As they saunter out of the Don Bosco oratory, you could bevery well fooled into thinking that these star players of the Don Bosco HigherSecondary Basketball team have stepped out right out of your television “ theyare tall, they carry themselves with confidence, and a thin sheen of sweat glistenson their arms. Their star status doesn’t end with their appearance though.Besides emerging the state champions last year, many of them have played at theNationals and five of them play at a professional level for the YMCA Knightswhich is one of the top teams “ precisely the third in Goa “ based on thenumber of wins. And if that was not enough, two of them “ Tristan Lopes,captain of Don Bosco HS Basketball team, and Shawn Soares are selected as theprobables for the men’s’ basketball team that will play at the Lusofonia Gamesnext year.
What makes the story more remarkable is, these boys havebeen in the Don Bosco basketball team at the school level and they all “barring three who joined form other schools “ moved up to form the Don BoscoHigher Secondary team after they joined higher secondary school.
At the school level the boys were trained by Coach SandeepWalikar who has been a coach with the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) since 1993.They are now under the tutelage of Coach Charles D’Souza. Surely keeping up thewins is no small feat as the coaches elaborate. “They have been unbeatable,being state champs for the last four years,” says D’Souza. The boys train from6 am to 8am. “In the morning we train them on individual and team techniquesand tactics. In the evening they put it into practice. They divide into teams,and play with players from other higher secondary schools and clubs. That’swhere they polish the stuff they learnt in the morning or in the formaltraining sessions,” says Walikar.
“The Nationals are a whole different level and you get toplay players who are much older than you. They are like professional games.Most of the times the Nationals are at odd places and odd times and the weatherconditions are not so good. It’s like a test against nature and makes youstronger,” says Tristan Lopes who has been for the Nationals five times.
Besides basketball, the boys are into other sports all well.Most of them play handball and they were the state runners up in handball lastyear. Ralph Velho is also a TT champ and will be playing at the Nationals inJanuary 2013.
After beating St Xavier’s at the district level for theState inter-HS basketball tournament and entering into the finals this year,the team is all geared up to be the state champions once again.
