On 23rd November 2019, our school participated in the CBSE Hubs of Learning – Inter School Volleyball Competition held at Shree Radhagovind Vidyamandir, Ninat (near Bardoli).  The participating schools in the tournament were Podar International School (Surat), Atmiya Vidya Mandir, Shree Radhagovind Vidyamandir, R P Bhavani Vidya Mandir (Umbhel), L P Savani International School (Surat) and Genius Educational Academy (Dist. Surat). Our school teams participated in both age groups, i.e., U-17 and U-19.

Under the guidance of our coaches Hitesh Sir, Ritesh Sir and Naresh Sir, our teams had worked hard to get prepared for the tournament. In addition to the coaching, our school’s hopes of winning the tournament helped push ourselves even harder. Sincerity, after all, is one of the easiest ways to gain blessings of the Almighty.

After the opening of the tournament, the first match was held in the U-17 category between Atmiya Vidya Mandir and the host team Shree Radhagovind Vidyamandir. Initially, our team faced some difficulty in the first set, but eventually, we won the first set. Having analysed the game of the opponents, our school managed to win the second set easily, resulting in our victory in the match. This victory propelled our school team straight to the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals, our school had to face R P Bhavani Vidya Mandir. Our school’s team players were not taken aback by the tall players of the opponent team. This was clearly seen in the match, as our school won the first set very easily. The opponents did create some difficulties initially in the second set, which were overcome by our team and we made our way straight to the finals by winning the second set with a good score margin.

The intense heat of the winter sun had made players of both teams lose some energy. But at this stage, the practice time given before the match proved to be useful for players of both the finalist teams – Atmiya Vidya Mandir and Genius Educational Academy. The match began with service by our team and we started taking a lead from the beginning itself. Our school had planned to finish the match as soon as possible, which was clearly seen in the first set, as our school won it with a margin of over 10 points. This pushed up the confidence level of our team members to play the second set. This proved to be very useful and made us win the second set and ultimately resulting in the victory of our team in the finals.

In the U-19 category, we directly had to play the semi-finals due to the bye that we got in the first match. Our semi-final was against Genius Educational Academy. In the first set, with few difficulties and mistakes, we won the set by a very close margin of points. In the second set, our school lagged behind in points while their team was on game point. With some more hard work and efforts, our team managed to equal the score, which resulted in the decider set. In the decider set, both the teams tried their best to win to reach the finals. Unfortunately, we could not win this set and could not make it to the finals.

Our last match of the tournament was the third-place match with Podar International School. Keeping the loss of the semi-finals behind us, our U-19 team played the match as if they were playing the finals. Needless to say, commendable efforts were put up by both the teams. But this time, with God’s grace, we ended up winning the match and secured the third position.

Summarizing the whole tournament, our school ended up on the third position in the U-19 category, and we secured the first position in the U-17 category. According to the points system, the third-place team was awarded 5 points, second place team was awarded 7 points and the champion team was awarded 10 points. In our case, the U-19 team brought 5 points and the U-17 team brought 10 points making it a total of 15 points. This score entitled our school as the overall champions in the boys’ group.

In this way, the tournament ended victoriously for our school.

Reported by: Yogi Patel (Class 11)