JOIN USOne of the prestigious inter-collegiate sports fests in the City, Spiel, will be celebrating its silver jubilee this year, hoping to continue providing a platform for aspiring youngsters to showcase their skills.
Started in 1990 by host St Joseph’s College of Commerce’s Student Council president Manoj Pasangha as an alternative to the hugely popular music festival Livewire, Spiel now has become one of the most sought after sporting competitions by top colleges in the City.
“Livewire was huge that time,” recalled Professor Augustin, who has been working in the
college for the last 27 years. “While it was great stage for the youth to showcase their musical skills, the festival also led to a lot of activities that wasn’t good for them. We had no choice but to scrap it.
“Pasangha then suggested why not conduct a sports festival. The concept was good. Unlike one-discipline competitions, Spiel has quite a few. The college too liked it and soon the trend caught on. Today plenty of top colleges have them. We are proud to say that we set the trend.”
As part of the silver jubilee celebrations, SJCC has minted a silver coin that will be presented to both the winners and runners-up. “Generally we give away medals and trophies but we wanted the winners and runners-up to take something more memorable. We minted this pure silver coin only for this edition. We believe this adds plenty of purpose to the event.”
In Spiel ’15, around 40 colleges will be competing in various disciplines such as basketball, table tennis, football, throwball, badminton, tennis and hockey. It will kick-off on Saturday and conclude on February 14.