Parents no longer call the hockey kids’ evening outing a waste of time and the mad rush to make to the tuition classes after practice too is a thing of the past. Ever since the BHA change room in the day transforms into a tutorial class at night, teenage hockey players have managed to strike a balance of sorts between sports and academics.

This idea occurred to BHA’s old-time coach M J Patel, who is known as Bawa in hockey circles and famous for the strong bond he has with his young players. “I have always insisted that players should never give up academics to pursue serious sports. And at times it is a tough ask for youngsters. So I thought that carrying books to the hockey field could be a solution,” says Bawa, whose star pupil happens to be Viren Rasquinha—the former India captain who is pursuing his MBA degree post retirement.

Bawa was helped in his initiative by his older wards. Vishal Lal (24), after long hours of hockey practice, gets into a huddle with young boys poring over books in the change room. It’s less of a classroom and more of a problem-solving session. “There are times when the kids don’t understand a certain point, so I try to explain it to them,” Lal says.

Lal’s junior in Bombay Republicans hockey team, Devendra Walmiki, talks about how these 8 pm to 10 pm night classes have helped him. “I scored 51 per cent this semester. My earlier grades used to be in the 40s. I was the first here and now the others have followed,” Walmiki says. Lal has mastered the knack of teaching. “There are a few smart ways to remember formulae. I teach them that,” he says.

While Walmiki’s grades have improved; someone like Pabitra Sabat, an SSC student at Our Lady of Dolours, has maintained his academic standard despite devoting more time to hockey. “I had a deal with my parents. If my grades drop, they don’t allow me to play hockey. But these classes have ensured that I have maintained the first class that I used to get before I started getting serious about hockey,” says Sabat.

The latest addition to this study group of seven is Anup Walmiki. “I was weak in Marathi and our teacher Vishal too doesn’t know the language much. But there are others here who teach me Marathi,” he says. Maybe, that’s something to do with hockey being a team sport.