Hailing from a farmer’s family, a 16-year-old girl from the Anantapur Sports Academy (ASA) has made it to the National Hockey Academy (NHA) for training and is among the 30 girls selected from the country.
Lotla Mary, who was a trainee under the hockey programme at the ASA here, is among the three players selected by Hockey India from Andhra Pradesh. She is currently training at the NHA at the junior level and stands a chance to get selected for the national under-19 team following the training.
She is the second such girl from the ASA to be selected at the national level. In 2017, M. Bhavani got selected and is undergoing training, said Hockey Programme Coordinator Lakshmi Narayana. The academy here trains 30 boys and 30 girls in the game while providing them accommodation and education.
Hockey village
Mary is a daughter of a farmer couple from Elamanchili in Visakhapatam district. While playing for school in 2014, she was selected for training at the ASA here with full financial support from the Rural Development Trust. Incidentally, M. Bhavani also hails from the village, where Mary’s sister also plays hockey.
The Trust runs several development programmes in Judo, cricket, football and tennis on the campus for 170 such trainees. The hockey programme currently has two male coaches and a female coach. Last year, Mary was also selected for the Sports Authority of India (SAI) training in Bhopal as an under-17 (sub-junior) player. Not fluent in either English or Hindi, she now hopes to make new friends at the national academy and find a place on the national junior side.
Inspiring figures
The two players from Anantapur have inspired and encouraged several others and another talented player Sarita (training as goalkeeper) hopes to make it to the national academy.
While Lakshmi Narayana provides technical support in coaching, Antony C.J. and Kabir Arjun have been supporting the academy.