City Sailors from marginalized communities make big into Sailing Teams of Navy and Army

Hyderabad, July 14, 2018: When the Yacht Club of Hyderabad started in 2009 it was the dream of the founder and coach Suheim Sheikh to have children from amongst the marginalized and neglected to access sporting challenges through Sailing and use the lessons and experiences to stand on their own two feet in a profession of their choice.

That circle of life was concluded today as news of the Army and Navy selections surfaced with three sailors between 11 and 15 of age were selected for recruitment. These three include Santosh Banoth and Chakali Karthik by the Navy and John Yeroulu by Army.

These boys will join the Sailing teams of the Navy and Army July and thereafter qualify for direct entry to the forces after they finish with their education at a Kendriya Vidyalaya near the training centres at Bangalore and Goa at Naval Boy Sports School at INS Mandovi and Army Boys Sports School in Bangalore.

According to Binod Kumar, Master Chief Pety Officer(MCPO), the Chief Coch of Navy our target is to select 20 young sailors by next year. Last year we picked up six, this year we picked up two from Hyderabad and one from Bhopal. We have picked up two more from Hyderabad, but they were medically not fit. We need another 11. We will search for some good sailors from 10 Sailing clubs from across India. These boys will be trained for Olympics. They will be ready in next four years, he added.

The youngsters come from underprivileged backgrounds.

And study at the schools set up by the Telangana Government to serve the poorest

“Sometimes professions choose people rather than the other way around and I would have scarcely believed it a few years ago that our academy would produce sportspersons of international calibre and some of them would be selected by the armed forces to join their training programs. “ said Suheim , himself an achieved sailor from Hyderabad.

Most of the young sailors have come marginalised communities and backgrounds. Their parents do some errand jobs. And few work as Auto Drivers and and waiters. Some are tribals from Vikarabad.

This is second time that Hyderabadi sailors got into Sailing Teams of Navy and Army. Six Hyderabad Sailors Durga Prasad, VAmshi, Vijay, Mallesh, Sachin and Vishwanath selected by the Armed Forces in June last year. These youngsters came from small towns like Pargi and Vikarabad and study at the schools set up by the Telangana Government to serve the poorest under the brand name SWAEROES coined by Praveen Kumar, IPS who heads the Social Welfare Schools in Telangana.

The star amongst the lot is Durga Prasad who hails from Rasoolpura and studies at Udbhav School and IIM Amhedabad Alumni funded school. Vamshi and Vijay have been selected to the Army Sports School at Bangalore run by the Madras Engineers Regiment . Mallesh Sachin and Vishvanath joined the Navy with Durga Prasad at Goa at their spanking new facility.

Sailing which once considered as sport of affluent is no longer holds good. Thanks to one man, Suheim Sheikh, founder of Yacht Club of Hyderabad, several kids are on their way to excellent careers in Indian Defence. We believe in the motto “Dignity through Sports”. We help children from underprivileged backgrounds. One dream is to produce hundreds of such fantastic sailors. We started small. Today we have grown. The current on going 10th edition of Monsoon Regatta is considered as a “National Ranking Championship”, which is a great recognition.

The Lake Hussain Sagar which is in the city centre of the city is a great advantage for us. And not many states can boast of. We would like to make use of it. Currently we are working on 50 kids.

These kids who are getting into Indian Defence Sailing teams never planned be sailors. It just happened. Yacht Club changed their fate.

‘This was like a bolt from the blue for our children and we least expected such a spectacular impact on their lives in such a short time. I must congratulate their coach and mentor Suheim Sheikh for taking these kids from not knowing a thing about sailing to building a career for themselves”, said the Navy Coach. .

The star amongst the lot is Durga Prasad who hails from Hyderabad

The motto of the Yacht Club is ‘Dignity Through Sports” and the club has achieved exactly that through its ongoing efforts to bring the sport of sailing to the common person in Hyderabad and soon across the state of Telangana.