JOIN USThe second edition of the Jude Felix Hockey Academy inter-school hockey tournament will be held from November 7 to 10 at the Karnataka State Hockey Association stadium.
The six-team event, which has found a sponsor in South United Football Club for this year, will be held in the round-robin format and will follow the same rules observed in the previous edition.
“We did not want the competition to be easy. We invited teams which would provide our team (Maria Niketan) with stiff competition,” said Olympian and former India skipper Jude Felix during a press conference on Tuesday.
“St Joseph’s Boys’ High School could not make it this season but apart from them all the big teams will vie for the honours.”
The organisers of the event have also managed to rope in a few current players and former stalwarts to hand out special awards in an attempt to inspire the youngsters. Adrian D’Souza, Arjun Halappa, Tushar Khandkar and Viren Rasquinha will be the big names present on the final day of the tournament, while Olympic medallist MC Mary Kom might make time off her busy schedule to make her presence felt.
The former centre-half also announced that there were plans to unveil an all-India version of the same tournament from the following year. “We were approached by some teams from outside Karnataka. They were keen to take part in this tournament so we are hoping that we can strike a deal and make it an all-India tournament with two teams from Karnataka from the next year onwards,” said Felix.