How does one keep teen footballers engaged through the lows of pandemic times?
The coaches of the senior school teams of P. S. Senior have been doing the best that the lockdown and regulations have allowed for – motivate their wards to remain fit.
Satish Yadav and his colleague Praveena have been overseeing the training and growth of the school’s football teams even as they managed the daily physical education needs of all students on this Mylapore campus.
The school’s senior girls football team has, in recent teams done creditably in competitive games. But for the past 15 months these girls who love the game have just not been able to even attend coaching sessions or loosen themselves on the field.
“It has been a tough time,” says Satish Yadav, who has been working at P. S. Senior as physical education teacher and qualified coach for over a decade after an eventful career in top football clubs.
“I drew up a fitness time-table for our school players, guided them online and kept the schedules going,” says Satish.
Football seems to have caught the imagination of many pre-teens at this school because of the exposure school children get here very early in school.
“We get kids even in Class 4 to get into the game,” says Satish. Which meant that he had to hire guest coaches to handle the big bunch of students who enjoyed learning and playing football on the campus ground.
Satish is hoping that restrictions on sports will be removed if the pandemic situation improves. “But unless the school officially opens and also allows sports to be practiced we cannot do anything,” says Satish.
- Photo used here is from the archives – of the P S Senior team featured at a past tournament
