JFHA Tournament: a welcome addition to Bangalore Schools Hockey Stable
“We had to use someone’s name, they just used my name – Jude Felix – it’s everyone’s academy. A lot of people have slogged hard to make the academy reach this level,” this is how Jude Felix, co-founder of Jude Felix Hockey Academy, summarized the contribution of myriad people working for JFHA all through the year.
With the backdrop of a ‘Curtain Raiser’ event for the upcoming JFHA Inter-School Hockey tournament, hosted on an early Sunday morning, it was almost an extended family gathering for the Hockey fraternity in Bangalore.
Ranging from KSHA officials led by K Krishnamurthy, to former Hockey players, to current Indian Hockey team players – ArjunHalappa, SV Sunil, SK Uthappa and VS Vinaya – to children, spouses — they all were there to extend support to JFHA.
Following the warm-ups the stage was set-up for an exhibition match between the Maria Niketan children – JFHA trains children from this orphanage– versus ‘Rest of Hockey World’ comprising of ArjunHalappa, SV Sunil, VS Vinaya and various other oldies and patrons of JFHA.
A 10-minute half each, was too hard for the oldies as children made them cover the ground well. The young lads from JFHA beat the old custodian, Khalid Modi, himself a goalkeeping coach, three times. A few moves orchestrated by SV Sunil, was the saving grace for the elders in the match, where the oldies were found gasping for breath, many a times.
Undisputedly, everyone was happy seeing the children excel, as the mike-commentator pulled a few fast ones on all the elders on the field.
The final whistle was followed by a Curtain Raising event where the trophy for the tournament was unveiled.
Felix, while interacting with s2h, revealed, like last year, this year, too, the tournament will be ‘under floodlights’. A total of 6-8 teams are expected to be in the fray for the tournament, with at least 2 teams travelling to Bangalore from elsewhere.
Other than the known Hockey faces, the academy is targeting to get some inspiring personality, as a surprise element.
With regular visits from study-groups, supporters and international officials, JFHA also boasts of its two children Joshua and Arvind making to the SAI team. The academy has their personal gymnasium too.
The event slated for 7th-10th Nov. promises hard competitive Hockey.
The home team, Maria Niketan School, high on its recent three straight victories in three tournaments – Taluk Level, District Level and Allan Macbridge Tournament – and after winning a few individual recognition awards too, is keen on improving their fourth standing of the last year.