A Thousand Thierrys

Two more CFA trainees, Randeep and Jaspal, also from Khokhar Foujian—the village has 70 players in the sub-junior and junior categories—attended the u-16 camp organised by the All India Football Federation.

NONE of this, however, happened overnight. Batala-Dhariwal’s tryst with football dates back to 1957, when a nondescript village school by the name of Guru Nanak High School (GNHS), in Satkoha near Batala, stunned everyone by finishing second in the Gurdaspur district high school tournament.

From 1958 to 1987, the GNHS team picked up a record 27 Gurdaspur district schools football tournament titles as the soccer fever spread to the neighbouring villages of Khokhar Foujian, Goderpur, Bazid Chak, Behbal Chak, Udhowal, Nikke Ghuman, Bulewal, Dayalgarh, Rajuwal and Uppal, to name just a few.

Part of the popularity of the game can be traced to the economic factors—many of the footballers here found jobs with government and private institutions—and, of course, fame. Apart from gaining money and exposure at higher levels, the players also value the respect they earn by pursuing the game.

GNHS itself, the school where it all started, has produced many state and national level football players since 1957. Most of them have represented top clubs and institutional teams like JCT, East Bengal, Punjab Police, Punjab State Electricity Board, Border Security Force, Central Reserve Police Force and the Rail Coach Factory.

GNHS student William Masih played for East Bengal in 1993-94 while Harminder Singh, Suba Singh, Balwinder Singh, Harpal Singh, Sukhpal Singh, Jagdev Singh and Amrik Singh, also former students of the school, made their marks at the national level.

However, after 1987, GNHS stopped participating in district school tournaments. Gurdaspur, points out GNHS headmaster Mohinder Singh, who has been heading the school since July 1, 1957, was one of the hotbeds of militancy, and there was no way they could risk sending students outside the state.

HOWEVER, the scene has changed drastically in the past 15 years, though it was only in 2004 that GNHS returned to the district school tournaments.

Sensing the potential, followers of the sect of Sant Baba Hazara Singh launched an academy at Nikke Ghuman in 2002; the academy currently has 36 trainees in the u-12 and u-14 age groups.

However, till date, there is no government scheme to promote the abundant soccer talent in this area. Even the fields are maintained by former footballers, who double up as coaches and guides to the budding players; they also sponsor the balls, kits and other equipment.

Say former players Bhagat and Devinder Singh, who helped set up the SBHS academy, ‘‘We are self-reliant, but help from other agencies can really help our players in a big way. They can think of rising even higher—maybe even playing for the senior Indian team for years.’’