The Southeast Asian Youth Ice Hockey Cup ended recently, and Singapore's National Youth team had a great run — coming away with the silver medal.

Here's what their journey to silver looked like:

- a 6-1 victory over Indonesia, followed by

- a 4-2 win over Malaysia.

They lost to eventual champions Thailand 1-7, but came roaring back in a 8-4 victory over Philippines.

This was good enough to secure a silver medal place for the team.

Their journey to that silver medal was far from this smooth though.

Tough road to Bangkok

Singapore's 11 main players constituted the smallest contingent in the tournament.

For reference, a typical roster size for an ice hockey team, including substitutes, is usually 20 players.

The relatively small size of the Singapore team was because several members had to drop out due to PSLE and GCE 'N' Levels.

Even then, they put in their all, training up to 10 times a week leading up to the competition, at times ending training sessions past midnight.

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And according to MyactiveSG, those who made it all the way to Bangkok had to do it on their own dime as well.

"All costs, including airfare and accommodation associated with the trip, are borne by the players and coaches themselves."

Tough road at home

And flight tickets weren't the only big ticket item the team was dealing with.

The equipment, rental of ice rink for training and transport back after practices are funded entirely by the parents of the youth hockey team.

And those expenses adds up.

According to a giving.sg fundraiser page (we'll tell you more about that later) set up by the team, this is how much it costs to provide an hour of time on ice for the team.

S$520.

Which is a lot.

Trying — and failing — to raise money

Things got so strenuous on the team financially that they set up a fundraiser on giving.sg to help defray the cost.

And while there was a sizeable amount of money raised, it fell quite a way short of their target.

The campaign is now expired, and the funds were raised just to cover their overheads for the Youth Games.

Despite all this, even before the tournament started, team coach Joewe Lam had this to say about the players' motivations.

“They have only one goal; to bring home a medal and glory to Singapore in this upcoming tournament.”

And despite everything they had to put in, and sacrifice, that's exactly what they did.

Kudos.

Images from Singapore Ice Hockey Association