Malaysian Team's Cross-Canada Game Demonstrations Tour

NOVEMBER, 2007: SOME OF THE WORLD'S BEST SEPAK TAKRAW PLAYERS CAME TO CANADA TO SHOW HOW ITS DONE! CHECK OUT THE PICTURE GALLERIES TO SEE AWESOME PHOTOS OF THE MALAYSIAN NATIONAL TEAM'S PUBLIC GAME DEMONSTRATION EVENTS THAT OCCURED IN 7 CITIES ACROSS CANADA IN NOV. '07, CLICK HERE

The Malaysian Sepaktakraw Association (PSM) and the Sepak Takraw Association of Canada (STAC), together with its partner organizations, cooperated in a joint effort to bring two regus (teams) and four officials from Malaysia to Canada to conduct 13 Exhibition Matches in schools and public events in five cities across the country in front of an accumulated 4,000 screaming spectators. Those lucky cities were Calgary, Regina, Moose Jaw, Winnipeg and Toronto. Included here are some incredible pictures of these exciting events, organized by city.

In Calgary it was the Malaysian, Singaporean, Bruneian Calgary Association (MSBCA) as well as the Calgary Lao Sepak Takraw Club that helped to organize the logistics of hosting 10 Malaysians plus Rick Engel, President of STAC, who accompanied the delegation in the cross-country tour. Among many other things, Rick served as a live commentator at all of the Exhibition Matches, which helped to make them informative as well as even more exciting. Besides playing in front of hundreds of screaming students – 1600 spectators at BISHOP O' BYRNE HIGH SCHOOL alone, another 400 at CALGARY CHRISTIAN SCHOOL and 150 in the public event held in the CHINESE CULTURAL CENTER - the highlight for the Malaysian teams was going out to Banff for the day on Nov. 7 where they got to ride up the Banff Gondola and walked to the top of mountain … all of them seeing snow for the first time. They quickly learned how fun it was to make balls out of the snow and throw them at each other, ha, ha.

For Regina Lighthouse to all Nations Church, Asian Sport Education & Culture (ASEC) International, and the University of Regina Sepak Takraw Club were the ones that pitched in to help in Regina and Moose Jaw. A CUPE strike just before the Regina Events took place forced moving the venue for the Public Demonstration Event from the university to a high school, which unfortunately resulted in loosing many would-be spectators … this was very unfortunate. On the positive side though, things went very well for the two high school demo events at THOM COLLEGIATE and WESTERN CHRISTIAN COLLEGE HIGH SCHOOL, with over 500 students attending. As well, the Regina program has now turned into a 7-team competative league, playing & practicing Tuesdays, 8:30 - 10:30 p.m. at Western Christian College and Saturdays, 5:00 - 7:00 p.m. at the U of R Gym 2.

We were happy to be able to have two Demonstration Events in Moose Jaw high schools, VANIER and CENTRAL COLLEGIATE; Moose Jaw being just a 45 minute drive from Regina. I think Central Collegiate wins the “Most Enthusiastic Spectators” award (if there was one, that is). And now there is a brand new Sepak Takraw program running at the Moose Jaw YMCA, every Sunday 2:30 - 4:15 p.m. Way to go Moose Jaw!

Asian Heritage Manitoba and the Lao Catholic Sepak Takraw Club were wonderful hosts in Winnipeg, taking the group to The Forks then putting on a great dinner at Dr. Muni’s house, president of Asian Heritage Manitoba … her whole family was involved, a special thank you goes out to her husband, Dr. Suresh, for also being the photographer and providing some of our best pictures of the Demonstration Matches. Seven students from the University of Manitoba showed up at the Exhibition Match and are already taking steps to start a U of M Sepak Takraw Club! A current program runs every Friday night at Marion School, 8:00 - 9:45 p.m.

The 1st demonstration in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) took place in the beautiful new MAGNA Centre Gymnasium in Newmarket, where the Mayor came to speak briefly, welcoming the Malaysian team and thanking them for coming. The MAGNA Centre is very excited about Sepak Takraw and has committed to allowing space in their schedule for a Sepak Takraw Program in the near future!

The 2nd demonstration in the GTA took place in the Dennis R. Trimble Centre in Toronto. They are also very excited about this sport and have scheduled a new Sepak Takraw Program to begin in their facility in the near future.

The GTA wins the “Largest Network of Partners” award, with Dave Carnaffan, Rizan Ahamat and Doug Wiebe from the STAC Committee there doing an outstanding job of organizing and recruiting a great team that all pitched in to help in the more complicated hosting logistics involved with such a big area (including 3 cities). Kampong Ku Radio hosted a wonderful lunch for the delegation immediately upon arrival to Toronto, which was followed by two public demonstrations then a Welcome Dinner hosted by the Sri Lanka Malay Association of Toronto - a fitting celebratory evening to a busy day. UMNO Club of Canada and the Malaysian Association of Canada sponsored the local transportation and the wonderful Fairwell Dinner.

The ST. AUGUSTINE HIGH SCHOOL Demonstration in Markham on Nov.12 drew the 2nd largest crowd of the tour, so it was a very lively and loud demonstration! Rogers Television also came and got footage at the 2nd demonstration in St. Augustine H.S., later the same evening, and conducted interviews to make a program for their “Asian Inspirations” show ... which helped to give the sport a little more exposure.