Kamalnayan Bajaj(Sharpshooters) sweeps PCMC ZP

The zilla parishad basketball tournament was conducted recently at the Jai Hind High School,Pimpri to select the PCMC teams for the divisional championship to be held in Solapur later this year.The tournament is conducted for u-14,u-17 and u-19 age groups in the boys and the girls section.Traditional powerhouse Kamalnayan Bajaj continued their supremacy in the PCMC sweeping 5 of the 6 titles on offer.

The dominance was such that all the finals were one sided.The lone disappointment came in the u-19 boys section where KB were drawn with the eventual champions Nirmal Bethany in the semi-finals.The boys gave it all till the end but were beaten by the better side.They however managed to grab the third place beating hosts Jai Hind junior college tamely.

The 5 teams from KB will now represent Pimpri-Chinchwad in the divisional/zonal championship in Solapur where they will battle it out with teams from Pune,Baramati,Ahmednagar,Solapur etc.

U-17 BOYS WINNING TEAM

RESULTS- ALL FINALS:

U-14 BOYS : KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ  bt  NIRMAL BETHANY

U-14 GIRLS:  KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ  bt St.URSULAS

U-17 BOYS:  KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ bt  St.URSULAS

U-17 GIRLS: KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ  bt St.URSULAS

U-19 BOYS :  NIRMAL BETHANY       bt  INDIRA NATIONAL SCHOOL

 3rd PLACE :  KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ bt  JAI HIND Jr.COLLEGE

U-19 GIRLS:  KAMALNAYAN BAJAJ bt  St.URSULAS

sharpshooters @ u-16

INTRODUCTION: The Pune District Basketball Association conducted its u-16 championship from June 30 to July 8 at the Deccan Gymkhana basketball courts.30 boys teams and 24 girls teams participated in the tournament with some clubs sending more than 1 team for the tourney.The tournament was named after Late Sanjay Nimhan.The Pune teams for the upcoming state championship to be held at Balewadi,Pune will be selected on the basis of this tournament.

SHARPSHOOTERS' PARTICIPATION: Sharpshooters participated in this tournament sending 5 teams in total i.e. 2 boys teams and 3 girls teams.The idea was to give exposure to players from the u-14 category as well since this kind of exposure goes a long way in building up confidence of the players.The teams were named A and B for boys and A,B and C for the girls in the decreasing order of their level.The club was on a high reaching the semi-finals of the u-18 tournament not so long ago.

                     Things, however,did not go so well for either of the boys or the girls teams this time.While the boys' B team and the girls' B and C teams got knocked out in the group stages itself,the A teams reached the knock-outs.

JOURNEY OF THE "A" TEAMS:

sharpshooters boys team

BOYS:The boys team was drawn in the group that included MPA(Modern Past Association) and Vidyanchal. MPA,the team that eventually won the tournament,brushed aside sharpshooters in the first match.Sharpshooters had to win the next match to move into the next round.And they did it in some style to thrash Vidyanchal to move into the knock-outs.In the knock-outs Sharpshooters beat St.Mary's to move into the pre-quarters where they lost to New Youngsters.

RESULTS:

Match 1 vs MPA (A)   - lost 15-49 (Rushikesh Pawar 11 points)
Match 2 vs Vidyanchal -won 50-9   (Rohit Pethe 20,Rushikesh Pawar 12)

Match 3 vs St.Mary's (knock-out)- won 47-43 (Rushikesh Pawar 17,Harish Gupta 13)
Match 4 vs New Youngsters(pre-quarters)-lost 21-32( Rushikesh Pawar 12)

GIRLS:The girls team was drawn in the group that included New Youngsters and Somans.They beat Somans not conceding a single basket and beat New Youngsters comfortably to reach the pre-quarter finals.
There they lost to Hoopers tamely and thus the journey of the club ended in both the segments.

RESULTS:
Match 1 vs Somans - won
Match 2 vs New Youngsters -won 36-15 (Roserachna Lakra 12)

Match 3 vs Hoopers(pre-quarters)-lost

Sharpshooters in action against Somans

                

SHARPSHOOTERS @ NBA CAMPS

Recently,two high level camps were conducted by the NBA(National Basketball Association) in the city within a span of a few days.Termed as "Train the trainer" and "NBA skills challenge",these camps focussed on coaches as well as the players alike.As usual,our club "Sharpshooters" participated actively in both these events and was amongst the largest respondents from the city.

TRAIN THE TRAINER: The National Basketball Association (NBA) hosted the 'Train the Trainers' programme at St.Mary's in Pune on June 11th and 12th., with some of the top basketball coaches from the city being part of the training session.The Train the Trainers programme, a part of the 2012 Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA basketball development programme in India saw in attendance numerous coaches for the two day session hosted by Troy Justice,Director of India operations, NBA.The two day programme featured on-court clinics and classroom sessions aiming to provide the coaches with additional training skills for the development of players from a skills and fitness perspective.The sessions also featured the NBA’s first-ever Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA India-focused training video. The 75 minute DVD, shot in India with local players, included videos illustrating fundamental skill development, advanced offensive moves, and fitness training. Each coach attending the ‘Train the Trainer’ session received a copy of the DVD.The attending coaches were also informed of the dedicated Jr. NBA/Jr. WNBA microsite on NBA.com/India that will provide all coaches and physical education instructors access to videos, photos and other materials to reinforce proper training technique.Eban Hyams,an Indian origin cager,who has played throughout the globe,was also present along with Troy Justice.

TROY JUSTICE in action at the camp

SHARPSHOOTERS' PARTICIPATION: Four members from the coaching staff of our club attended the camp viz; headcoach Nickhil Sareen,founder member Anul Sareen,Sreekanth Ajaykumar and Shraddha Patil.Our coaches belief in the "leave no stone unturned" strategy for the betterment of the club saw them attend the event with great focus and enthusiasm.Such events are a great tool of motivation for the trainers and knowing so,even the Sharpshooters support staff attended the camp so that they could learn and implement the latest techniques and methods to prepare the current lot as well as the coming generation of players from the club.Sharpshooters had also attended a similar programme previous year and since then have implemented the coaching techniques mentioned in the camp.This year there were a few new additions to the techniques taught last year,which the club will start implementing in the near future.The camp just confirmed that the club is on the right path and it gave a huge impetus to the Sharpshooters coaches in their bid to make it the finest in the city.( please click on "read more" below)

SHARPSHOOTERS @ PBL

            Basketball scenario is changing in the city and the advent of the Pune Basketball League is one such step in improving creativity and commercialization of the sport in the city,thus encouraging player exposure on a completely different platform and on a totally different level,which players haven't been accustomed to before.So,when the MPA announced the league for the first time this year for the u-13 age group,the players in the mini section were looking forward to it enthusiastically.The concept was such that the best players were to be distributed in different teams so that they could play with players from different schools/clubs and under the supervision of different coaches.Teams were sponsored by various corporate houses and other businesses.Selections were held and it came as no surprise that Sharpshooters girls were amongst the first to be selected for the tournament,thus proving that the club has been seen as amongst the best in Pune.

            Five girls were selected from the club for the inaugural PBL U-13 viz; RAHI KADAM,RUTUJA GODSE,KRITIKA JAIN,SHWETA SHINDE AND SHRUTIKA NAIK.SAMEER JOSHI AND VAIBHAV MAHINDRA were selected in the boys section.The league was a huge success and the performance of Sharpshooters was satisfying.The success of this tournament opened the gateways for PBL u-16.

           Selection trials were held for the u-16 age group and this time even more players were selected from Sharpshooters . In all 3 boys and 5 girls were selected for the 5 day extravaganza.RUSHIKESH PAWAR,ROHIT PETHE AND HARISH GUPTA were the Sharpshooters boys who were selected while JUI TETU,PAPIYA BHATTACHARYA,PINAKIN SURVE,ANAGHA NAMASEVI and SUSHAMA NAIDU were selected in the girls section.Of these,ROHIT PETHE played for the finalist team SOMAN's and PAPIYA and ANAGHA played for NEST CONSTRUCTION. Unfortunately,both these teams lost in the finals.Sharpshooters headcoach NICKHIL SAREEN was the coach of SOMAN's whose shrewd tactics led them into the finals but lost the finals narrowly in a match which could have gone either side.

           The performance of Sharpshooters in the Pune Basketball League has been very encouraging and the exposure has for certain raised their confidence levels and given them a boost to play neck to neck with Pune's best.         

                                        U-16   
                                                                                                                       
                Player                                                       Team

1. ROHIT PETHE                                       -SOMAN's
2. RUSHIKESH PAWAR                           -VENKY's
3. HARISH GUPTA                                    -BHUJBAL CONSTRUCTIONS
4. PAPIYA BHATTACHARYA                  -NEST CONSTRUCTION
5. ANAGHA NAMASEVI                          -NEST CONSTRUCTION
6. JUI TETU                                                -SANJAY SPORTS ACADEMY
7. SUSHAMA NAIDU                                -SANJAY KAKADE GROUP
8. PINAKIN SURVE(DID NOT PLAY)

                                     U-13
                Player                                                        Team

1. SAMEER JOSHI                                            -D.Y. PATIL 
2. VAIBHAV MAHINDRA(DID NOT PLAY) 
3. RAHI KADAM                                               -VASTUSHREE DEVELOPERS
4. RUTUJA GODSE                                           -D.Y. PATIL
5. KRITIKA JAIN                                              -SANJAY SPORTS ACADEMY
6. SHRUTIKA NAIK                                         -COURT BURNERS
7. SHWETA SHINDE                                        -AGNISHAKTI

RUSHIKESH PAWAR

ROHIT PETHE

                                           

HARISH GUPTA

VAIBHAV MAHINDRA

JUI TETU

RUTUJA GODSE

KRITIKA JAIN

PAPIYA
BHATTACHARYA

PINAKIN SURVE

NICKHIL SAREEN

                                        

GLORY @ U-18

            First of all, my sincere apologies for taking this long to come up with the first post.But I guess,u guys aren't mad @ me for that.Anyway, moving on....... The PDBA u-18 championship was conducted recently and as expected,Sharpshooters did well in both the boys and the girls section.
           The boys team reached the semi-finals and the girls team reached the pre-quarters.The fact that this is  the first time when a team from PCMC area has reached the semis of a PDBA tournament is the icing on the cake.Though the girls team couldn't hold their nerves in their P-Q/F match and lost a closely contested match by just a solitary point,the boys team held the upper hand throughout their pre Q/F fixture against their local rivals and nemesis Negians(Nirmal Bethany).This win meant that they had to face the home team New Youngsters in the quarter-finals.One would expect the home team to give some tough fight in the fixture.But the final score didn't prove so and Sharpshooters defeated the home team in a pretty lame affair.In fact,I wouldn't be wrong in saying that the visitors didn't even break a sweat.Such was the dominance of Sharpshooters and thus they booked a spot in their first ever semi-final of a PDBA event.The semi-final was always a tough affair as it was against the defending champions Deccan Gymkhana.Still Sharpshooters managed to play neck to neck in the first quarter but then slowly lost its weight in the match.Eventually Deccan won the match one-sided.

        While many factors could be attributed to the loss of both the boys and the girls teams,there are a whole lot of positives to be taken from the tournament.One of them is that the boys' playing five had two players from the u-16 team while the opponents had everyone from u-18 .Similar is the case with the girls team where except one player,the rest still haven't completed their 10th.While these aren't excuses,these can't be overlooked also.
        These results are a great boost to a club which is steadily climbing up the ranks in the city and give a good indication of what the club aims to achieve.While this tournament gave a significant amount of exposure to the players, they have their eyes set on going one step further in the upcoming PDBA u-16 tournament.All I can say is "All d best,Sharpshooters!!!"
           

       

Sharpshooters vs Negians

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