A Trip Down Memory Lane

A Band of Brothers
25th August 2006

The New Paper

By: Al R Dizon

IT happens at the NUS Recreation Centre each Friday afternoon, when the sun is hot enough to bake your skin.

There, you won't fail to notice a group of undergrads kicking a football around with bewildering pace, panache and passion.

They are the Men In Black - MIB - a super-enthusiastic weekend football outfit that could perhaps give some of the stronger amateur sides in the country a run for their money.

Well, at least in terms of being on the ball, as they were among the very first to inform The New Paper about their existence.

That's what we are - on the ball. Quick, fast, frenetic,' says Harpreet Singh, 23, who acts as a spokesman for the group.

In fact, people around the soccer fraternity already know about MIB and what they can do. While they don't want to talk too much about it, The New Paper managed to find out that they have done well in several amateur tournaments around the island, with frequent seconds and occasional firsts.

Not bad for a collection of mainly undergrads from NUS, NTU, SMU and SIM.

They are all about 23 years old.

Some of them have just started working, but without fail, the group gathers on Friday at NUS for an extensive, no holds-barred kickabout.

They also play one friendly match every weekend, normally on Sunday afternoons, at various locations.

'We come from all walks of life but the one thing that united us was our passion and special gift to play this beautiful game,' says Harpreet.

Members are mostly fans of Manchester United and Liverpool, while there are some vestiges of Chelski and Arsenal 'contamination' in the team.

The team (without the MIB moniker) was founded in 1996 in the hallowed portals of St Joseph's Institution (SJI), and grew from strength to strength through their college years, attracting friends from other schools, and during the rigours of national service.

How does one become a member of the team?

'Click with us first,' says Rizvi Jafir, 23.'Be our friend. Share our fears, dreams and fancies. Go watch movies with us, go for barbecues, chitchat about the leading EPL teams.'Talk about girlfriends and family. Be comfortable chatting with us on the MSN. Then you can perhaps be good enough at football to join MIB.

'Not exactly Jose Mourinho's way of managing Chelsea, nor Sir Alex's hairdryer thing, but it works.

Harpreet, an NUS engineering undergrad, explains: 'Some people become great friends after they play in a great team. But we became a great team because we were great friends to start with.'

A group of friends from SJI, where football wasn't a CCA, formed the core of the team.

'It wasn't a formal thing. It was more of an activity outside school for us soccer hard-ups.'

As they moved to junior college, national service and university, the group didn't split up.

'Good friends don't split up, they simply play,' says Rizvi.

They somehow managed to find opportunities to play together.

And along the way the Josephians managed to attract two to three players who have been able to connect with them off the field.

Harpreet, formerly of Victoria School (VS), was one of them.

His path crossed that of MIB at Catholic Junior College, where he met Rizvi, now his bosom pal.

A former hockey player from VS, the guys converted him from playing with the stick to become their goalkeeper.

'At that time, we were looking for someone to man our goal,' Rizvi, an NUS engineering undergraduate, said.'Nobody among us could manage it regularly. Besides we'd rather dribble and shoot.

But Harpreet came along.

'Harpreet laughs as he says: 'They have literally weaned me off hockey to become a weekend football player.'

And he has no regrets.

Harpreet now keeps goal for NUS' varsity squad.

Watch out for him when the season starts again in January next year.

'MIB developed me as a goalkeeper,' he says.'I am really lucky to have MIB as my band of brothers first, then football mates second.'

They're celebrating their 10th year as a team this year. What better way to celebrate than to be the first group of weekend warriors to be featured in TNP?

What about the future of the team?

Surely they won't remain 23 forever?

And they'll soon graduate, find work and raise families.

Harpreet says: 'We grew together both on and off the pitch and it is a real testimony to us that we remain the greatest of friends today. We will remain the greatest of friends tomorrow.'How did they get the name?'It was an accident,' says Harpreet.'We had no name in the past when we were in college. One day, we all decided to watch the movie, Men In Black.'The main characters and the actors were cool. The name stuck in our heads and after that, we decided to call ourselves MIB.

'We're glad we did.'

So, do you think your team has the guts to square off MIB with the field? Just send an email to harveymib1@hotmail.com, and see how things go...