In this modern education system, a lot of emphasis is laid on games and sports, in comparison to former times. The main idea behind this would be the fact that these days children are being more engrossed in their screens rather than being socially and physically upfront. In line with Atmiya Vidya Mandir’s motto: ‘Union of Body, Mind and Soul’ given by His Divine Holiness Hariprasad Swamiji and His vision, a lot of emphasis is placed upon making sports an integral part of the school schedule. Hence, the AVM volleyball team had an opportunity to participate in the CBSE Cluster XIII – U-19 Volleyball Competition 2023-24 which was held at the Podar International School, Nadiad on 26th October 2023.
The inaugural ceremony of this volleyball tournament was quite inspiring and was witnessed by all the participating teams and their coaches from various CBSE schools. Following the school song and a motivating speech by the school principal, the pupils of the school then gracefully displayed their talent by means of several dance performances. After that, there was a captivating display of skills by Karate experts. After the ceremony, the tournament started with great enthusiasm.
AVM team’s initial match was arranged against the team of Divine Child International School. The players of the opposite teams were quite confident as they had been the champions of a recently played football championship. With a sheer stroke of hard luck, during the first set of the match AVM team was not left with any further scope of effort, and lost the set with a score of 23-25. After learning some lessons and tricks from the loss, AVM volleyball players started again with prayers and emerged strong in the second set having a lead of almost 7 points, but an adverse turn of events made the team lose the second set. Though the victory was not in their bag, but the team was sure to bring home the satisfaction of making their best efforts in this CBSE Cluster XIII U-19 Volleyball Competition 2023-24. Thus, AVM volleyball players truly felt that the day had passed but the learnings from this event remain!
Written by: Aashish Patel (Grade 10), Chaitanya Patel (Grade 11)
