Chinna Thadagam
is always up and ready to serve every day at the crack of dawn. Located in the northern part of Coimbatore district, this
village
sees children from nearly every household practising until 10 am on weekends and every evening during weekdays.
Coaching
is primarily provided by experienced
players
.
There are no fees to make it accessible to economically disadvantaged families.
The village’s tryst with
volleyball
began in 1936 when Bishop Pakenham Walsh, a visionary who founded Christa Sishya Ashram here, was looking for a way to bring the
community
together. He introduced volleyball
training
in 1939 through T O Mathew, an enthusiastic member of the ashram.
The bishop’s support went beyond moral encouragement; he provided players with biscuits, fruits and milk, to boost both physical and mental wellbeing.
Soon enough, the volleyball team started making waves, winning their first district-level
tournament
against Ganapathy Village on July 1, 1941, at Vellakinar in Coimbatore.
The Thadagam Volleyball Club was founded in 1963 and has since then consistently produced players who represented state and country as players and referees.
Witnessing their success, neighbouring villages such as Uchaiyanur, Dhaliyur, Nanjundapuram, Papanaickenpalayam, Kanuvai and Anaikatti jumped into the game, resulting in 13 volleyball clubs being established in the Thadagam area.
Today, almost every household boasts of at least one volleyball player. And say, villagers, volleyball tournaments are celebrated.
Over the past five decades, volleyball has helped more than 600 students to benefit from sports quotas in educational institutions.
The village has gained such renown in volleyball that players from railways, postal services, and BSNL come here to train.
For A Anoop from Uchai- yanur in Coimbatore, it was the sports quota that helped him enter SRM University, where he completed his undergraduate degree. “Volleyball provided me with free food, accommodation and sports gear, and that was how I managed to play and study,” he says.
Several youngsters from here have got govt jobs in the railways, postal service, Tamil Nadu police and public sector banks. R Sathish Kumar from Chinna Thadagam, who represented India at the Junior Asian championship in 2008, says he owes much of his success to the sport.
“I started playing as I was inspired by my seniors at Thadagam Volleyball Club,” says Kumar, an assistant branch manager at Indian Bank in Tirupur district.
Additionally, M Akilesh from Anaikatti, S Lokesh from Chinna Thadagam, and Atul from Kanuvai were part of the Tamil Nadu Men’s team which won gold at the recent Khelo India Youth Games.
In 1999, N Maruthaiyan, a history teacher, and player in Thadagam Volleyball Club, founded the Lotus Volleyball Club (LVC) to train girls in the sport.
In a year, these girls shone at the rural national games, winning a gold medal while representing Tamil Nadu. This marked the first time girls from Thadagam had represented the village at the national level.
“When the club was started, we didn’t own shorts and t-shirts and played barefoot,” says C Sivasankari, secretary of LVC and a physical education director at a private school.
“Players’ parents worked in brick kilns as daily wagers. We didn’t have money to buy a volleyball. Maruthaiyan spent his own money to train us and cover travel expenses. We won many open tournaments and used the prize money for food. It was a dream come true for women from a small village to travel around the country and win,” says the former player.
LVC had a great ten-year run, becoming one of the top clubs in the state. But after Maruthaiyan died in 2019, and since then, says Sivasankari, running the club has become challenging. “We need govt support in creating infrastructure and facilities to train our girls,” she says.
Volleyball players in Chinna Thadagam say with the number of youngsters showing interest in the sport there is a need for an indoor court with gym facilities.
“It would also be good to conduct district-level tournaments in the area to promote the game and provide nutritious food, training, balls, jerseys, and financial assistance to players,” says a villager.
