SAIIER 2021:Dehashakti Football tournament
 Dehashakti School of Physical Education |
 |
 Physical Education training |
| Dehashakti Football tournament by Ganesh | ||
This project was to host a football tournament at Entity::Dehashakti School of Physical Education, allowing interaction between the football teams of Auroville, Pondicherry and the bioregion. Playing in tournament matches helps teams and individuals to better their skills and team dynamics.
Football has not been taken up as a major sport for quite some time in Auroville, though it has the potential and interest amongst the players. This tournament was for their encouragement and development as players and as a team.
Description of project:
The tournament was an event hosted over 2 days (27th and 28th March, 2021) at Dehashakti football ground. There were a total of 13 matches, taking place each day in the mornings and evenings. A total of 13 teams participated. 2 of the 13 were Auroville teams (Auroville & Dehashakti), 5 teams from the bio-region and 6 teams from Pondicherry/ surroundings. The teams which participated are as follows:
- Dehashakti
- Auroville
- WOGA (Winner)
- Playmakers (Runner-up)
- Oulgaret
- GEMS
- Kittu Kickers
- Thavalakupam
- ULFC
- PEC
- Annai Nagar
- Infinite
- Error
The project setting and management was coordinated by the teachers’ team at Dehashakti, and on 28th March evening at 6pm a prize distribution ceremony was held for the winning and runner-up teams.
Outcomes:
During the tournament a lot of potential was seen in the Auroville teams and they benefited from the exchange and competition with better-trained teams from Pondicherry. The teams from Pondicherry and the bioregion extended a continued exchange with the Auroville teams for friendly matches. We will henceforth also request formally the teams to invite Auroville teams for tournaments at their ground. This will also open a channel for the Auroville teams to train harder and eventually register with Pondicherry Football Association.
Reflections:
The most meaningful part about this project was the discipline that tournament matches brings in the players . The challenges faced were a few, like we realized although Auroville teams have a lot of potential in the sport, they lacked in playing matches. The learning was that they need to play more and more friendly matches with tougher teams in order to grow and progress in their skills and team dynamics. There were some other challenges, like the ground at Dehashakti is not a full ground but a smaller one, hence the matches were difficult with 11 players each in the teams. Furthermore, the weather was too hot and too many matches were held in two days, maybe in future we would like to have them divided in 3-4 days.
Conclusion:
The intention for the future is to focus more on the training for the Auroville/ Dehashakti football teams. We intend to continue building a network enabling us to open more doors and opportunities for exchange for tournaments and/ or friendly matches in the future.
