By Marc Lim, Sports Correspondent

DRESS rehearsals. It is something we are very familiar with.

We have it every year, almost always more than once. Man-hours are clocked. Weekends are burnt - all in the hope that come Aug 9, we get Singapore's birthday party right.

The biggest dress rehearsal in Singapore's sporting history was concluded on Wednesday: The Asian Youth Games (AYG) - the trial run for next year's Youth Olympic Games (YOG).

The AYG was huge, involving as it did 1,235 athletes from 43 National Olympic Councils. Staff from the Singapore Sports Council and the Ministry of Education, and over 5,000 volunteers, were needed to see it through.

The project took a year of planning and operated on a budget of $15 million. But as with most rehearsals, not everything went according to plan.

For starters, the crowds were poor. The publicity could have been better. Schedules were mixed up while team check-ins were overlooked. The official website was not always up-to-date.

Perhaps the shortcomings were due to the fact that this was the first time in 16 years that Singapore was hosting a multi-sport event. Or perhaps staging an event of this magnitude after only one year of preparation, when it normally takes a host city more than five years to plan a major Games, was just too ambitious, even for Singapore.

Yet, with over a year still to go before the real show begins, there is enough time for fine-tuning.

You can already picture it: officials combing through every detail of the 10-day AYG to find out what worked - and more importantly, what did not. One can assume that by the time the world comes to visit next year, logistical pitfalls such as team arrivals, transportation and accommodation would have been checked, double-checked and triple- checked.

Yet despite all the planning one can do, all the contingency plans one can prepare, the YOG may still be in danger of failing - simply because it is not the National Day Parade.

The YOG is not just a one-day event like the NDP. Filling the stands on a one-off basis is relatively easy. But how does one bring in the crowds every day for 12 days, across 26 different sports and venues? How do you keep Singaporeans interested in a show that drags on for over a week?

It is this, rather than making sure that the athletes' buses arrive on time, that will present the biggest hurdles for the YOG organisers.

This is where the thousands of Singapore students can come in.

The YOG will run from Aug 14-26. It would be ideal if the usual September school holidays fall during that time.

If that is asking for too much, why not make Olympic education - already on the school curriculum - the theme for a day or two during the competition?

Make a field trip out of it. Let the kids see first hand how the Olympic values of Excellence, Friendship and Respect are played out in the sporting arena.

Student Michelle Sim wrote to The Straits Times' Forum page: 'As a student and an athlete, I would have loved to attend the AYG. However, the long school hours and upcoming examinations have deterred me from doing so.'

Organisers must find a way to get Michelle and others like her to the swimming pool, track or stadium.

The YOG was created for the young. It was meant to reignite the passion kids once had for sports and draw them away from just sitting at home and playing computer games. But if the very audience that the Games are targeted at find it difficult to be part of the action, we would have failed.

This is a problem Minister for Communication, Youth and Sports Vivian Balakrishnan is aware of. He knows the buzz athletes get from a packed arena, from hearing fans chant their names. So he has promised that his ministry will work with the MOE to see how more students can attend the Games next year.

Parents have to do their part too.

Sure, you might prefer watching Liverpool and Manchester United or more established sports stars such as swimming sensation Michael Phelps in action. But speak to Mr Koh Thiam Soon and he will tell you that there is more joy in cheering for Quah Ting Wen and Singapore swimmers than for a foreign athlete on television.

The Singaporeans hear you, respond when you scream their names, and oblige with autographs - experiences Mr Koh and his three children would never have got from watching Phelps on TV.

Publicity - or rather, the lack of it - was something the AYG suffered from. Perhaps budget constraints limited what could have been done.

But in the nine gold medallists from the AYG, the YOG already has ready-made ambassadors.

Ting Wen, 17, was the name on everybody's lips after she turned the Singapore Sports School into her mini gold mine, delivering four golds. Darren Choy, 15, ruled the waters of East Coast in sailing.

Why not make these teenagers the poster athletes of the YOG?

Get them to schools, on television, in newspapers, talking about how excited they are to test themselves against the best the world has to offer next year.

Hosting an efficient and well-planned Games is well and good. But no one remembers a Games because it had no hiccups. No one remembers a Games because it was controversy-free.

People, however, will remember Singapore if athletic meets are run in near-empty stadiums.

Forget the dress rehearsal. Forget the shortcomings. Forget figuring out who was responsible for what.

It is time to start working towards the YOG now. We need to get it right next August.

Because, unlike National Day, the YOG will not be back the following year.

This article was first published in The Straits Times.