Match vs British School

For our first official home game in 2 years, we hosted the British School of Colombo in front of an excited crowd. The game was quite all over the place, with goals being exchanged very frequently. We had many players available so I was only able to play for the 2nd third and half of the final third.

Iason Control – OSC, Sri Lanka – Credit: OSC Photography

By the end of the 1st third, the score was 2-2, with some dodgy defending and iffy passes allowing our opponents to get into the game. We came in the 2nd third raring to go, and managed to score a goal that I assisted. We followed up with another goal that I scored. However, defending was still shaky, and the 2nd third ended 4-4. We finally stepped it up in the final third, scoring two goals without response to settle for a 6-4 win. An interesting first home game for 2 years.

Celebrating a Goal – OSC, Sri Lanka – Credit: OSC Photography

Customizing Football Boots – Design 1: Hellas

As of recently, I took up a new hobby in the field of electronic designing. On the official Nike website, some items have the ability to be customized personally, so that colours and other aspects can be altered. I decided to start a new “mini-project” which was to customize football boots with a theme. So I would change the colours of boots depending on what I want to base it on. Here is my first creation:

HELLAS – Nike Website – Credit: Me

The very first design I made was based off the colours of the Greek national team. The boot itself is mainly navy blue, as blue is the national colour. But white is also prevalent in the team, hence the white tick mark. If you look closely enough you can also see a lighter blue as an underlay, which I put due to the numerous shades of blue that the national team has been seen to wear. Finally, the gold studs are meant to represent the culture of Greece, with Ichor (Gold) being the blood of the ancient Greek gods, and gold in general being crucial in Greek Mythology. So including that was a must in my opinion.

OSC Annual Homerun

After a 2 year gap of school events, the service group Housing and Habitat, organized OSC’s annual home run with help from my service group, Care for Paws. The home run is a 5km run/walk in which participants could bring their dogs and have a good or exhausting time. The map itself was around school, with some great routes and views available as well.

Homerun Map – Battaramulla, Sri Lanka – Credit: Yangki Dawa Sherpa

I helped to organize the numerous water stops that were scattered throughout the run and talked to some Housing and Habitat members to discuss the different aspects of it. However, I chose to participate in the run at the end, instead of staying at a water stop for my service.

Running a Race – Battaramulla, Sri Lanka – Credit: Robert Leblanc

During the run, I was trying my best to get a good time and possibly be one of the fastest to finish the race. It ended up being was pretty difficult in the sweltering heat and the occasional uphill circuits, but I managed to run it and was proud of myself. I ended up finishing in 2nd place exhausted and sweating, but the dip in the school pool more than made up for it.

Service Groups – Battaramulla. Sri Lanka – Credit: Robert Leblanc

RAISE Inter-School Futsal Tournament

On Saturday, April 2nd 2022, players from the football team met up at the Racecourse ground to get ready for the annual RAISE Inter-School Futsal Tournament. We were split into u16s and u20s with each team having their separate tournament bracket. We started off the tournament with a game against Hejaaz International School. The game started off well for us, as we played a passing game and dominated possession-wise. Even better was our defence lead by Kaalep that did not give their attack any opportunities. Our persistence in attack lead to us getting some well deserved goals and we left the match with a comfortable win 3-0 win.

Orange Iason With Ball – Racecourse Ground, Sri Lanka – Credit: Trainocate

However, there was one big problem which was an extremely unfortunate incident that left our main and only defender Kaalep injured and out of the tournament. This was really unlucky since we had no other defenders and would be forced to play midfielders and attackers in that position. We continued hopeful nonetheless but fell short in our game against Jade International School in the quarter-finals. We were disappointed but stayed to cheer our juniors who were absolutely dominant and ended up winning their tournament. Despite the loss I am excited for the games we have to come so that we can end the year with some solid victories.

OSC Team – Racecourse Ground, Sri lanka – Credit: Trainocate

Training with Sri Lanka’s Best Player

On November 13th, 2021, I had the absolute pleasure to train with one of the only Sri Lankan professional football players, Waseem Razeek. It was a combined session with me, my coach, Mr. Razeek, and a few fellow players from TAFA. During the session we worked on different areas of the game. First was footwork and passing, where we broke a sweat moving the ball as a group. By analyzing Razeek, I noticed that he was barely sweating by the end which was because he made no unnecessary movements, nothing extra, just enough to get the job done. After that was shooting drills. The difference in our level was really shown here, where Razeek was consistently hitting the target and scoring, whilst we were less consistent. A proud moment for me was when it came to weak foot shooting, in which I performed almost as good if not better than Waseem. This is because becoming better with my left foot is something that I have been working on a lot since I play the position of left-winger on the pitch. We ended the session with dribbling drills and this is where Razeek really showed why he was a professional. The ball stuck to him like glue when dribbling, really showing his ball mastery. It was clear that he was levels beyond any of us when it came to “knowing the ball”.

I learnt a lot from this session and am inspired to work on different areas of my game to improve. One key area is ball mastery and agility. In the future I am planning on purchasing agility ladders and cones so that I can really master my footwork and get to know the ball better (in terms of ball mastery and control).

Waseem Razeek – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Credit: ThePapare

Basketball at CLC

On the 12th of February, I played basketball with some friends at a court named CLC. It was one of the first times that we managed to play full-court instead of half-court. This demanded a lot more stamina which resulted in a good workout. I played decently, managing to get rebounds and layups, with my shooting not being very good. Overall it was a great experience that I hope to repeat as it provided us with entertainment and fun as well as a good test of fitness.

Iason Being Guarded – CLC, Colombo – Credit: Nik

1st Lions Game

I was able to play my first match after a long time out! The team I played for was the adult team Lions FC and we had a dominant game, beating our opponents 6-0. To top it off, I was able to get a debut goal, a left foot shot in the bottom right of the goal that I has happy with. I wasn’t able to get a whole lot of play time since it was my first game for the team, but I did pretty well in the left-wing of our attack. I used my speed well against a slow full back and had an overall satisfying game. Honestly, just being able to play in a game after so long felt great, and I can’t wait for more to come!

Sam, Iason & Ruben – Moragasmulla, Colombo – Credit: Coach Eddie

Care For Paws Sterilization Camp 2022

On Sunday the 6th of March 2022, we (the service group “Care for Paws”), successfully held our (supposed to be) annual Sterilization Camp. The camp took place from 7:30 a.m to 4:00 p.m in the Sri Lanka Army Headquarters, Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte. A total of 36 dogs were sterilized with 3 treated for ttbt. There was even an unexpected parturition of 3 puppies, all of whom were healthy and well by the end of the day!

The event was an incredible success and helped us get right back into what they love doing after a long blank few years.

Iason & Puppy – Army HQ, Battaramulla – Credit: Elissa Francemone

The main purpose our service group is to raise funds over the year through events such as bake sales and other fundraisers in order to achieve the end of the year goal: holding an annual sterilization camp for street dogs in Sri Lanka.

Sterilization is an extremely important way to counter the ever-increasing growth of street dog population in the country. In the past, the government was forced to tackle these population issues by “putting down” street dogs all over Sri Lanka. As a service group that aims to better the welfare of animals in the country, this is an issue that Care for Paws aims to fight. We do this through our sterilization camps, where treated dogs will get marked on their ears to show that these animals have been sterilized. This method has been extremely successful to both reduce street dog death as well as to reduce the overall dog population that was so problematic in the past. And all of that doesn’t even include the health benefits that sterilization brings to dogs, preventing diseases such as testicular cancer and prostate problems.

I personally enjoyed the event a lot and it felt good to spend a day helping our local community in great ways. I was also asked to write an article about the event, which I thought would be great considering I could base my CAS blog as well as the article on the same thing I write. Here is a link to the article on the school’s weekly newsletter: https://sites.google.com/osc.lk/osc-newsletter-21-22-issue23/co-curricular-activities?authuser=0

Trapped with the Dogs – Army HQ, Bataramulla – Credit: Mali

FIBA 3X3 Tournament

As many of us left for the long weekend, either to the beaches of Sri Lanka or to the mountainsides, the few of us that remained decided to do something interesting during out long weekend. On January 16, 2022, Me, and three other friends signed up to participate in a 3v3 basketball tournament, officially hosted by FIBA. It was an extremely long and tough tournament, but unbelievably fun as well. We played 4 games in the group stage, with out first game being at 2:30 p.m., and our last group game being at around 7:30 p.m..

In our first game, which coincidentally was the first game of the entire tournament, we were comfortable victors, beating our opponents 7-3. Our mood was high and confident, but the fact that we needed to wait another 2 hours before our next game was quite frustrating. After the wait, we were pumped and ready to go, sure of ourselves and thinking that we could follow up with another win. At the time however, we didn’t know that the team we were about to play was one of the top teams in the tournament. Overconfidence may have played a part, as we were beaten 8-5.

At that point, our confidence fell pretty drastically, not only because we lost, but also because we needed to do something very hard to advance, we would need to win both of our next 2 games. So, after 1 hour of wait, we tried to hype ourselves up and walked into the court to play the game. I don’t know what happened that changed, but we were excellent that game, and demolished our opponents 8-2. Some great rebounding and excellent defense helped in the win. With confidence renewed, and our last game starting in less than 30 minutes, we were ready to play to advance. And advance we did, playing a relentlessly touch game that we one due to incredible defense all around. The final score was 6-4 and we couldn’t be happier. We had advanced to the quarter-finals of the tournament.

Our knockout game was the first one and it was challenging to say the least. We were up against absolute giants, with the tallest of us not being near the shortest of them. Despite this, we went full out and tried to do everything we can. The beginning of the game went our favor, and at one point we were even winning 3-0. However, as time continued, it became clear that size was an indisputably important factor. We were losing every rebound and couldn’t get the ball back. It didn’t help that the team we played had the best defense we saw in the tournament so far. The game finished 7-5 and we had no regrets. Obviously it would have been nicer to go further in the tournament, but, all considering, we played some great basketball and did well as a team, ending up all the way in the Quarter-Finals. It was extremely fun.

FIBA 3X3 – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Credit: Niklas Olegaard

Shoe Drive/Donation

I was informed on one particular day, after I had finished a football session with my coach, that there was a football boot/shoe donation that he was organizing in order to get many football-playing kids across Sri Lanka better equipped to play the game. I was instantly interested in the idea, firstly because it would be a great thing to participate in since I believe that football is a sport that should be accessible for all, and also due to the fact that I had a few spare boots which I outgrew over time.

So without hesitation, I brought my old boots in our next session and bid them a quiet farewell as I gave them to my Coach.

Iason’s Old Boots – Colombo, Sri Lanka – Credit: Iason Petridis