After local stint,hoopster Soumya off to US academy

Soumya,who has returned from the Basketball Federation of India (BFI) sub-junior camp at Bhopal on Sunday,is unperturbed about the 7000 miles that she has to travel,“It shouldn’t be so tough,there are three other girls with me and though I didn’t know them before but we interacted during the camp and it should not be a problem,” she says.

Traveling away from the comforts of her home is not unusual for Babbar. She has been participating in national tournaments since she was in seventh grade. And by the age of 12,Soumya was already playing the 35th sub-junior nationals at Kapurthala,Punjab in 2008. Though the Delhi team did not do too well that year,Soumya once again made it to the national sub-junior squad for the 2009-10 championships held in Chittorgarh in January this year. In fact it was her performance in that tournament that saw her receive an invitation for the trials.

Soumya has also represented Delhi at the School Games Federation of India U-14 nationals in Maharashtra where she helped her side bag the second position.

Soumya,who won the Best Player award at the 2010 Bal Bharti Invitational Basketball Championship has good wishes from everyone including the BFI secretary general,Harish Sharma,“Delhi is proud to have Soumya. We are sending these players so that they can be trained in the best way possible and I’m sure they’ll work hard to get their scholarship extended for a four year period.”

But her services will be dearly missed by her school. “Playing matches since class five is itself an achievement. The team’s strength will be reduced to half once she leaves,we used her height advantage and now it will take me another two years to build a player to replace her but we can’t be selfish,if we loose a couple of matches this year because of her absence,its all right but at least her career will see great development,” said Soumya’s school coach Pankaj Kumar.