Narendrapur, December 21, 2022: Tata Steel Meramandali (TSM) is proud to share that three volleyball players trained under Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) Meramandali volley ball coaching and mentoring programme are participating in 25th youth national volleyball championship taking place at Panna, Madhya Pradesh, from 16th December to 22nd December 2022. The selected boys are Subrat Behera, and Sambit Behera from Khaliberena Village and Bikash Patra from Raghunathpur from Hindol Block of Dhenkanal District.
Out of the 12 member team, these 3 players have been trained by TSF coaching centre. They have been selected after a 15 day long Youth National Trials held at KIIT, Bhubaneswar.
Thanking TSF for the support, player Subrat Behera said: “It will always be a great experience for me to play for Odisha and the national level. My hard work and constant guidance by our coach made it possible. I thank Tata Steel Meramandali and Tata Steel Foundation for all their assistance.”
Tata Steel’s tradition has been to encourage and promote sports over a century now. Carrying forward this legacy, TSF, has been mentoring young and budding volleyball talents in and around Dhenkanal and Angul districts.
Since June 2019, volleyball players and aspirants from 15 peripheral villages of 7 Gram Panchayats such as Mangalpur, Nuahata, Nuagaon, Shibapur, Paik Purunakote, Khadaprasad, and Kusupanga around, TSM plant have been trained by Ashutosh Patra, a national level coach engaged by TSF. TSF has provided the necessary infrastructure like volleyball court, sports equipment, conducive atmosphere, and a dedicated state level Coach to fulfil their aspirations. All these players are being trained for junior, sub-junior and senior categories. Having seen the growth of volleyball in this region, girls are also getting attracted towards this sport.
Earlier, due to a lack of proper infrastructure, the players were facing difficulty to play after sunset. TSF has developed two solar powered volleyball courts in Khaliberana and Mangalpur villages to facilitate coaching in the night. Volleyball is gradually transforming the rural sports landscape in the region, with the promise of promoting local sporting talent.
