we could have won.
We could have broken the decade long deadlock and created a new legacy.

But with all the tears and pain, we really learned alot of things from this wonderful 3 weeks with the best team I've had.

I learned the difference a team could make. I learned the difference between complacency and hard work.
I've witnessed the fine line between victory and defeat.
I learned that there are much taller mountains than the ones I'm currently climbing.
I learned that tennis doesn't stop here, our team won't stop here. Hwa Chong tennis will not stop here.

Last year around this time, we also lost the decider against ACJC and crashed out of the quarter finals, obtaining a 5/6th position. But no one cried, everyone was okay with it. No one was particularly sad, everyone was totally fine with losing. Our defeat came as expected, to be honest.

What made a difference this year?

This year we had a genuine chance. We faced a team that we COULD and WOULD beat. We trained hard, harder than anytime before, and we were more than a match for our opponents.

But what was the biggest difference?

We wanted to win, not as individuals, but as a team. We wanted to win for each other.

We wanted to help each other break the decade long curse.

We wanted to leave a legacy.

We didn't want tennis to end.

We didn't want HC Tennis batch of 14' to end our season yet.

We didn't want to end our journey right here.

I guess many things could have happened differently. What if I played? What if our doubles was stronger? What if different pairs met each other?

What if..

What..

If..



But as we sat down and talked (or cried) about our season. Much more was learnt. We became very good friends with each other.
We really had a TEAM that we loved and wanted to fight for

We learnt to never give up, to fight for everything as hard as we can even when the odds were against us.

We learnt to never stop chasing dreams.

Maybe we were only dream chasers

but

We gave our juniors a reason to dream