Alhamdulillah, it has been a successful five years since we started our Quest-4-Glory project in August 2003.  We started without any knowledge of the basketball level of PHT and with only semifinal being the target for the first year.  The Cagers have never failed to qualify to the National semifinal until 1995.  The following years, the Cagers struggled to maintain their excellent records and even didn't qualify to the National level.

Cagers 2004 proved they had the ability, big hearts and will power to become the Champion again, in which they did albeit luckily by 3 points.  It was tough for them, initially, to adjust to the tough physical training done by the coach.  It was well worth it when they outran and outlasted all their opponents and laid down the standards for the future Cagers to follow.

Cagers 2005 were given all the exposure needed by playing games in Penang, Cameron Highlands and Sitiawan.  They proved their ability by winning to win the KK Open, Sg Siput Open and the PHT.  In the PHT, they proved their superiority by winning most of the games handily.
 
Cagers 2006 were not as well exposed as the Cagers 2005, however, they had Alep as the Captain.  Alep, with his Agong's Cup experience, led the way with the support from Qassim, Hazwan and Nash to create a new record of the biggest winning margin in the final; 44 points (smashing the 1981 record!).
 
Cagers 2007 didn't have any superstar among them but as a team they were unstoppable.  The opponent tried to stop one or two players but the plan backfired as other players took over.  As a result, Cagers 2007 created a record of having scored 103 points in the final game (the most in a final game). They showed they were in different league than the teams in PHT finals.

 
Cagers 2008 is Quest-4-Glory's first fully trained team from Form One.  They were exposed early in the proper basics of basketball.  Thus this is the best team we had in Quest-4-Glory.  However, three main players were injured before the tournament and it affected the team build-up.  We had to restructure the team to accommodate the injuries.  The injured players managed to recover and play during the tournament but their fitness and teamwork were affected.  The team played to only 70% of their abilities but they still managed to win by more than 20 points average.  They won our fifth Piala Hamdan Tahir championships in a row and 13th overall.

One worrying trend from all the successes of the Cagers in PHT.  Other schools were getting exasperated by being overwhelmed by the Cagers thus they resorted to more physical and rough plays to intimidate and disturb the Cagers.  The future Cagers has to be trained to control their emotions on the court and concentrate on their games.  Other schools began to follow Quest-4-Glory.  The respective alumni associations began getting involved in preparing their school teams to challenge the Cagers' supremacy.  The future challenge will be tougher for the Cagers to maintain their position.

With the 5-in-a-row championships, Quest-4-Glory has come to the end.  It has been a wonderful journey, eventhough it was rough in the early years.  The support from the oldboys, especially the old cagers, has been tremendous.  The back up and support from MCOBA came at the right moment helping us diffused the tense situations faced with College in the early years.  Thank you YM Pak Engku, YBhg. TS Mac and JakLi for your continuous support  The PIBG supported our programs for the juniors.  We would like to take this opportunity to thank EVERYBODY who has given their supports; financially, morally etc.  You all make the journey bearable and the experience priceless. THANK YOU


Quest - 4 - Glory team

Riza Beg v 76 - President

Mr. Liew Yong Choon 74 - 93; 03 - current - Coach

Jimmy v 91 - team manager

ise v 80 - Coordinator

written by Ise.

Related News: 35th HKSBP in SM Sultan Abdul Halim, Jitra, Kedah

Comments (2)

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congratulation to cagers...
as a young oldboy, I am always keep in touch with the PPM team and always pray they will bring something to make us proud. But I'm wonder what had happened to the debaters team? I thought the last time they won the trophy was about 10 years ago during the year 1999. The BM debating team was great at that time, I could saw how their work without relying on every single thing from the oldboys. But, nowadays the debating team seems to be focusing more on UIA Challenge Trophy more that their initial target which I think still the PPM trophy. Have they lost their own dream to be the best among SBP and doing something that they surely could easily targeting? they have been trained and coached by Rafizi and Allahyarham Benan since form 1 but still like a high of mountain to won the trophy? What will happen then if the oldboys leave them next year and make them survive on their own? will they still alive in the worst hardening jungle?

pena tumpul , September 25, 2008

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Adik Pena Tumpul,

Our response:

1) In terms of the size, difficulty to win and the true test of a debater's capability and intelligence - UIA is a more superior tournament than PPM. It is bigger, the topic is broader and more complicated, it's impromptu without any assistance from the coaches.

2) While PPM might still be the so-called Holy Grail of the debating tournament in Malaysia, of late one begins to wonder (or even question) the quality.

3) Debating is a subjective thing - a really intelligent debater can easily lose simply because the adjudicators actually don't understand what he's talking about; or a bad performance is rated good if it's to the liking of the adjudicators. It's a matter of personal taste and own intelligence on the part of the adjudicators.

4) Given this backdrop, what we can do as coaches and debaters is to ensure the quality of our debaters is maintained, regardless of how the personal taste and intelligence of the adjudicators change over time.

5) Our objective is a long term one - PPM or any championship is not the be or end of everything; our fruits of labour is in the manner our debaters grow up and contribute back to the society.

6) Therefore what we concentrate is always on the debaters' maturity, intelligence, leadership and versatility. Winning a tournament is a bonus to us, not the main objective. These (and not a PPM trophy) will carry them through in life (and hopefully with them MCKK too).

7) I think the Debating Team takes comfort that for the last 5 years, debaters continue to play instrumental role in the life of MCKK - they are either Carey or Hassanol Bolkiah Award Winners, Headboys or KPKM top ranks. They become the public face of MCKK and usually at the forefront of the events organised by MCKK, including the recently concluded Youth Leadership Summit.

As much as I understand the anxiety and frustration each year when we crash at PPM - we (the coaches) never trained or taught them from Form 1 (as you pointed out) to win PPM or any tournament. They are supposed to do justice to the talent that Allah has given to them; so they should be judged against that.

9) As the older generation of coaches withdraw, I am more than confident that they will be fine with the junior coaches and themselves.

10) As for PPM - nothing is permanent in this world; a competition too needs to retain some level of credibility if it's to continue to be regarded as the Holy Grail.

11) Sorry to Cagers for hijacking the thread.

Rafizi Ramli , September 26, 2008

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