RESOLVEagainst impossible odds
VS. TRAGEDY
A triumph
İrem Uğurad
“If you go to a match you might have some worries about losing the game or playing awful, not
getting robbed,”says Elvan Gürbüztürk, a member of girls’ basketball team. A great tragedy struck them
on the match day but these girls showed huge perseverance by playing a game after the disaster. Once
again, they showed us the power of Robert College’s teams.
In the beginning of the year, the girls’ basketball team went to a match which was organized by the
MEB. It took place in Bayrampaşa and they travelled by bus to go there. “We were told not to leave any
of our stuff on the bus so we took them with us,” says Sinem Meydanlı from LP2. When they arrived at
the gym, they looked for a place to change their clothes and to put their bags. Then a man who claimed
being the coach of the other team, showed them a room downstairs. Elizabeth Washburn, the coach of RC
girls’ basketball team says, “When I came in, the girls told me, this man had informed them to shut the
door after they left and it would lock automatically, which it actually did.” So they trusted the guy and left
without looking back. After the warm up session in the gym, they returned to the room in order to plan
some tactics. Sinem Meydanlı explains the situation as follows: “Suddenly someone said that she couldn’t
find her phone. And the other person responded ‘Me neither.’ Some of them had lost their wallets too.”
Therefore they called the police and watched the security camera afterwards. They understood the socalled coach was the thief.
After the game, they used some clever techniques to find their stuff. As an example, for the
iPhones, they used an application named “Find my iPhone” And some of them texted their phone and said
that “This is a stolen phone.” A few of the wallets were in the bin near the building without the cash. Most
of the girls managed to find their stolen stuff.
But the most important part of the day was the match time. The robbery had happened just right
before the game. Elizabeth Washburn, the coach of the team tells “We had to make the decision as to
whether we are going to play or not.” And you know what. They did. With an excellent example of
persistence, they had a great game although they didn’t know if they were going to find their stuff or not.
They couldn’t win the game unfortunately but the coach thinks “What I was so proud of is that I got to see
what my team was made of. They really were able to put all of that behind and sucked it up.”
So congratulations to the tough girls of the team for representing our school perfectly.
Sources:
Elif Cengiz from the girls' basketball team.
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