Blood. Sweat. Tears. Champions.

Big bold words spelled ‘NETBALL PRACTICE TODAY’ was one of the first thing Irinah’s netball players saw every morning in the preceding weeks of the Inter-house Netball Competition. The commonly used saying 'Practice Makes Perfect' has  two sides of that saying that most people don’t normally elaborate on. Through the journey of playing netball together, the Irinah players have come to experience both sides of that particular saying first-hand.

Determined to perform their best in this year's Inter-house Netball, the Irinah netballers devoted much of their time and effort to gruelling training sessions and drills on a daily basis. It was undeniable that the secret to imminent success was indeed  'practice makes perfect'  though  practices can be strenuous.  In simple words, our girls fully embodied the meaning  'no pain, no gain'.


Now comes the other side of the story:      

The day of the match finally came. Despite their hard work, Irinah players were particularly nervous in anticipation of the tough matches ahead. At the sound of the whistle, the matches started. Some matches were physically draining but as always, our girls met their challenges head-on, fuelled with the drive to play Netball to the best of their capabilities. Even as we were trailing behind opposing teams, the Irinah netballers never lost their focus and gradually closed the gap in tough, nail-biting matches.


The final results saw the Irinah Senior team emerging as Champions whilst the Junior team placed a respectable third for inter-house netball.   That’s the other part, they don’t tell you, the great feeling of sharing the win with your team.

- Ili Nadia Azizi

Irinah House Night 2014

How the time flies. It’s the beginning of a new year, and that means it’s also the start of a new term. This term, we had our annual house night at eCurve where we played a challenging game called The Escape Room. For those of you who have never heard of the game before, it’s actually a good way of making a person think more and get closer to your friends. Since we had school on that particular Saturday, we only got to leave the house around 2pm and reached there by 3.30pm.

Before playing the game, we were already assigned into our own groups of 6 or 7 people. Therefore, there were 12 groups in total. Since The Escape Room can only accommodate 6 groups at a time, some of us had to wait while doing some quizzes. My group was given the “Prison Break” room. We were actually handcuffed together and blindfolded while making our way into the room itself. In the room, we had to unlock the handcuffs, find the key to the prison cell AND the key to unlock the door. Trust me, it was so complicated to get a single key because of all the locked boxes that was meant to stall for time. Did I mention, that we only get 45 minutes to escape the room?

By 7pm, everyone had already completed the game but not all the groups manage to find their way out. Once out of the ‘room’ we get to take pictures with either the winner’s crown or the loser’s sign.

After that, the girls were free to do their own shopping as well as have dinner at the Curve. Finally, something other than KTJ food >.< It was a day well spent together with all the Irinians as we bonded and shared as a family.

      Sadly, we had to leave the Curve at 9.30pm. I’m sure that all the girls would agree that the time spent together would forever be a sweet memory. Can’t wait for the next House Night!



- Crystal Tan

House Night-Cooking House

On the 20^th of April, a group of 74 beautiful girls from Irinah went to the Cooking House in Mont Kiara for house night this term. It was the first attempt for many girls to live through a first-hand experience in the art of cooking. The girls were divided into 2 groups – one group learnt how to bake cupcakes – oreo cupcakes and banana muffins - while the other had a good time making hamburgers  - chicken and beef - from scratch. The whole process took them around 3 hours. It was a very unique experience that is worth remembering because instead of spending those few hours solely on physical activities, they learnt a new skill which they can then perform in the Pantry of Irinah House. At the same time, they had a fabulous and enjoyable time cooking together! After some hard work, the girls then embarked to One Utama to do some shopping and have their dinner. By the time they got back, sleep became their utmost priority after a day well spent as a house. It was another memorable House Night!!

                                                                                                        Sabrina Lim

Netball 2013

Irinah girls were on fire during the netball competition that was held on the 20^th February 2013. The competition was postponed many times due to the harsh weather. Fortunately, the competition ended well.  Before the competition we had intense training every day and had only short breaks but all the hard work can never beat us! Sprained ankles and sprained thumbs were common during the practices but recovered instantly and we got back to the game straight away.

Under the blazing sun, we never complained and continue training with all our might. This enthusiasm will never exist without the team’s undying support. Sometimes, caused by the unexpected weather, we had to train in the multi-purpose hall. We had to use basketball nets to play netball because we had no choice. It felt different and this also may affect our netball techniques so the only exercise we can do were drills.

Despite the tiring drills, we will never forget all the hard work from our team coaches. We wouldn’t have won without their professional netball techniques which improved us all. They also gave goodie bags to the netballers to give us more hope to win. We would also like to express our greatest gratitude to our housemistress and house tutors that accompanied us all during practices.

During the day of the competition, everyone was having fun supporting their own houses. We, Irinians brought orange pom-poms and a dragon hat which represented us. All the non-netballers put all their efforts supporting the team and giving out waters for those who were playing.

 

The junior team won the tournament convincingly while the senior team won the 1^st runner up position. Congratulations for the Irinah netballers! All our hard training has been paid off. We hope we will win the championship for both, senior and junior teams in 2014! Once an Irinian, always an Irinian.

Munira

Cross Country 2013

The 6^th of March 2013 was the day that Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar came together as one with the same goal at heart: to finish the race. On that day, KTJ held its annual Cross Country event within the precincts of the school. This event was divided into 4 different categories and the top 15 runners from each category were given a medal according to their respective ages: junior girls, junior boys, senior girls and senior boys.

 

On that Wednesday afternoon, the surprisingly good weather allowed Cross Country to take place without further ado, albeit the scorching afternoon sun. Hence, tears of joy and satisfaction were showered upon students as their strong determination drove them to the finish line – as not only were they running for themselves, they were doing it for their houses thus just that very thought made them much stronger physically, mentally and spiritually.

Throughout the race, what really tugged at the heartstrings were the great enthusiasm and house spirits manifested by each house as they cheered for their friends, giving them hope and motivation to stagger on. Cross Country allowed students to have a taste of endurance and determination when it comes to pursuing something that may seem impossible but is actually not when one has a positive mindset in achieving their goal.

 

However, just like any other competition, there is always only one championship:

 

Junior girls: Irinah House

Junior boys: Naquiyuddin House

 

Senior girls: Jawahir House

Senior boys: Naquiyuddin House

 

As Thomas Edison had so put it, “Many of life’s failure are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up”. So do not give up, for that may be when the tide will turn.

Inter-house Athletics

 

              

The blazing Saturday sun was a reflect of the radiant hearts of every Irinah girl as they gave their all, in any way, in the Inter-house Athletics Competition. The 23^rd of March 2013 was a day on which weeks of dripping sweat and constant trainings were finally exchanged for the shiny medals that hung on the necks of the strong and determined Irinah girls.

 

          Competitions were fierce for both the track and the field events. The track events consisted of: 100m Hurdles, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 4x100m and 4x400m; The field events, on the other hand, comprised: javelin, discus, shot putt, long jump, triple jump and high jump. It was truly a jaw-dropping and heart-racing sight to behold as some jumped sky-high from the ground whilst others raced to the finish line with their heads held high. The competition stretched on for the duration of five hours and during that period of time, never once did the house spirit of Irinah diminish as each and every member of the house shouted their lungs out for their friends. Merely a word of encouragement or a smile of assurance – a spark of hope that was needed to drive them till the end. “A champion needs a motivation above and beyond winning” – Pat Riley

  

          On the battlefield, the Irinah girls did their house proud, not only by winning, but also by breaking the school records. It is as follows:

 

   High jump        : - Melanie (1.39m)

                                 - Rachel    (1.35m)

         

          Long jump       : - Ji Min (3.91m)

 

          4 x 400m           : - Zhi Yee

                                         - Kahlen

                                         - Vincy

                                         - Raihanah (a second faster)

 

          The girls brought glory and dignity to the house by winning championships in both the senior as well as the junior category. It was not about how good they were, but how good they were together – as a house, as Irinah.

 

Hockey 2012

After countless postpones due to the hectic weather conditions, the girl’s hockey match finally took place on a long anticipated sunny Wednesday afternoon. All houses had as much training time as the weather permitted, and their hockey skills prevailed on that very afternoon.

 

The long intensive trainings on the field and indoors paid off as the girls gave their best in the match.

We had over a month to prepare and trained very hard specifically on strategies and ways on improving our passing skills. As we used the halls indoors to practice, it was very different when we actually played on the field as the ball was faster inside the hall. However so, Irinians managed to adjust to the circumstances and managed to score in most of the games. We also stressed on teamwork as it an important element to win a game.

 Being Irinians, sports events like this brought us closer and we discovered many hidden talents in some of which we didn’t know.

 

Many girls showed passionate Irinah spirit in participating during the tryouts, and trainings. However due to the short duration of the game, many could only play for a short period of time.

 

 Irinians had a fun time taking pictures and played their heart out on the field. Loud cheers can be heard to support our team players, and it helped encourage the hockey players to keep on going.

 

On the 7^th of November afternoon, the girls got geared up and the seniors played two games against Jawahir and Alia.  The senior players managed to defend Alia well, and came up with a score of 0-0, however the game between Jawahir was quite challenging and intense. Putting up a tough fight, the seniors were able to obtain a score of 2-1.  On the other hand, the juniors played a pretty impressive game by knocking out all of their opponents: Alia, Jawahir and Naquiah. Our juniors were proud to be announced 1^st place and managed to bring home the gold for Irinah. Unfortunately, seniors lost their overall game to Alia, due to a small difference in total score. However so, we still tried our very best.

 

Irinians have once again proven themselves to be resilient team players and Later on in the week after the mid-term break, the whole of Irinah house was awarded with scrumptious, delicious cupcakes baked by the brilliant captains that took charge of hockey. Despite the results, the hockey game brought Irinians together and showed true enthusiastic spirit for the house.