They came from all walks of life, each with their own journey. Yet, the nearly 50 grown men at the Selangor Sikh Union Kelab Aman grounds on Nov 22 were united by one thing – SMK Kepong Baru.
For more than two hours, the men became boys again. It was more than a sporting meet; it was a celebration of hockey, friendship and, above all, the man who made it happen – Datuk Dr Johnson Fernandez.
Fernandez is no stranger to the Malaysian sporting landscape. He spent decades as a sports journalist before becoming sports editor of the now-defunct The Malay Mail. Around the same period, 25 years ago, he began coaching the SMK Kepong Baru hockey team, fondly known as the Kaybeez.
This gathering began with a simple reminder from Fernandez in a WhatsApp group – that it had been 25 years since he first coached them. That message was all it took. The boys sprang into action, organising the reunion and gathering as many former players as possible to form six teams.
Although team Lebah emerged champions, everyone left with something more meaningful – pride in their school, their sport and their enduring bond. The gathering proved that building a harmonious and progressive society starts with sports at the grassroots.
Fernandez (in red) with team Lebah at SSU Kelab Aman.
Watching the matches from the sidelines before dinner, Fernandez summed up the evening in one word: harmony.
Having coached about 300 boys over his 15 years at SMK Kepong Baru, Fernandez said it was gratifying to see his players compete in the Kuala Lumpur Hockey League for five seasons.
He thanked former SMK Kepong Baru teacher R. Ellan Govan, now attached to the Kuala Lumpur Education Department, and Mohanjit Kuckreja of sports wholesaler Kuckreja & Co for supporting and sponsoring equipment over the years. Both were present at Kelab Aman.
But Fernandez also spoke bluntly about the state of Malaysian sports today – one of the key reasons he stopped coaching the school team.
“When the organisers of the schools’ hockey tournament in Kuala Lumpur decided to use the carnival format, I knew it wasn’t progress. It would simply be a waste of time,” he said.
Today’s students play barely 15 minutes of hockey on full-sized pitches, with matches crammed into two or three days. Losing teams play only a handful of games before waiting another year to compete again.
Fernandez said Malaysia has grown too comfortable with temporary fixes – short-term measures dressed up as progress – and the cracks are beginning to show.
“The recent football fiasco blew up in our faces, yet we behaved as if the disappointment was unexpected, instead of the predictable result of years of patchwork planning,” he said, referring to the heavy sanctions imposed by Fifa on the FA of Malaysia for falsifying documents for seven footballers to qualify them for Harimau Malaya.
“Then came the Youth and Sports Minister’s remark that she would be happy with a medal of any colour at the SEA Games. Let’s be honest: the SEA Games is the lowest rung of regional competition. When the bar is already on the floor, lowering it further isn’t humility – it’s a worrying sign of how low our ambitions have sunk,” Fernandez said.
“Instead of inspiring excellence, we are normalising mediocrity.”
He added the real issue is that Malaysia’s sporting nursery is dying.
“Our schools, once the backbone of scouting, nurturing and shaping young talent, have been left neglected. There is no structured pipeline, no long-term investment, no system that identifies and develops athletes from an early age.
“Everything becomes reactive. We scramble only when a tournament is near, when public pressure rises, or when failure becomes too obvious to ignore. If the nursery is barren, how can the orchard bear fruit?”
Fernandez said Malaysia must rebuild its sports development system from the ground up – from primary schools to district competitions to national pathways – or officials will continue applying expensive, glittery band-aids to wounds caused by years of neglect.
“And every few years, we will be shocked. Again and again,” he said.
Teams that participated in the Kaybeez 25 Years hockey event
BEES
Allan Netto, Jonas Fernandez, S. Sivaraj, N. Saravanan, Kuna Seelan, Abdul Rahman Ab Mutalib, R. Sarathkumar, Danesh Nair.
HORNETS
Gregory Isaac Michael, Jerome Paul Xavier, Raymond Tio, Muhd Haziq Shafiq Azmi, Mohd Suhaimi Hussain Anand, Nicholas Raj, Muhd Sharif Khan.
WASPS
Abdul Rahim Jalil, Ishwin Singh, Nripesh Naiker, Mohamad Fais Salleh, Vinod Anbalagan, Dinish Perumal, Nazrin Nordin, Joseph Wong Phin Yee.
LEBAH
Brian Anthony, J. Thana Seelan, Fabian Isaiah Micheal, Muhammad Zulfiqa Md Zain, Vikneshvaran Shridaran, Naim Abd Rahim, Yash Naiker, Gurmesh Singh
TEBUAN
Aleef Kamarulzaman, Uvendra Kumar Velu, P. Agilan, Mohan Das, Wira Jasman Jalan, Mahendran Subramaniam, Nazrein Zahedi, Suren Raj
TAWON
Andrew Ambrose, Ibrahim, Mohd Akmal Hazim, A. Hareen, Kanesh Rajamani, Kent Yam Tze Hou
