Where hockey equals hope

For a 15-year-old, Harry Peter’s growth is stunted: he looks like an eight-year-old as he darts around the dusty new hockey field at the St Mary’s Orphanage in east Bangalore, and it’s clear that his hockey skills have grown faster than him. “When he plays hockey he forgets his size. His heart is bigger than he is,” says one of the most accomplished players the country has produced — former India captain Jude Felix.

Peter is among 80 children — orphaned, from broken homes and children of convicts — who have received training from an array of former Indian hockey stars at the Jude Felix Hockey Academy over the last one year.

Started in January 2009 by Felix, with nothing but the goodwill of many of his former colleagues, the academy at the orphanage has emerged as a hockey school to be reckoned with, especially with the training being provided by nearly a dozen former hockey internationals.

“It was completely unplanned,” Felix tells The Indian Express. “I was on a visit to the orphanage for Christmas in 2008 and the director Fr John Antony suggested I teach the boys to play hockey. Academy was too big a word then. Things have happened so fast, it’s quite big now,” says Felix, who hails from a modest background in Bangalore and is a professional sports manager in Singapore.

Compared to similar sports-education projects for the under-privileged such as the FC Barcelona Academy in Anantapur in Andhra Pradesh and the Johan Cruyff Education Center at Thalli in Tamil Nadu, the Jude Felix Hockey Academy can be considered a poor cousin. The hockey field at the orphanage is a far cry from the turfs the game is now played on, there are no physical trainers and their diets are not the most nutritious; still the academy has made substantial progress.

One of the older boys from the first batch at the orphanage-academy made it to the open trials for selections to the Sports Authority of India (SAI), six others from the senior batch tested out for positions in an army team — the Madras Engineering Group (MEG) boys’ team. More recently, they organised a tournament featuring an academy team, an MEG team, a visiting Singapore team and a SAI team to mark the first anniversary of the academy.

‘Everyone’s academy’

“A lot of friends have contributed to this project. Somebody who manufactures shoes donated the shoes, former hockey players came voluntarily and went about doing things. It’s like everyone’s academy,” says Felix.

Jude first announced the launch of the academy and roped in the likes of India cricketer Rahul Dravid and hockey icon Dhanraj Pillay to promote it. The Indian army chipped in through the MEG, turning a dry patch of land beside the orphanage into a decent enough, albeit mud hockey pitch overnight.

The coaching panel is headed by P Shanmugham, and former India stars such as Sabu Varkey and Len Aiyappa often drop in to share their experiences.

“It was the passion for the game that brought us together. Jude was a mentor and role model so when the idea of the academy came from him we didn’t want to look back and say this game doesn’t have money or the system is bad or anything like that. We thought let us make a start and set the standards,” says Shanmugham, a former India striker who also coaches the Karnataka side.

Olympian Sabu Varkey says: “When I first came to coach the kids it was about three months after the academy started and I was surprised by the skills they displayed. The challenge now is taking it to the next level with our limited resources.”

‘Aim is to revive the game’

The Jude Felix Hockey Academy takes kids from the orphanage in three age groups 9-10, 11-12 and 13-15, and trains them four days a week. The idea, Shanmugham says, is to have them in the academy for about five years — until they leave the orphanage after class 10. The aim is to revive hockey but simultaneously it is also to give under-privileged kids an opportunity to participate in a sport and learn life-skills through it.

And like the kids, who can be seen enjoying every moment they spend on the field, the academy itself is far removed from the controversies surrounding the sport.

“Why should you blame the game for any mismanagement? The game has done us no harm. It is the way we have managed things that is to be blamed. The game still gives players employment,” he says.

With no certified hockey coaching system in India, much of the coaching at the Jude Felix Hockey Academy is dependent on manuals and materials sourced by Felix and the other players.

“We teach hockey from experience. None of us are certified coaches. Jude sends us manuals and we learn about some of the latest stuff. Recently, Len Aiyappa went abroad so we asked him to go take a look at the youth development structure in that country,” says Shanmugham.

“In India if you want to train an eight year old there is no database to fall back on. How much can you load him? How much stress can I give him as a coach? What goals do I set for him? What tournaments does he play? There is no information,” he adds.

Over the coming year Felix is looking to organise an international school hockey tournament in Bangalore bringing in teams from Singapore and Malaysia to compete with local teams including the academy teams.

“We are not going to look back now. We have big plans for the future. Hockey is the national game of India and it’s time to give the game the prestige it deserves,” says Felix.