This year’s SAISA Boys Volleyball tournament was hosted at our school, The Overseas School of Colombo. The competition is a day tournament with the first two days being the qualifying rounds and then the final day was the placement day, so see where each school ranked. Ten different schools participated in SAISA, and from these ten schools, there were six different countries; India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Jordan, Oman, and Pakistan. As the host school and team going into the tournament our team knew we would have a home-court advantage on top of our highly skilled squad.

Although our team was strong, we still lacked experience so a tournament this size for most of our team was a new experience for many. Many of our players on this team only have 2-3 years of volleyball experience or less. As the captain of the team, I worked hard to keep the team morale and confidence going into and throughout the tournament. As the raining champions, we were aware of our skill level, and what we could achieve as a team so we went into the tournament confidently. That was a good mentality to have going into the tournament, our team breezed through the first day of competition, making some mistakes and a few close sets, but winning both games against schools from Nepal and India. I believe our team was nervous which was expected and made us make those mistakes, however, the home crowd helped cheer us on no matter the circumstances in the games.

As the second day came around, we had developed fully into our potential to win both games again, to make it into the semi-finals. Finally, the awaited day came around, semis and finals day. We knew that the competition had improved from last year, and it would be tough, but our team never doubted ourselves and I kept the encouragement and energy high as long as many of my other teammates and friends. We had a close semi-final game but came out victorious, winning both sets again. Then there was the finals. I think our team was most nervous for this game, which is to be expected. It was our first time playing the team in the tournament, and in the finals, so it was hard to expect what we were facing, but from watching the Oman team play we had some ideas. Our nervousness came into effect and we lost our first set of the tournament in the second set of the finals, after winning the first set. The score was 1-1, and it was first to 3. We made a mental switch after this set. Our team went into full action once again and won the third and fourth set to become SAISA Champions. I can say that the feeling of winning has not changed since last year, and in front of the home crowd made it even more enjoyable. To share this win with the whole OSC community was amazing and I am grateful for their support and cheer throughout the tournament.