‘DO OUR BEST, HAVE FUN AND ENJOY THE SPORT’ BALAC ENTERS FOOTBALL TOURNAMENT

Hello everyone. Welcome to the second edition of our Intergames coverages!

Last week, we had glimpses of our esports teams. This week, we proudly announce our first traditional sport BALAC will be competing in; Football!

Here are our athletes:

• Seagame - Tanawat Phonram (13)

• Alex - Chattarin Siradakul (9)

• Daniel - Gavin Daniel Green (8)

• Dylan - Royint Dylan Green (6)

• Max - Maxim Kiesbuy (7)

• Earth - Poramate Worachiraporn (69)

• Tate - Tate Henry Myron (10)

• Theme - Teetuch Santhidej (15)

• Alex - Sirikoon Saiyasak (17)

• Games - Panjapat Buri (3)

• Carl - Carl Anan Langenskioeld (28)

• Nop - Teeranop Kingphutthaphong (26)

One familiar name, you may see, shifty eyes. Alex!

Yes, we had a chance to interview Alex (Chattarin, that is, to the added confusion as we now have two Alex-es) from our BALAC FM podcast, the first episode having aired nearly a month ago. Here is what our podcaster had to say:

Hi, I hope you are doing well. We have heard that there was a tryout from last Saturday. How was it? How was the tryout?

‘*soft chuckle* It was not really a tryout, it was just a match, it was just rotating the teams and playing in different positions and trying to feel each other's skills. We just didn’t really know where we were supposed to play, so we were just figuring out who is good in which position or who is better in each position. It was fun. We had fun – it was very tiring but everyone was having fun so that’s good.’

Do you think your team is in a good shape for the upcoming Intergames?

‘I would say ‘not the best’ because we haven’t had enough practice, but I’m sure everyone has pretty good potential to be good. Don’t take my word for it because I’m not that good of a player either. I feel like we haven’t had much practice, we haven’t played with each other enough to say that we are in good shape or bad shape”

Do you know what position you will be playing in?

‘Me? It is not defined, but I could say that I could play any position that’s in the middle. I can’t play wings. Anywhere that’s in the middle, centre back, central mid, centre forward, I can also play goalkeeper as well if I want!’

What is your aim or the aim of your team?

‘The aim? I can’t say this with a 100 percent guarantee because I haven’t talked to any of them, so I would say the aim is to… Do our best, have fun and enjoy the sport’

You kind of already answered the question there but what do you think is the key to achieving your goal? I guess teamwork is also the key here?

‘Teamwork IS the key and I would say dedication and motivation as well’

Okay, that will be all for this interview. Thank you so much for your time and good luck for the upcoming Intergames!

‘Thank you!’

That was it for our first look of how our football team is shaping and preparing for the tough oppositions ahead.

BALAC will be participating in the 15th CU Intergames’ football tournament with many other international programs. Fixtures will be available shortly once announced. Coverages on the remaining sports will also be available on the BALAC.FM website so keep a look out for what’s coming up!

For any further inquiries, contact us through email at balac14stuco@gmail.com and for more news, follow us on Instagram (@balac.fm)

Written by Noppasin Yafa

Proofread by Pacharasorn Thummachote

Noppasin Yafa, Sin, is one of the pretending-to-be-journalists covering BALAC’s athletes’ progression throughout Intergames. He likes to sleep late; his eyes are ever so tiring with his hair looking messy as ever. He is not confident but he is a good listener. At least that’s what he thinks of himself.