Editorial

Learn From the EMRS Model
Basketball has never been big in Sikkim, hill-people physiques, one being constantly told as better suited for football or martial arts. And although sportspersons from Sikkim have performed consistently well in the latter two disciplines, the phenomenal Girls from Gangyap have proven that no stereotype can hold out against passion and commitment supported by the right belief and faith.
Training on a rough, mud court [which is not even regulation size] in remote West Sikkim, without even a proper hoop, the girls basketball team of Eklavya Model Residential School has also demolished the myth that basketball was an elite sport of tall youth sporting branded sneakers and having access to state of the art facilities. There is no denying the fact that these stereotypes held strong in Sikkim, because just about every school here has a basketball court, but none has really invested time, belief or training which would have inspired their teams to aim for glory beyond Sikkim. Such support was however extended to the EMRS squad and the girls have reciprocated exceptionally well, turning all stereotypes on its heads and blazing a triumphant path which has no equals. Their journey from remote Gangyap to glory as national champs needs to celebrated by everyone in Sikkim, and their story shared widely... to inspire, motivate and reflect pride.
The Eklavya Model Residential School at Gangyap is one which few in Sikkim would have heard of until EMRS started grabbing headlines thanks to its girls basketball team. Until the EMRS girls discovered the sport of basketball, few would even have heard of Gangyap. Most people in Sikkim will still not be able to find Gangyap on the map. For those interested to know more, Gangyap is 19 kilometres north of Tashiding, en route to the remotest village of Sikkim, Karjee [something even its officials discovered only when the CM reached there earlier this year as part of his village-to-village tour]. It can be safely said that unless one is a student at EMRS or has friends there, there are very few reasons to head that way. And yet, the school has consistently produced basketball players of exceptional skill and resolve. The school management’s persistence with the sport has now achieved its stars legendary status as the first school from the entire Northeast region to have won the CBSE under-19 Basketball Championship. The model school’s model to inspire its students to aim big needs to be studied, appreciated, understood and replicated across the State because what Sikkim students lack are not opportunities, but conviction. Who better to learn from than the girls enrolled in a school which still does not have a proper campus, but does not allow conditions which would spread hopelessness among most to curtail their dreams? It is perhaps from this positivity that the EMRS team found the confidence and resolve to bounce back from five points down in the final quarter [of 15 minutes] of the final match to surge to victory three points ahead of their opponents.
It is important to bear in mind that the EMRS success is neither a flash in the pan nor is it born from the coincidence of a group of exceptionally gifted players coming together by chance. The EMRS squad sees new players almost every year, but has still consistently grown in strength. Despite many of its students having never seen a basketball until they enrolled here, the school boasts an exceptional bench-strength with even its ‘B’ and ‘C’ teams strong enough to beat any other team in the State. One of the players in this year’s winning team is a class VII student who played her first tournament only this year. It has obviously taken years of hard work, consistent commitment and rare optimism to craft together the skills and confidence which led to EMRS standing tall as national champs in December 2011. The present team might have held up the trophy this year, but the victory is thanks to all those players who ever wore the EMRS colours through the years. And it has not been that many years, the school was only established in 2007; the present class X is the first batch of the school. And no, it is not as we have forgotten, truly, the credit must largely go to the school management which believed in its students, worked with them, groomed their skills and ended up reflecting such pride on Sikkim. The school’s administrators and its students [not just the winning team, but more of them] should be contracted as resource persons and escorted to schools across the State to share their experience to inspire and motivate more among the young to believe in themselves and convince the elders to invest respect, belief, time and support in the young to deliver Sikkim the achievers it deserves.