When some people are asked this question, they respond meekly and softly with the name of their school if it's some neighbourhood school or some relatively unknown school. Those from more prestigious schools like raffles, hwa chong, tend to declare it abit louder.
For me, I have always announced my school proudly; my only school for the 12 years of my education thus far - St Andrew's :)
I don't know why, but I am just proud to be from SA. It could be the school spirit that is undeniably omnipresent in the school, continually instilled by members of faculty. It could be the unity that the school tries to foster, by making students go down to watch sports finals. It could be the pride of being called 'Saints'. I don't know. I just love it.
And one favourite tradition of the school has always been Rugby. We take great pride in being good at it, and as such always want to win. Throughout my term in SAS, rugby has been strongly emphasized and the school is always called down to watch the finals (yes, it's practically a yearly thing)
Oh yea, our yearly opponent is always the same too. ACS(I). It becomes a pretty intense rivalry, given you face the same opponent year in year out.
Some years we win, some years we lose. I still remember in my Sec 1 year, we got whipped pretty bad, so bad it made the Straits Times. 83-0 was the scoreline i believe. 'Record thrashing in Rugby Finals' or something were the headlines. Most lopsided scoreline in the HISTORY of the finals.
I remember watching the game - the ACS(I) guys were just far superior - it was 'C' Div (sec 1 and 2 kids) and while the SA guys were normal sized, the ACS guys were all like with 16year old bodies. I'm serious. And they were skilled too.
Anyway, the rivalry of ACS and SA has made it to the papers again. This time, freaking HEADLINES of straits times. wow.
Rugby Free-for-All
(photo taken from Straits Times)
Staff, students and supporters of St Andrew's Secondary School and Anglo-Chinese School (Independent) rushed onto the Old Police Academy pitch when a fight broke out between the teams after the Schools National Under-17 Police Cup Final, which ACS(I) won 8-7. ACS(I) player Leonard Wee was injured int the mouth and taken to the hospital. Two of his schoolmates were allegedly assaulted by a nearby bus stop after the match and one suffered a broken nose. ACS(I) sports secretary Chan Chee Wei said the boys' parents have made police reports.
How dramatic. Even back then when we were totally whipped with a record breaking scoreline, there wasn't any pushing or shoving after the game. As the old adage goes : "Football(soccer) is a gentlemen's game played by thugs and rugby is a thug's game played by gentlemen".
Pretty exciting huh, free for all after the game. Apparently if members of staff and such didn't step in to break apart the two schools, it would have turned out to be an all out melee. THAT would have made headlines for consecutive days.
It's quite ridiculous how ACS were made to seem like the victim here. Oh, only the ACS guy got injured, ACS boys got assaulted, must be the scums from SA who attacked him, oh, they punched that fella in the face, how bad.
I mean, i'm sure there are people from SA who have sustained some injuries too, just not as severe as the ACS kid i guess. Or maybe the reporter is just some old ACS kid ("ACS remained the dominant side for most of the first half... ") who collects injury reports from the ACS side.
Who knows.
Although I'm abit disheartened by such negative media about my alma matter, I'm still a Saint, and i still support St Andrew's. Up and on!
(guh such a cheesy typical ending)
