THENHIPALAM: When it comes to selecting their star athletes, majority of the champion schools follow an open policy by conducting all-Kerala selection trails. But a handful of schools still depend on local talents in the rat race for titles and glories during the state school meets. The state athletic meet has always been a battle of these two different philosophies that has evolved based on various factors. For example in the previous edition of the meet, Parli HSS, which boasts of fielding only local talents within 20km radius of the school in Palakkad, put up a stiff challenge for title against Mar Basil HSS, Kothamangalam, a school that selects athletes through selection trials in which students from almost all districts take part.
Mundur HSS, Palakkad, and St Joseph’s HSS, Pullurampara in Kozhikode, are the other major schools that have come in the limelight recently by training local talents and showing good performances. On the other side of the spectrum, Mar Basil, St George HSS, Kothamangalam and Kalladi HSS, Palakkad, select students from all over Kerala to pick their talents. Indeed, both the strategies have their own positives and shortcomings. “We start our preparations with an all-Kerala meet by April every year. I think it is not fair to restrict an athlete’s training based on his/her locality. We are an institute to develop athletes from the grassroot level,” says P.K. Jafar Babu, the coach of Kalladi HSS. The school aims to win this year’s meet or finish in the second place.
“We give equal opportunities to everyone and the school management supports us superbly. They have provided us with all facilities such as free accommodation, education and training for 120 athletes,” he adds. P.G. Manoj, the coach of Parli HSS, who is famous for his disciplines in athletics, is happy with the way he selects the students every year. “It is more than sports. For us it is part of community development. All the people in Parli have a part in the success of the school in the athletic championship. I think we don’t deny anyone the chance to train. We are giving a chance to those from the locality to compete with the elite,” he says.
“The costs of training and everything are collected from the people from the locality. The panchayat also chips in with their funds. We have never thought about hostel facilities. We create talents in our locality. The reason behind is that the people in Parli have sports culture and they are ready to support it,” he points out. However, the major challenge these schools find when they select athletes from their locality is the difficulty to replace past stars. “Every year, students move to next age category and once they are out of school, we need to replace them. It takes time and if you look at the results carefully you can see once a batch graduates to next level, we will take a few years to catch up,” says N.S. Sijin, the coach of Mundoor HSS, Palakkad.
He also feels that the main aim of the school is to serve the village through athletics. “Several athletes have got jobs under the sports quota. The school is from a village area and we cannot match to the schools that are run by wealthy managements. So we have limited it to just athletes in the locality.” Shibi Mathew, the coach of defending champions Mar Basil, feels that there should be more government help to the schools. “If not for the management’s help, we will not be able to conduct selection trials and support the athletes. I think the government also should chip in their contribution to support every school that contributes to the overall development of the sport,” she says.
