Bhubaneswar, January 7: The Odisha Naval Tata Hockey High Performance Center, set-up with a vision to groom the sporting talent in hockey, on Friday opened two new Grassroot Centres, in Ganjam and Nayagarh districts in the State under the Odisha Tata Hockey Initiative.
The inauguration event was held virtually and was graced by former Indian Hockey Team captain and Odisha Hockey Promotion Council Chairman Dilip Tirky, Sports and Youth Services Secretary R Vineel Krishna, Ganjam Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange and Nayagarh Collector Poma Tudu, among others.
The Odisha Tata Hockey Grassroot Center at Ranpur, Nayagarh was inaugurated by Dilip Tirkey while the Chatrapur, Ganjam center was inaugurated by R. Vineel Krishna.
The Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC is striving ahead in leaving its footprint in the hockey playing belts of Odisha through its existing grassroot programme in conjunction with Sports Department, Government of Odisha.
The grassroots programme of the Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC was launched on December 1, 2019 as Odisha Tata Hockey Initiative in which the HPC has set up 8 grassroots centres in Sundargarh and 2 in Sambalpur. Last year (on January 22, 2021), two new grassroots centres were opened in Dhenkanal and Deogarh. With today’s inauguration, the number of Odisha Tata Hockey Grassroot Centers now stands at 14 spread across six districts.
Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC has trained 30 grassroot coaches and appointed them at 14 Centers to run the programme. All the grassroot coaches are being facilitated to Hockey India Coaching Pathway program in order to attain Coaching Certifications from HI/FIH. So far, 2400 kids have registered under the grassroot programme and they have been receiving hockey training at different Centers.
Odisha Naval Tata Hockey HPC, established by the Department of Sports & Youth Services, Government of Odisha, in partnership with HAF (Hockey Ace Foundation) and under the aegis of Tata Trusts and Tata Steel, was launched on August 13, 2019, by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
