A Ball of Perseverance

Being a student in a polytechnic is not an easy feat, with overwhelming assignments and deadlines, it would be easy to feel stressed out and crumble. Some even have to juggle work aside from their hectic school life. But Cheryl Neo, 19, has a lot more on her plate. Aside from her 3 IGs (Tchoukball, Handball, and SHL club), she volunteers to coach young children how to play tchoukball, works for her part-time job, and top of that she has tchoukball club training. All these commitments and she still managed to pull her GPA up.

From Monday to Sunday, Cheryl’s schedule is packed. Regardless, “she always carries a smile on her face no matter what happens, she can go really crazy and hyped upbringing laughter to them yet able to be serious at times,” says fellow teammate and vice-captain of tchoukball, Sharon Ng. 
Cheryl represented RP for both Tchoukball and Handball where both teams won 3rd place in Polite.
When Polite drew near, training piled up to the point where there was only one day where she would be able to go out with her friends throughout an entire month. When asked why she chose to remain in the IGs, Cheryl gave credits to her ex tchoukball captain, Jelynn, for constantly supporting and coaching her throughout her tchoukball journey. Cheryl shared her struggle with the sport “so many tears were shed during the process because I joined the latest.” But was eventually able to improve because of Jelynn’s efforts, “sometimes she would even pay extra attention as I defend or attack and give me feedback accordingly. So eventually I improved quite a lot because of her.” To Cheryl, handball was less challenging because of her basketball background and she always had so much fun there, leaving has never crossed her mind. 

As a student from the diploma of Sports Coaching, Cheryl decided to take up an offer she was given during one of her beach tchoukball tournaments. She now helps a non-profit organization to coach young boys from primary 1 to primary 5 as a form of co-curriculum activity for them. Cheryl explained, “ultimately, I don’t need them to have super good tchoukball skills to go against other primary schools, I just want to develop their motor skills for them because it has to be developed from young. I guess it’s for their future.” Juggling coaching into her hectic schedule may be challenging but Cheryl added, “seeing them happy makes me happy” and that is what helps her persevere every week.

When asked about Cheryl, Alisya, a handball teammate and also the vice-president of SHL club mentioned “Cheryl during trainings is very different from Cheryl outside of training. Despite her funny and goofy character off-court, when it comes to serious business in training, she will be serious.”
It has been a draining few months for Cheryl, but she has no plans to stop. She hopes to see herself continuing to play for RP in the future. Afterall as Sharon mentioned, “She is a strong-willed girl that doesn’t give up easily.”