An Exclusive Interview with the Founder of Huskies Captain Ball Club - Justin Tan Zhi Yu

A sports enthusiast who is always down for gym and game sessions, who plays a wide range of sports (though mainly basketball), and aspires to motivate people, touch lives and change futures.

Justin Tan Zhi Yu • Founder of Huskies Club 2018

Interviewers: Shaun Vincent Pereira, Lee Yi Tung, Lee Tyen Wyeth

Date: Aug 28, 2020

Credits to: Lee Yi Tung

Shaun: What inspired you to start the Huskies Captain Ball Club?

Justin: "I mainly started the club as captain ball was a sport which I really enjoyed. In addition, it was the only sport in which I have received proper training and have represented Penang in that sport. When I first came to Kuala Lumpur to study, I found out that captain ball was a sport mainly played in churches, which was not really my kind of scene. So I started the club with the objective to introduce the sport to the students. I started with a random ball and plastic chairs, and I could find only three people in the club (informally). Slowly, people began to realize that there's this tall guy who throws a ball to people standing on chairs on the pitch, and the number of people in the club began to grow from three to eight, and soon there were about 50 people in the game. Also, I always ask other people who were chilling in the student lounge to join the club or try the sport. Then a couple of people asked me, "Well, Justin, when are you going to officially turn this club over to DSA?" Six months later, we started sending teams to small competitions all over Selangor."

S: Why the name "Huskies" out of everything?

J: "Actually, I didn't give the club that name because I only had the experience as a President for a very short time. Instead, Kai Ping came up with the name. I'm a very boring person, because I only call it the HELP Captain's Club, but when it came to them, they let members vote among various animals through a Google form. In my opinion, the next generation of Presidents did a good job in this because they created a sense of community within the rest of the clubs and societies. When I started my campaign, it was more about sending teams to games than it was about making friends, which was very different from the other presidents. The main activities that I ran as a President were mostly training - really tough and intensive training - and many people might sympathize with those who participated in the training, but like other Presidents who took over became more of a "Hey, let them mix around, so that they can socialize more and make friends". In the end, the overwhelming majority of members voted for the club to be named "Huskies" and eventually created the club logo."

S: As you have previously mentioned that you invited many people to join the club before you came up with the idea of forming the club, did you already have a team that you could trust to run the club with?

J: "I had 2 or 3 people around me that I trusted a lot, and they said that if I came across a decision that was difficult to make or something that I was very confused with in the first few days, I could seek them for advice. This is something I would recommend to anyone working in the management team, because you should have someone you trust, but not too much. On top of that, there were five other people who I trusted to run the club, but they ranked number two because I would only bring it to the five of them after I have discussed what I am doing with the first three. The questions range from "How do we register a club?" "How do we manage the growing members of the club?".

S: What were the initial expectations which you had set for the club and what expectations did you have for the future of the club?

J: "I'm not sure if you've heard of COPA IBA, but for me, that was the gold standard. When I studied in Kuala Lumpur from the age of 18 to 22, I attended COPA IBA in all those years. But before becoming a team captain, I was a nobody. I asked my friends who were from churches if there were teams that I could join, but even if I joined them, anyone could tell that there wasn't any chemistry and there wasn't a place of belonging for me. So, for me, there was never a team that I called home because every time we competed in COPA IBA, we always lost in the heats and we never made it to the qualifying rounds. But since then, one of our HELP Huskies teams has made it to the semi-finals or the quarter-finals, which is something I am very proud of. So my initial idea was to build a team that would at least be qualified. My expectations for the future is to hope that we will always have some competing teams that we will always be able to send out to the games as at that time, I always sent out some teams that were competent enough to win cash prizes - that was my original idea of funding the club. That's how I bought all the equipment we have in the club currently. Until then, however, most of our initial funds came out of our own pockets. That's why I give them very strict training: so that they can compete, but no matter how intense the training were, I would stay with them until the end of the training, no matter how long it takes. Even if they were the last one to finish, I would stay with them on the field until they have completed the training. That's how I show my dedication to the team and I don't leave anyone behind, even if I train them at a very intense level."

S: Despite you showing how dedicated you were to the team, did anyone quit the team?

J: "Well, believe me, a lot of people left the team, but that was when I acknowledged that I had to change the way I managed the team. As I have mentioned to the three people I trust most, they also mentioned that not everyone has the same expectations as me. Because I always gave them a hard time during training, mainly because I am a sportsman myself; I have a painless, "no pain, no gain" mentality. This also caused the number of members to drop from nearly 100 to five, as my training scared people away. So that's when I really needed the advice that those three people had to say, and we had to change things from the initial plan of two or three days of training a week to one day of training and two days of free-to-play. During those two days of free play, I would keep quiet and say nothing so that others could have fun, and that day's training was optional. This change was undoubtedly difficult for me as the first President, for I had no blueprint to follow and no one to turn to for advice. It was quite a learning process for me because I had to admit that I made mistakes. I also had to be aware of whether or not I started a club out of self-awareness, and if I want the club to survive even after I graduate, because if the club dies after I graduate, then it would have been pointless for me to start a club."

S: What were the many difficulties that you faced while forming the club?

J: "Oh, it's definitely DSA. Oh, my God, DSA is killing my butt. Oh, my god! That's the best part of being President, because if you need my signature, I'll do it. When I did the initial heavy lifting, I had to sit down with DSA to discuss the process of forming the club, but after the forms started coming in, I just told the committee to do it because I didn't know what to do. It's a big deal as we would need to know who's good at what, but for me, I'm just good at execution, not at planning, paperwork and management. Fortunately, I have a friend who enjoyed doing these things so much that I put him in charge of those tasks that specifically included them. The next struggle was to provide a space and to be equipped as a pair of stools were not enough to cater for the rising number of members. So we had to find solutions to these two problems. The other thing is, our assets have been stolen before, they were brand new balls, what's left were old balls. In those days, we kept our equipment in the repair room, and whenever I needed it, I always went to the repairman with the key to the room."

S: Did you find the guy who stole the ball?

J: "No, we didn't manage to find out who it was, so we had to buy new ones."

S: Was it difficult to attract new students to join the club?

J: "Actually, but I was not very worried when I first joined to help since I didn't really care about the students, so I didn't attend drives or activities. But as a team, we had some people who were really passionate to do such things so they set up booths, and they were very outgoing and friendly, so I feel blessed to have those people in my team. We were constantly recruiting new members every semester, which made us worry about the need of having more equipment, but was a pretty good question as it showed that the club is growing. So they were also attracted by us through word of mouth to be as friendly as possible to anyone who joins the club."

S: Has there been anything you've regretted? Anything that you wish you could have changed since you started the club?

J: "Of course, I wish I didn't not mind our number dropping from 100 to 0, or at least had that happen sooner than later. I really hope I can participate in more activities even after I graduated. But I also wanted to go back and see how other people grew up, and I was surprised to see a sports club organize a bonding camp, because I have never thought about it, but they held the bonding camp that I was invited to attend. In short, I wish I could have been more involved with the club even after I passed over the leadership role."

Yi Tung: Do you have any advice for the Presidents?

J: "I think you should always be true to yourself. For me, I've always value sports, as I mentioned before, you need to know who's good at what. I learned early on from Jia Han that I was not a good planner, but once I was given a guide, I was very good at getting the job done. So my advice is to be true to yourself and don't try to please everyone, and understand your strengths and weaknesses. Don't try to change yourself for everything you do. I try to stay serious when I train, but I've learned to change as I deal with the club, and I'm sure that there are a lot of people who are not as serious as I am in the team to help compensate for my seriousness because I would continue training at a certain intensity. So, I started recruiting people who were better at dealing with others, and I also think you should have the ability to cover up your weaknesses so that you don't change yourself."

Tyen Wyeth: Now that you mention that you are an athletic person and you do all kinds of sports, I would like to know how you manage your time, since you exercise almost every day.

J: "It was something I had to do growing up because when I was in college - I'm not kidding! - I had to do exercise every day for seven days, sometimes even three sports in a day. But soon, I had to think about what I should be devoting more time and energy to in order to get a greater return. So when I started researching on it, I realized that out of all the sports I play, captain ball and basketball were two I wanted to put more effort and time into. As for captain ball, I have a team and I had to commit my time. The skills that I have learned when playing basketball was also very useful when it comes to captain ball, so this was when I decided that I will dedicate more time to both sports. Even now, I still have to decide what activities I want to devote my time into so that it will benefit me. At that time, I was a very free-and-easy person because whenever someone asks me to play sports, I would always say yes; but after a while, I learned to start saying no. So once I realized that and started planning, I figured out how much time you actually have in a day and what you actually have to do."

YT: Do you think being good at sports is a gift? Because some of our members think that they are not as good as others, how would you encourage them?

J: If you're familiar with the concept of nature versus nurture - nature is something you're born with, and nurture is something you can improve or train on - I've always believed that some people will always get ahead in some things; but I firmly believe that if you practice, you will eventually achieve your goals. And if you have made up your mind, I believe that anyone can succeed in anything if they work hard enough. For example, when Kai Ping was first exposed to captain ball, she could hardly catch the ball, but she made a lot of effort especially during training. Now, if you let her play on the court, she is an immediate threat. So, I believe that nobody is born to be terrible at things since it's our duty to constantly improve ourselves. I'd like to add Tyen Wyeth on the issue of time management. You will also need to account for the amount of stress and anxiety that you can handle, and in a sense how much guilt you can handle. As for me, I know to get a bachelor's degree, I didn't want to spend a lot of time on studies, but I want to do sports. But sometimes I do too much exercise to the extent where I can't cope with my studies, so I had to spend more time studying, so in a sense, it's more about balancing your time."

TW: Was there anyone who suppressed you from doing what you want to do?

J: "Mostly my parents because they are typical Asian parents who want their kids to be learning all the time. When I spent most of my time doing what I loved, because not only was I the founder of the captain ball club, I also founded MONO dance club, until I spent most of my time doing things instead of studying, my parents were disappointed that I didn't get first-class honours. In the beginning, my grades were all first-class honours, but I didn't care about them because I would rather do what I loved to do. Besides that, it's also my self-doubt, because I'm afraid things won't turn out the way I want them to."

TW: How did you convince your parents that you are able to balance exercising and studying?

J: "To be honest, I lived in my dorm in Kuala Lumpur and I didn't live with them. But it turns out that although I spent most of my time doing sports, as long as I can get good grades, my parents are OK with it."