Our school had recently participated in the CBSE Cluster-XIII Basketball Competition from October 1 to 4. Our school has a very unique perspective in taking part in such meets. Guruhari Hariprasad Swamiji believed in the development of body, mind and soul. Playing sports inculcates the value of “Atmiyata” in students. Taking part in sports trains our brain to concentrate on a particular skill which develops the mind. And of course, sports plays an important role in maintaining fitness and health.

The competition was organised across all three groups; U-14, U-17 and U-19 for the first time in 13 years at Delhi Public School (Vadodara).

The U-14 team was awarded a bye at first. Then they cruised to the quarter-finals where they met the to-be runners-up of the U-14 competition. Our team unfortunately succumbed to the Gujarat Public School (Vadodara) team with a score of 9-17. The promising team ended their campaign there.

The U-17 team was also another good contender. They too were presented a bye in the first game. The very next day they faced the Navrachna School (Sama, Vadodara) team. Even with some incredible efforts from the team and some amazing sportsmanship shown by our team, we lost by just 4 points, with a score of 26-30.

The U-19 team played their first game also against the same school which ended up winning the U-19 competition. The team lost by a huge margin as they weren’t experienced enough against such tremendous teams.

Overall, all of our school teams learnt lessons and developed new skills to perform better the following year. The coaches are proud that even with a poor performance at this stage, they demonstrated a great deal of “Atmiyata” amongst them.

Reported by: Abhay Patel (Grade 11)