The 10th Armaan Dogra Memorial Inter-School Football Tournament was held at DPS R.K. Puram from 5 to 7 February 2018. A total of sixteen schools participated in the three-day event.
The Tournament is held annually to commemorate the passion of Armaan Dogra, a student of the school, who had succumbed to man’s inevitable fate at a young age. Not only did he excel at sports like Table Tennis, Skating, Hockey, Badminton, Football and Swimming, he was also passionate about dancing. His cordiality was felt by all those who came into contact with him.
At the closing ceremony on the last day of the event, the Principal, Ms Vanita Sehgal, Vice Principals Ms Padma Srinivasan and Ms Anita Singh, and Head of the Physical Education Department, Mr N. Suresh, with his team of teachers were present.
The various prominent dignitaries who graced the event with their presence included the Chief Guest, Mr Suresh Kumar Raina, a professional cricketer who was the second youngest Captain of the Indian Team; Mr Shaji Prabhakaran, President, Delhi Football Association, and Mr John Melvyn Robinson, Group Editor at Asian News Network.
The event began with the lighting of the lamp. Armaan’s parents, Dr and Mrs Dogra warmly welcomed all the guests by felicitating them with a token of regard.
The Principal, Ms Vanita Sehgal, expressed her appreciation for Armaan’s parents’ efforts to ensure that his spirit continues to live on. She reminded the audience of the special award instituted in his fond memory for an all-rounder of Class IX. Extolling the winning team, she urged the runners-up not to feel demoralized as they must have enjoyed playing.
Dr PN Dogra firstly thanked the dignitaries, teachers, friends and students, specially highlighting the Sports Department for their unconditional support. Cherishing the sweet memories of his beloved son, he mentioned how this event was a testimony of the strong will of the school and family to keep Armaan’s passion alive. Through this event, he felt, many Armaans must have been able to fulfill their ‘armaans’ (hindi for aspiration).
The speeches paved the way to a student presentation in two parts – a tuneful song, “Badal Pe Paon Hai” performed joyfully, and an enthralling Garba performance in colorful Gujarati outfits.
Mr Saji Prabhakaran, the Guest of Honour, considers it a great pleasure to have been associated with the tournament since its inception 10 years ago. He vocalized his wish to support the Tournament to grow and become a bigger event with more schools participating in the subsequent years. Another exciting announcement he made mentioned the launch of Premium School League for boys and girls, by Delhi Football Association, in the next session to help skillful student-footballers grow.
Mr Suresh Raina, the Chief Guest was delighted to visit the school. Drawing attention to the importance of discipline and quality of energy exhibited by the students, he was remarkably impressed by the talented footballers and believes this sport was good to make one strong at heart.
The much awaited prize distribution ceremony was followed by group photographs. DPS RK Puram secured the third position with Mother’s International School, Sri Aurobindo Marg bagging the second one. Modern School, Barakhamba Road took home the winning trophy.
The Best Player award was given to Arjun Bhatia of DPS R.K. Puram. Other awards, including the Best Goalkeeper and Best Defender, went to Aditya Pankaj from the winning team and Anjor Aggarwal from the runners-up team, respectively.
The Chief Guest declared the tournament closed and red balloons were released in Armaan’s memory.
The Vice Principal, Ms Padma Srinivasan delivered the vote of thanks and the programme came to an end with the National Anthem. Further, Mr Raina went on to shake hands with the audience and gave a quick interview to student-reporters.
