Bhubaneswar, Dec 2: When India barged into the Quarter Finals of the Hockey  Men’s Junior World Cup 2021, defeating Belgium, it was an electrifying moment for all, especially, for those at the Kalinga Stadium and particularly for the first time Volunteers.

This felt like the best moment of their life, being part of the prestigious World Cup which saw some tough encounters on the day of the Quarterfinals. It was euphoric, a moment they will go on to share dearly for life.

Joint Secretary, Sports and Youth Services Department, Bijay Nanda Nayak, who is also Kalinga Stadium Administrator, shared, “Meticulous planning and allocating responsibilities is key to successful and seamless conduct of the event and the Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup 2021, ongoing at Kalinga Stadium is a perfect example of the same. This prestigious world cup features large number of students and sportspersons who are engaged as Volunteers for the first time, across functional areas, and are playing a key role in its smooth conduct.”

“Learning new skills for career advancement is key for our students of our Sports ecosystem and we try to ensure that we engage our own young boys and girls to give them exposure to international events. Sports and Youth Services Department has engaged over 100 sports students from its ecosystem at this world cup as a learning opportunity for our volunteers and also to ensure a memorable sporting experience for the players. This helps build responsibility and confidence amongst them.”

Over 60 students from the Government College of Physical Education (GCPE) led by faculty have been engaged in different functional areas including, Field of Play, Protocol Management, Office Assistant, Stand Management, Guest entry, Parking. Some sports hostels boys are engaged as ball boys too.

“Officiating at sports events is a part of our academic curriculum and this event has been a great learning experience for us and fun too. It gives us immense pride to be part of this prestigious tournament. We had an induction prior to the event and have a briefing session each day to ensure there is no adverse incident of any kind in the functional areas that we are engaged in, shares, Geetanjali Mahanta, a student of the GCPE, Bhubaneswar.

Few students from the XEBS-Centre of Excellence in Sports Management are engaged as Liaison officers  (LO) of few of the participating teams. “It feels overwhelming to be associated with a prestigious event as a Hockey World Cup. The vibrant sports ecosystem of Odisha state is helping me and my friends gain hands-on experiences which will benefits us in our learning path. We also got to interact with the Consul General of France in Kolkata, Dideir Talpein which was so inspiring”, shared Shubham Mohanty, a student from XEBS who is engaged in the event as a LO.

Chairman, XEBS, Ashley Fernandes, shared, “We at XEBS are immensely grateful to the Sports and Youth Services Department, Government of Odisha and Hockey India for the opportunity given to our students of the first batch of the dual degree program in sports industry management to work as Liaison Officers at the FIH Men’s Junior Hockey World Cup. XEBS believes in the ‘learning by doing’ pedagogy and we call our students ‘early makers’. The “early makers” teaching model provides a means of learning and putting that knowledge into practice, an action mindset that is the defining trait of change makers, which is what we want our students to be.”

Along with Hockey India officials, close to 1000 from Sports and Youth Services Department are engaged in the smooth and successful of the Hockey Men’s Junior World Cup.