CAS for the month of February

February was all about football and the SAISA football tournament in the beginning and after that was finished there was the OSCars's as well as the drama performance's of the Grade 12 drama students. I was a part of both these events.

Community Service 
Being made the leader of my community service group, i went ahead and invited my friends to join our cause and got around 3-4 new people to join. We spoke to our community service coordinator and were able to make Rasmus a co-leader to help me in leading our community service group. As my first job as leader i went to the hospital where the operations were conducted and met the affected children and the doctor who takes care of them. The doctor who performs the operations flies in every year to perform these operations. I was made aware of exactly what the problems related to this illness are and how much money each operation costs etc. This gave me an idea of what kind of fundraiser we had to plan to get the money required. After this trip, the rest of February was spent planning a fundraising party during our community service hours after school.

SAISA Boys Football Tournament 2011
Goals set before the tournament:
1) To be a team player in every match
2) To help my team to victory in at least a few matches
3) To play any position i was required to play by my coaches
4) Score 3 or more goals in practice matches and the tournament
5) Try and score a hat-trick (3 goals) in a single game
6) Not miss a single practice or practice match.

Point number 5 has been my dream my whole footballing career ever since the beginning but i had not been able to complete it before due to lack of skill and playing the position of a defender.
The first two weeks of February was the time for our intense training and teamwork building. Our coaches pushed us hard and organized a lot of football matches to help us get ready for the tournament. Our first practice match was nerve racking as i had a sick feeling that i would not perform well but i surprised myself. I played hard for the first ten to fifteen minutes and was rewarded with my first goal for the team which took a load of pressure off of me. At this point i was playing a central attacking midfield position which i had been assigned by my coach. After a lot of practice matches we were finally ready to leave for our tournament in Dhaka. I was very happy with my performance  in these matches and felt like i was ready for the tournament because i had shown perseverance and commitment  in every match and had scored an average of 2-3 goals in each match.

The first day of the tournament, we reached excited but also slightly disheartened because a few days before we left for the tournament our 16 man team was reduced to 12 players.Which meant that we would have only one substitute and a lot of our main team players would not be playing. We mentally prepared for an exhausting tournament but we were still excited to see how far we would get. A top-three position looked virtually impossible at this stage but we got together as a team and decided to give it our best shot.
Our first day turned out to bring us great hope and joy as we managed to win both our matches! Our first match was against the American School of Bombay. This match gave us the kickstart we needed because a few minutes after the start of the match we went a goal down and were forced to play on the back foot. Or so the other team thought. Even though we were one goal down we fought back hard and we equalized in a couple of minutes. We fought strong and hard throughout the match to win the game 3-1. This match was a great morale booster for the team and especially for me because i managed to complete a lot of my set goals in this match and reduced the pressure on myself. I scored all three goals in this game and gained a lot of respect from my teammates while also finally achieving my dream of scoring a hat-trick. I was committed  to my objectives throughout the match and managed to develop my skills as a striker rather than a defender which is the position i had always wanted to play. As a team we undertook the challenge of playing with less players and worked collaboratively with each other to win the game.

The second match was similar but having just one substitute in the first match was already starting to take its toll on everyone we took a good lead by some spectacular goals from different players. We were 3-0 up but soon into the second half i got a very bad cramp and had to be carried off the field. The coach told me that i did a good job of assisting players even though i had not scored but i was not satisfied with my performance. After a while the pain from my cramp started fading so i asked our coach to let me go on the field again. At this point the game was turning for our opposition as they were making a comeback. The score was now 3-2 and i was sent on in the last ten minutes. I managed to do myself proud by scoring a goal in the closing moments of the game to guarantee our team the victory and finally relieve the tension. It was my fourth goal of the day and i had managed to achieve almost every single goal i had set before we came to the tournament.
But i hadnt realized that the day had done a lot of harm to me. I was exhausted and thought that i would be fine the next day.
The next day turned out to be a great disappointment after a good start. All of us were undoubtedly very tired and sore but we played like a true team again the tournament favorites, the American Embassy School of Delhi. We played our hearts out in this match and where in the lead from the first few minutes because of moment of brilliance from our team captain and an amazing free-kick. AES managed to get a goal back and the game was a stalemate at 1-1 for a while. Then tragedy struck our team once more as one of our first team players got severely injured and we were reduced to 11 men. Which meant no substitutes or rest for a team running only on fumes and teamwork now. We managed to show our perseverance and commitment by completely frustrating our opposition and holding them to a draw till the very end. We were very happy with the result because we had done what no other team could. Our next match was against the hosts and this is where us having no substitutes and being exhausted started to take its toll on our efforts. We tried really hard but there were many injuries sustained by most of us so we could
 not give our 100% even though we tried. We were still committed to playing hard as this was an all or nothing match. The winner of this match would go through and the loser would get knocked out and would have to play for the positions from 5-8. I played as hard as i could but i had a lot of little injuries that prevented me from playing at my best. I was also heavily man-marked due to my performance on the previous day and was therefore unable to contribute much other than just pulling defenders away and allowing other teammates to attack which i did to the best of my ability.

We fought long and hard till the end but fate was not on our side. In the last 6 minutes of the game we lost the lead for the first time in the whole game and that was the end for us. I was extremely saddened and tired and when i saw them score the last goal against us i could do nothing more other than just collapse. Though i was saddened i continued playing till the final whistle. All of us were disappointed but were also proud of ourselves for having put up such a fight even though we were reduced to 11 men.We just told ourselves that this wasn't our year but next year we are going to take the cup! and that's exactly what we plan on doing in the next tournament.

The next day was a total disappointment.Everyone was exhausted and mostly injured and no one had any fight left in them at all. We lost both our matches by narrow margins and ended up 8Th in the tournament. We were not particularly proud of our position but we were proud of the fact that we gave it our all and gave every team a fight to the finish. Our team was called the "iron men" because of our circumstances which made us feel proud.
All in all i achieved all my goals that i had set for this tournament and even got to play in a few different positions.I also won the "Most spirited athlete" of the season award which shows that i worked collaboratively and showed perseverance and commitment.

Creativity
February was a CAS filled month so obviously there was a lot of 'C' which stands for creativity. There were two performances that i was a part of . One was playing the guitar at the OSCar's and the other was being the lead actor as well as assisting in the direction and writing of a drama production.

The OSCar's:

At the OSCar's Camie and i worked collaboratively again as we had done on week without walls to decide a song and practice after school and during free periods in school. We also had toni join to sing parts of the song. Again i improvised a solo on stage which is something i have developed as a skill in recent months and am now quite comfortable with.

We played the song "Hey, Soul Sister" by Train and the performance went quite smoothly with no real problems. The only reason i could actually improvise a solo on stage was because of long hours of practice and commitment to my guitar.

 12th Grade Drama Production: 
For the productions Fillipo asked me to be a part of of his play. When i got to the first practice is when i realized that we had to start from scratch and create our own script. So we decided to do a silent comedy with miming. We met for many practices and made changes to the script many times. I helped write,direct and also acted in the play all of which were new experiences for me as my only past performance experience in drama was years ago. We practiced hard and made changes till the last minute but we managed to pull it off in the end and the crowd loved us. It was because we were dedicated and committed  to putting on a great show. We were asked for an encore performance for an assembly the next week which the whole school could watch. Many of my classmates congratulated me on a great performance which made me believe that i did have some aptitude for drama and theater. The following are a few pictures of the the first performance:

February was another month that helped me achieve a lot of the CAS criteria:
1)Increased their awareness of their own strengths and areas for growth: Guitar and drama performances, Football etc.
2) Undertaken new challenges: First time directing and performing silent theater, first time as a leader for a community service project.
3) Planned and initiated activities: Drama rehearsals etc., Football training activities.
4)Worked collaboratively with others: Worked as a team for the performances and as a core part of the football team.
5)Shown perseverance and commitment in their activities: Football training and "never say die" attitude in matches, attended all rehearsals and trainings.
6)Develop New skills : In Theater and music as well as football.