10
LUMEN | PROGRAMMES
In Conversation with
Coach Kadir Yahaya
Former National Football player and assistant coach of LionsXII Kadir Yahaya now coaches the SJI ‘ C ’ Division Football Team and has been doing so since 2012 . Find out more about his thoughts through this interview by the ‘ C ’ Division Football Captain Elliot Ng , an ardent football player himself .
EN : Why did you pick SJI out of all the schools that wanted to hire you ? KY : Firstly , I like the philosophy of SJI as its main focus was on character development rather than aiming to always win trophies . Also , the school is starting from the bottom without any prior history of football for a few years ( Editor ’ s note : 14 years to be exact was the last time SJI competed in a football tournament in the national school games ). So I would like to be part of this process to build the football team here from scratch .
EN : What is your general opinion of SJI boys ? KY : Having coached many different teams and schools , I find SJI boys to be the least problematic among all of them . In other schools , I encountered many discipline and academic problems such as truancy and cheating . The behavior of SJI boys is generally better . I also can conclude that football and studies do have an impact [ on each other ]. In other schools , I often have to repeat instructions many times . While in SJI , I only need to repeat to the players once and they understand . As such , there is a relation between studies and football .
EN : What are some of the challenges you face in coaching SJI boys ? KY : There is not much training available , with around 3 days a week to train . Also some players may not be able to train due to other commitments such as tuition , etc . There is also a greater emphasis on character development , academics and football here in SJI . This makes it harder to find and strike the correct balance between all of these .
EN : What is something interesting you ’ ve noticed about the team ? KY : The boys never grow bigger fast . In other schools , the boys grow really fast while here , everyone is still small .
“
“
... it is like a good feeling for me when I see all of them happy and enjoying themselves .
EN : What is your fondest memory with the team ? KY : The article published in The New Paper in 2012 . During that time , from the picture , everyone looked really happy and all wet from the rain . And it is like a good feeling for me when I see all of them happy and enjoying themselves .
EN : Do you have any regrets on joining the school ? KY : Definitely not . I had already won the zonal and national championships with Singapore Sports School . If I continued to stay there , we would still be training everyday and aiming to win more trophies . In SJI , the resources and facilities available here are lesser which makes it a bigger challenge for me .
EN : If you can only use 3 words to describe the team , what would they be ? KY : Slow and steady . That ’ s exactly how this team is growing , slowly but steadily .
This page ( bottom left ): Coach Kadir with his Pilot Pen champions
This page ( top right ): Getting down to the players ' level during half time