PET on a mission to produce national-level Kabaddi players

Nalgonda: A Physical Education Teacher (PET) of a government school, who could not realise his Kabaddi dreams due to poor financial status and lack of encouragement, has been proving his mettle by producing state and national level Kabaddi players from Nalgonda.

PET Giribabu, who is working at Bottuguda government high school, has started training the students since 2013 and has been encouraging students of his school play kabaddi. As the school has very less space for the practice, Giribabu has been training his students at NG College grounds in the town, which is two kilometers away from the school.

Under his rigorous coaching, students are learning new techniques of the game. So far, school students Dugyala Saikiran, Pari Madhu and Isram Vamshi Krishna represented the state in National School Games Under-17. While Saikiran was the captain of Telangana Kabaddi team in National School Games held at Nalgonda in 2017, he also won a gold medal in national Kabbadi tournament held in Coimbatore earlier.

With their excellenct performance, both Saikiran and Madhu were selected to Sports Authority of India (SAI) training centre  at Gachhibowli in Hyderabad. Similarly, another student of the school Kotte Sairam represented the state at national level in Speed Ball game.

Apart from this, Dugyala Saikiran, Burri Upender, Perla Madhu, Kuntigorla Kotesh, Rudrakshi Srikanth played from Nalgonda at Inter-district Kabbadi Competitions (State Level) Under-17. Similarly, Maddi Karunakar and R Naresh represented the district Kabaddi team Under-21 seniors category. 

Speaking to The Hans India, national Kabaddi players Saikiran and Madhu informed though they knew how to play the game since their childhood, they could perfect it only under the able guidance of their teacher, Giribabu and credited their success to him.

Stating that he was crazy about the game since his childhood, Giribabu informed that he could not realise his dream of becoming a national player due to poor financial status of his family and lack of guidance and encouragement. 

He expressed his happiness over the success of his students and informed that he was promoting Kabaddi by conducting regular coaching and summer camps at NG College grounds in the name of Chatrapathi Shivaji Kabbadi and Sports Club. At present 25 boys and girls were undergoing Kabbadi coaching at the camp, he added.