By Parag Jain (Student of Post-Grad in Journalism, class of 2014-2015)
Duruelo Convent School in Bandra has been among the top 3 hockey playing schools in Mumbai and its players are on top of their game after winning the District Level Hockey U-14 and U-17 and also the Jawaharlal Nehru Cup 2014-15 recently. The school is a nursery of hockey in Mumbai. It has always supported girls’ hockey.“It is all because of the hard work of the coach and the girls”, said the Principal of Duruelo Convent, Sister Zarina. Their coach, Happy (Phul) Mann is very proud and happy with the way girls have performed. “Our main strengths are basic skills, techniques, and coordination among the players.
Their commitment levels are very high but I always tell them not to take any of their opponents lightly”, Mann said. A national hockey player and also represented the country from 1983 to 1991, Mann took up umpiring after playing in the World Cup qualifying rounds in 1985 and 1989. Her purpose in joining school hockey was to get the players’ techniques corrected at an early age. “It is my dream to give at least one girl from Mumbai to the Indian National Women’s team”, Mann added. Before Mann, Duruelo Convent School had Ignatius D’souza as the coach who encouraged and supported the girls to play more and more hockey.In the past two years, nine girls from the school have played for Maharashtra and Mumbai.
Hockey is one of the most important things in the lives of these students. The game has taught them a number of values such as team spirit, sportsmanship, ‘never give up’ attitude, leadership qualities and most importantly discipline.The captain, Diksha Bhosle, is the right-outer forward of the team and is full of confidence at this moment. “The players have a lot of fun before and after the matches but once they are on the field, they give 100 percent. Encouraging each other and coordination helped us to succeed. When we won the final match this year, we celebrated on the ground by singing, dancing and we also said a small prayer and kissed the ground before leaving. We were given a small party in the school as well”, she said. Parents of all the players have been very supporting.
The girls also play football and cricket as hobbies. The school has provided the students with the best quality hockey sticks and goalkeeper kits.Their motivation comes from their coach and also from the hockey-based Bollywood movie ‘Chak De India’. “According to the former captain of the Indian hockey team, Dhanraj Pillay, Mann ma’am was one of the best right-outers”, one of the players said.
