Software and web development are very challenging and brain-draining but totally worth while activities. As a professional developer, you need other hobbies or activities to focus on from time to time to avoid burnouts and unwind. Luckily for some of us, basketball is one of those excellent activities which we can do to take our minds off of things.
Players
The Batch 4 Day class is composed of 17 boys and three girls. Having this many guys in a room, we could already create a whole basketball team. And so we started asking them if they would be interested in a friendly basketball game just to unwind. Fortunately, just enough of them said yes and we were able to come up with two teams.
Our first roster and pioneers of the weekly basketball games were campers Rey, Pidz, Paul, Mavs, Jaekz, Kevin, mentors PeeJay and Billy, and alumni Gerard and Vince.
But later on we invited four more additional players: Lex and Vince (Yes, we have two Vinces!) from Tuitt Inc., Tuitt Philippines’ sister company focusing on software product development; and Mark and Benedict, Batch 4 Day class campers.
First Game
Upon having an agreement with all the players, Billy immediately contacted his friend and bootcamp batchmate, Vince, if it was possible for him to schedule a game and reserve a court at Valle Verde 3 and he did so. Though it was a late notification to reserve the court for us, luckily the schedule was still available and we were able to grab it.
Follow-Up Games
After the first game, it became our weekly habit to play friendly games every week, which is a good thing for our players as well, because this will give them time to refocus their minds, help them prepare for upcoming challenges in the bootcamp and avoid burnouts.
Courts
We played in two different basketball courts. The first one was at Narra St., Valle Verde 3 and the other one was at Sacred Heart Parish Shrine, near Tuitt’s headquarters.
New venues will be considered for our future basketball games. The closer it is to our bootcamp, the better it will be for everyone.
Post Game Activities
After every game, we hangout somewhere in a place that’s near the basketball court to grab some food, and talk about anything and everything that’s related to web development, what went on during the game, or even life in general.
Uniform
We also had an idea to create our own uniform with light and dark versions depicting Tuitt’s brand name and the batch’s number. Sad to say that for now, we were not able to implement it. Maybe for the next batches, we can make it happen. This is a win-win idea anyway.
Final Game
Our last basketball game with Batch 4 Day class was special because it was the first time we mixed and match players against each other, as opposed to our original team setup that is usually mentors and alumni versus students.
Some more campers actually went with us as well to play badminton. They were Emman, Ruel, Darryl, and Julie.
Future Game Plans
We are hoping to continue this weekly habit of having basketball games for the upcoming future batches of campers as well. This will definitely help us create a sense of camaraderie among our students and be able to work as a team outside the bootcamp.
Inviting alumni who are currently working or will be working here in Metro Manila companies to play against new trainees, we think, is a sound idea. This can help us get to know them more and provide an avenue for fellow web developers, who love to play with codes and basketball at the same time, to connect.
It has been a wonderful experience playing with you, guys! We are looking forward to our future games with you as Tuitt Coding Bootcamp alumni.
