In a heartening development of sort, two boys from the globally acclaimed One Thousand Hockey Legs, a project of Delhi based Not-for-profit organization Hockey Citizen Group, have made their organization proud by emerging glorious in a tight trials for the newly put out National Hockey Academy.

Kishore Arya, who is currently an incumbent of Sports Training Centre, Patiala, of Sports Authority of India and Sunil Kumar, former student of Govt Boys Senior Secondary School, Saket, New Delhi have joined the National Hockey Academy last week.

National Hockey Academy is a new entity, will be based in New Delhi. Conceived by Sports Authority of India based on the proposal made by Olympians MP Ganesh, Jagbir Singh and Rajesh Chauhan, the premier academy is expected to cater to quite a few high talented sub-junior boys to catapult them to bigger stage.

The trials for selecting mates for the NHA was held a month before. Based on the input of Hockey India, Sports Authority of India invited about 70 boys for the 3-day trials at Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium, New Delhi.

Besides the triple stars mentioned above, national chief coach Rolent Oltmans was also part of the selection process.

Therefore, it is highly appreciable that OTHL’s two boys got selected in a national level high voltage selection trials.

Sunil and Kishore are respectively from govt schools of Saket and Begumpur, where OTHL started hockey five years ago, by creating first school infrastructure and then providing free kit, coaching and tournament exposure.

The duo’s rise also validates the NGO’s philosophy that week end practice starting from right age can produce valuable players, though the trend presently is to join an Academy early in the life and practice full time.

Kishore Arya is elder son of a private car driver while Sunil’s father does petty jobs. Their induction is expected not only usher in their hockey career, but also send right signals to others in the NGO to emulate their success.

It is hoped that the two boys will keep up the levels of discipline and commitment they have shown hitherto, and aim for higher feats in the new found opportunity.

Kishore is an established hand in left half position, while Sunil is an all rounder kind midfielder.

Sunil played Hockey India Sub-Junior Nationals Championships for Citizen Hockey XI at Baroda and Jammu.

Kishore captained Delhi in the latest Junior National Championship in Ranchi, while in the past twice for Citizen Hockey XI at Baroda and Jammu.

Hockey Citizen Group which spotted them and groomed them out of hundreds of kids they introduced hockey, wishes them a grand success in their budding career.