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The Big Game – organized by the Republic Polytechnic (RP) in conjunction with the Basketball Association of Singapore (BAS) marks another milestone in the history of RP. In this first-of-a-kind partnership between an educational institute and sporting association, both parties aim to reach out further to the community by working closely together in a range of issues from education to sports promotion.
And when it comes to promotion for basketball participation, The Big Game is a fantastic start to the partnership. With 184 teams participating in the event, the results cannot be more encouraging for both RP and BAS.
Most participants are bona fide basketball aficionados who joined the competition purely for the love of the game. “Our interests is in basketball,” so said Tan Wei Gang (15) and Raymond Khoo (15) from Jurong Secondary School . Whatever the reasons, The Big Game provides the perfect ice-breaker for RP and the BAS to reach out to youngsters keen to move further ahead for their interest in the game as well as their educational endeavor. It also serves as a good platform for players all island-wide to pit their skills against one another. While most competitions require participating teams to be at least recognized by formal institution, The Big Game is very much a no-holds-barred to such ruling. This is perhaps most appreciated by players at the most amateur level because it provides the stage for those who are formerly unable to participate in any basketball competition. It also sets the stage for talent scouts to look out for untapped talents.
With basketball recently promoted to a merit sport, it comes as no surprise that the BAS will be all the more enthusiastic to ensure that more participating events involving basketball are organized to raise the local standard of basketball. Official referee for The Big Game Philip Fung agrees, “Local basketball standard still has a big gap to catch up when compared to foreign counterparts such as The Philippines, but this is definitely a good step as such competitions give teams from all around more chances to learn and improve from one another. It will be even better if foreign teams can be brought in to join in the competition so that the local boys can learn from the foreign teams.”
So, while the young participants of The Big Game got their minds set on becoming The Big Champion for the day, the organizers have got bigger plans in mind to bring forth the basketball sport to an even higher level in the local arena, making the local basketball scene the biggest winner in time to come.
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