The Making of Hockey Champions at SMI......................... 

A Tribute to Mr Noel De Oliveiro...............

 By Felix Jude Kumar

 CEO, Sibelco Malaysia

(Michaelian, Deputy Head Prefect ,1980)  

“Master Noel Oliveiro conscientiously visited every  class and picked out more than 30 students to turn up for training. In November 1971, training started at the school field and before the schools’ tournament which began at the end of January 1972, the training schedule became frequent and was centralized at the famous Ipoh Municipal Padang.

Mr Noel de Oliveiro (seated 2nd from Left) with Brother Ultan Paul and  SMI Under 15 hockey team 1970s)

Players would turn up even during the school holidays ie December 1971 and train from 7.00 am till 10.00 am in the morning and return for a second session at 4.00 pm till 6.30 pm daily. The team began to build a close relationship with the incredibly dedicated coach, with support from his dear wife who was always there to ensure that the team got their refreshments on time.

“Players from St. Michael’s from the seventies who proudly carried the school’s name went on to represent the Combined Schools  and later the State of Perak were Henried Ong, Foo Keat Seong, Benedict Arrais, K. Rajan, Christy Gomez, Abdul Kadir, Gerard Raj, Gunasegaran & Sandrasegaran (brothers), Charlie Foo Tit Yong, Kong Chee Seng, Chai Seng Yu, Reginald Sinha, Rohan Marshall, Felix  Jude Nathan, Charles Aitkens David, Anthony Christie and Mohd Abdul Hadi.” .

While many of the players above had to shorten their hockey careers due to work commitments or further studies, there were a committed few such as Foo Keat Seong, Benedict Arrais, K. Rajan, Chai Seng Yu, Charles David, and Abdul Hadi who went on to represent the Country. Foo Keat Seong and Hadi had glorious careers as they went further to captain the national side. 

Master Noel was also affectionately accepted as mentor and a fatherly figure by hundreds of players that he had coached over the years. Some of his notable quotes include ' If you want to travel the world, master your hockey' and ' You don't have to go begging to play ..just work hard at training sessions and improve on your game..selectors will come looking for you instead'. Master Noel instilled a sense of self worth, passion and true dedication into every player that he had coached.

Cheers to the Glory days of the Michaelian Hockey team.