Sports Fest 2020 was an event organized by WCF which happened from 6th to 9th of January.
The event started off with an opening ceremony in the premises of Beacon Light Academy. The participants were also the audience. There was a march-past done by the students (junior secondary; classes VI – VIII) of Beacon Light Academy. The commentary was spontaneous but good, yet according to Miss Asra Zafar, the commentators could have performed better.
The basic idea of Beacon Light Academy Sports Fest 2020 was to eradicate gaming zones and bring students towards physical activities. Students nowadays are indulged in video games so much that they’ve lost the ability to keep their bodies fit and have some physical activity. Students are unfit and unhealthy because of lack of physical activity and exercise. The main reason for organizing this sports event was to bring students towards ‘physical sports’ and encourage them to play outdoor games more.
Moreover, the students of Beacon Light Academy often complained about the lack of sports facilities and varieties. The event was also a means to eliminate this misconception and erasing students’ complaint, giving them more opportunities to showcase their talents in this field and developing interest in sports. WCF killed two birds with one stone, as they charged a minimal fee of about Rs 100/- per athlete for the event to raise funds for KKAMHS too.
The first sport was Badminton. It took place on the 6th of January between students of Beacon Light Academy. First up was the junior most class in the campus; 6th grade. The students played quite well and the score was quite good. One by one all the classes played but the real fun started when the seniors stepped in. The matches got tougher and more enjoyable. The players were playing quite well and were almost unbeatable. One of the matches continued for more than an hour and the winning decision was quite tough to make. The students gave their best and the first day was a success.
Second day of the Sports Fest was reserved for Futsal and Throwball. Where futsal was a boys only sport, throwball was played by girls only. The students participated quite enthusiastically and were very excited. The futsal matches were played among the seniors division (comprising of grades IX, X, XI) and junior divisions (grade VI, VII, VIII). The matches were unexpectedly hard and the competition was tough. The semi final of the senior division was amongst the 10th and 11th graders. The senior most class maintained its position and was unbeatable. The final match was among 11th B and 11th D. The match was quite tough and both sides seemed to be unbeatable. But 11th B ended up winning the final of the futsal match. Unfortunately, throwball was not a success amongst the girls and teams from only Junior division participated, while senior girls remained uninterested.
The 3rd day of the match was reserved for cricket. Teams from both junior and senior divisions participated. The teams played quite well and the matches were very exciting and enjoyable. Yet, alot of chaos and complaints arose against the match umpire (who shall remain anonymous); not all round matches were played and teams were sent to finals according to the Umpire’s wishes. Grade IX protested and criticised this unfair act and demanded rematches. Now, we have to witness if those matches will be rescheduled or WCF will let bygones be bygones.
The 4th day was reserved for Athletics and the prize distribution. Only participants from the junior division took part in this category and one (100 metre) race was held of seniors due to lack of participation.
Overall, the event was very successful and encouraged a lot of students to involve themselves in sports. The students were quite happy and enthusiastically participated in the event. Though all the students of grade XI were seen engrossed in organising this event, yet key organisers of the event were Ali Ahmed, Mibsam Yousuf, Umer Alam, Hunain Abbas, Qazi Maaz, Farrukh Ali and Hamza Alam.
Although from a student’s perspective, this event gave them an opportunity to showcase their talents and to be out of their classes. On the other hand, it was agonising for the teachers to keep up with their lecturers and classes, as most of the students were out either practising, playing their round matches or became audiences. If this event was properly organised and handled, things would not have gone haywire or messed up. Overall, Sports Fest 2020 was a key feature of the session 2019 – 2020 and we hope to see it return year after year.
“So basically organizing a sports event solely was quite tiring for us even after having the best team to organize such an event.
This event was organized on the behalf of ‘We Care Foundation’ and was funded by students of BLA by registering their teams in the tournament. For us it was quite difficult to collect money and manage the match schedule to provide perfect fairness in the tournament. We had many different types of sports activities; Futsal, ThrowBall, Cricket, Badminton and Athletics.
We had full support from our school management and the teachers which made us achieve a perfect and wonderful event as you guys saw. And not only this, it was quite amazing for the organizing team as well as we had many new experiences and different challenges that we had to face.
In the end it all sums up for us, as we are working for our nation and helping our Pakistan to achieve betterment through our slogan of WCF, “Cultivating minds to inspire”; by educating the kids of this nation and by inspiring them to do good for themselves and our own betterment.”
-Mibsam Yousuf
One of the Organizers of the Sports Fest