Here’s the ‘Chakh De’ moment for this school in Navi Mumbai

Apeejay School, Kharghar holds a great sporting talent. It believes in the philosophy of building good sportspeople from the ground up. The school had won laurels in the football pitch, and within a week they were back with another glory in the handball competition. 

The U-14 girls handball team of the school had their very own ‘Chakh De’ moment as they came out with flying colours in the prestigious state level tournament held at Palghar, Maharashtra. The team reached the final by beating all other eight teams of different zones, winning the final with Nagpur. With this historic win the school became the first school in Maharashtra to have clinched the ‘Handball Championship for the Year 2023’ title.

Explaining the preparation strategy, Coach Mr. Pradyanand Anil Kamble mentioned that he adopted a new approach while selecting and training the players. He said, “I started coaching the players in June 2022. We have been training for almost six months. I had to start from scratch since a lot of time was lost due to the pandemic. In the morning, we trained from 6:30-8:30. I focused thrice a week on the conditioning exercises. It consisted of weight training, circuit training and endurance. Then we had a nine minutes run and walk session.” He also added, “Overall we had a great squad, with seven on field players and nine on the bench.”

Further, Captain Alia Jawad Khatib said, “We played the district handball tournament in December 2022 and then the zonal tournament in January 2023. We won both and then progressed to the state level championship. It had only three games but all of them were knockout.”  She added, “I play as left back and so I had to make a lot of defensive stops. But this was a team win, the way our team bonded on the field, off the field was very special.”

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“Congratulations to our sports teachers, Rashmi Barthwal and Pradnyanada Kamble, and our handball team for your well-deserved success. Your hard work and dedication have paid off. We are proud of our U-14 Girls Maharashtra state champions. Your mindfulness and aptitude on the ground were incredible.”

–MS. TEJASWINI KATDARE, PRINCIPAL, APEEJAY SCHOOL, KHARGHAR 

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The Goalkeeper Myra Kulkarni said, “It was a really adventurous tournament. The opponents would always hit the ball in the goalpost corners. I saved many shots but some I could not. I also saved a penalty in between the game, which was a good moment for me.”

Right back player Tanya Deshpande said, “It was a very tough competition. We achieved a lot as a team. I played as a right back and had a great tournament. In the quarter-final with Nasik we won by 9-8, in the semi-finals we won against Aurangabad by 6-8, and then in the finals we won 6-5 against Nagpur.”