Sports For All, an ambitious multi-sport event for schools in and around Mumbai, is set to break all records during its second edition from November 28to December 19. It has already attracted close to 25,000 students to compete in 25 different disciplines from various schools, led by prestigious institutions like Jamnabai Narsee, Podar, Aditya Birla World Academy, Dhirubhai Ambani International, Ryan Group of Schools, The Universal Group, R.B.K among many others.
With the registration process open up until November 10th, SFA is confident of crossing its preliminary target of 35,000 students from across all schools of Mumbai.
“We are overwhelmed by the response,” Rishikesh Joshi, the brain and energy behind this initiative says. “We are getting innumerable calls from schools on a daily basis. All children are looking forward to be part of this championship, an Olympics style designed platform for school children,” he adds.
SFA’s main aim is to empower the budding talent at the inter-school level and provide them with a stage to showcase their prowess in sport and take their game to the next level and much to the delight of the team the numbers and entries coming in have been very encouraging. The maximum numbers of entries have come for athletics (2500), football (2010), kabaddi (1347), basketball (1432), badminton (1322), judo (1286) and karate (1169), among the other popular sports.
SFA Mumbai 2016, which will be a 20 day-long celebration of sport, is already seeing most schools preparing for the competitions with enthusiasm and zeal.
“We had introduced the school ranking and medal tally system last year which has got even principals and teachers excited,” Rishikesh says. Clearly, every top school renowned for its academic excellence is now keen to make its mark in sport as well. Accordingly, they are all fielding in huge contingents with the aim of becoming the champion school, the number one in sports too,” he adds.
The former sports administrator, who dreams of providing a platform for talented kids to display and hone their skills and truly revolutionize grassroots sport points out that India has never seen a sporting event of this scale and magnitude for school children. He believes that his dream and vision can be the stepping stone for future world champions, especially if it can be replicated in every city, every town of the country.
SFA, however, is not just about numbers (in just one year, it has grown manifold, reaching out to virtually every school in Mumbai); it also ensures that students battle it out in a highly competitive atmosphere with world class facilities. All disciplines will be held at federation-approved venues, including the iconic Dr DY Patil Stadium at Nerul and the state of the art Sports Authority of India in Kandivali, with licensed referees and officials overseeing every match.
Interestingly, SFA is going out of its way to provide a level-playing field to every kid, every school. With this goal in mind, it has incorporated the Ketto, a crowd-funding initiative that helps raise funds for lesser privileged sections of the society. It has already supported over 110 schools, including BMC schools.