Sharpshooters girls in national winning Maharashtra team

     This one is probably the biggest of them all....! Yes,indeed.The moment PCMC had been waiting for years.Sharpshooters eves RAHI KADAM and SHWETA SHINDE were selected in the Maharashtra under-14 team for the 58th national school games conducted by the SGFI(School Games Federation of India) at Warananagar,Kolhapur from 2-6 December 2012.
    The girls representing PCMC at the zonals,came in runners-up and were selected for the state trials.Based on their superlative performance,they paved their way into the Maharashtra team.20 teams participated in the girls event and the Maharashtra team,riding on some brilliant team game,won one game after another.They beat Tamil Nadu in the finals for the silverware.Thus,the sharpshooters girls not only played for the Maharashtra team but also became part of a gold medallist team.They shared great rapport with their coach and team-mates and were cheered heavily during match-time.

RAHI  KADAM                    SHWETA SHINDE

      Thus,these two have created a record of becoming the first two girls from PCMC to play a national tournament.Earlier in 2012,Rahi was selected in the Pune u-13 team for the state championship at Sangli.This feat of theirs will be a great inspiration for the players in the coming years who would be looking to follow in their footsteps.Coach Nickhil Sareen adds"They are two of my most hard-working players and this is only the beginning."Sounds confident,doesn't he?
        They certainly have a great future ahead and we wish to see them play many more nationals...!

Gold Medallist Maharashtra team-Rahi(front row 1st from right) & Shweta(back row 3rd from right)

sharpshooters @ zonals

Introduction: The Pune division basketball tournament was held at Sangola,Solapur in the later half of October where the parts forming Pune zone battled it out for top honours in the divisional tournament.Kamalnayan Bajaj(Sharpshooters) represented PCMC in five categories;viz u-14 girls and boys,u-17 girls and boys and u-19 girls section having won the PCMC zilla parishad tournament in these categories.The u-19 team however did not play in the divisional tournament due to unavoidable circumstances.The teams locked horns with teams like Pune,Baramati,Ahmednagar,Solapur and gave some of their best performances till date.

Match Time: Traditionally seen as the underdogs,PCMC did not finish outside the top 4 in any of the four categories that it participated.In fact,the u-14 girls team climbed a miraculous ladder to find themselves in the final.Tough luck they lost to traditional winners St.Mary's,but the experience only did them a world of good.

The Teams' Journey:
u-14 Boys : semi-finalist
u-14 Girls  : Finalist

u-17 Boys : 3rd place

u-17 Girls  : 3rd place

The Journey forward:

The following players were selected to give trials for the Maharashtra state team for the national championship:-

u-14 Boys : Ezekiel D'Souza

u-14 Girls  : Rahi Kadam and Shweta Shinde

u-17 Boys : Venkatesh Chandole

u-17 Girls  : Pinakin Surve

Moment of elation: Sharpshooters u-14 eves RAHI KADAM and SHWETA SHINDE were selected in the Maharashtra state team for the u-14 national championship to be held in Warananagar and thus creating history of a sort for PCMC basketball.

The Final Verdict:The great results once again complement sharpshooters' aim of continual progress in the Pune circuit and thereby always surpassing the high standards set by the previous sharpshooter teams.The selection of the u-14 girls for the national championship has certainly opened new vistas and avenues for PCMC players to think beyond district level tournaments and venture out for something more.All the years of hard work are finally starting to pay dividends and the players keep on making the coach and the support staff proud.Way to go Sharpshooters....!!!