PANAJI
Fr. Agnel’s Multipurpose High School, Verna, organized a summer camp for its students recently.
The following sports were offered: football, basketball, hockey, badminton, table tennis, and chess—an annual feature at the school.
Around 180 students participated in the summer camp, a significantly higher number compared to the last few years.
“The highlight of this year's summer camp was the introduction of hockey. Around 60 students participated in the hockey program. We introduced hockey on our campus with the help of ex-Olympians and Arjuna Awardees—Joaquim Carvalho and Merwyn Fernandes this year,” said Fr. Agnelo Gomes, Director of the Agnel Technical Education Complex.
Students from Grades 1 and 2, both boys and girls, took part in the training under the supervision of coaches Anslem Gabriel and Volusiano Dourado, assisted by the school's physical education teachers.
The ambitious school hockey programme was officially launched on February 23 this year in collaboration with the Agnel Technical Education Complex at the Agnel Ashram Ground in Verna.
Carvalho and Fernandes have teamed up for a unique and ambitious hockey initiative at Fr. Agnel Multipurpose High School, aiming to promote the sport at the grassroots level—starting right from the primary school stage.
“The aim of this program is to catch them young and instill in our students the finer points of this lovely national game, which has been lagging behind in Goa,” Fr. Agnelo Gomes had said earlier.
“We are planning to include hockey coaching as part of the regular curriculum. Students will practice hockey during their PT period, eliminating the need for after-school practice. We also aim to create a hockey culture so that, eventually, a decade from now, these students could be playing at the state and national level,” he added.
Meanwhile, the plan to install a small-sized astroturf at the Verna school complex is moving in the right direction.
“We have already received quotations from various vendors for laying a hockey turf on our Verna campus this summer,” said Fr. Gomes.
