THE ANNUAL STUDENTS VS TEACHERS FOOTBALL MATCH

On Tuesday, the 5th of November, a friendly (or maybe not so friendly) football match between students and teachers was held on the enclosed fields, right here on Manarat soil. It was held during periods 5 and 6, and was open for all to come and spectate, provided that the teacher in charge of each respective class allowed it during period 6, since period 5 is break time anyways. The Student Council also took the initiative and opportunity to go around selling iced drinks and ice cream to the masses as they came to watch the match.

Students gathered in anticipation around the field waiting for the match to start. There was an abundance of cheering as the teachers started showing up one by one. Among the teachers on the team were Mr Ahmed Mosallam, Mr Musa, Mr Hisham Hamdy, Mr Malik, Mr Osama Tariq and several others. These veterans were up against what are probably some of the best football players in our school; Ahmad Sami, Khalid Agroody, Abdullah Robbins, Abdelrahman Malaikah, Majd Nader, Saeed Al-Mulais, Sulaiman AlAmoudi, Majed Al Salman, Haytham Al-Shehrii, Ghali Tuhami, and Osama Quraishi. There was an extra special reaction when Mr Safdar Khan, acting vice principal of grades 10-12, came onto the field looking ready for a fight. It was quite a change of pace from seeing him in his usual formal attire. Judging by the reactions most the crowd agreed as well.

About 10 minutes into period 5 the match was underway. It started off quite slow with neither side scoring for the entirety of period 5. Now I would love to be able to tell you how, after that slow start, The Students scored 2 marvellous goals and managed to stop The Teachers from getting anything in return. Unfortunately, during period 6 I had physics, and as an A-level student, the only time you skip physics is if you get rammed by a GMC on the way to class. So for period 6, I was happily (or as happy as one can be with externals creeping closer everyday) studying away in class. After the period I returned to find The Students 2 up. The goals were scored by Sulaiman AlAmoudi and Ahmad Sami. I only managed to catch the final goal which was from a penalty from The Teachers, making the score 2-1. Then the final whistle was blown, and game over.

     Despite this, the spectators and players alike seemed to have enjoyed themselves, even though the last goal was one of little significance (since The Teachers still lost.) Immediately after though, the crowds rushed in to congratulate the teachers on a job well done. However, later one of the players elaborated that the goal was in fact cancelled. "No it didn’t go in, they cancelled it [the goal],” said Ahmad Sami. So I guess it ended as a 2-0; but either way we get the same end result anyways! At the end of the day, however, if everyone enjoyed themselves and had some good clean fun, the event can and should be considered a great success. Whether or not these consistent victories show that students have an edge against teachers or not, I dare not comment.     

Although this turned out to be not that much of a sports article (lets be honest though, why bother reading about sports, it is much better to just play sports), it was interesting to see the results of another student versus teacher match up, the last one being basketball, in which The Teachers weren’t so lucky, again resulting in a Students’ victory. 

To wrap this article up, on behalf of myself and many others, our gratitude is extended to the Student Council members and teachers who made this entire event possible. It is nice and appropriate seeing a school and its students and teachers invested in something other than academics (Academics are still the pillar of any school though, so keep studying!).