The flags, each a vibrant colour, flutter furiously in the evening breeze. The usual star, the sea and its music, are cold-shouldered as the mood in the two sandy courts swing between elation and despair. At the two make-shift stands, spectators, full house and almost all men, cheer Jisha P.V. and Sonia Sasi after they tamely give up the second set in the loser’s final on Thursday evening. M. Sujatha, manager, shouts from the first row, “Get back only after winning.” The duo buoyed by the crowd that bursts into chants of “Sonia” and “Jisha” systematically demolish their opponents to win the bronze in Women’s Beach Volleyball at the ongoing National Games.
A few hours later, well into the night and under the floodlights, Team A members, Aswathi E and Shahana Kozhikkat Abdu, wrench gold from Team Andhra Pradesh in a closely-fought straight setter. Andhra had the stars — Indian player J. Maheswari and Thirumahalakshmi. But the rookies are sturdy both in mind and body. Aswathy’s solid play meets its match in Shahana’s incisive spikes and together it is a complementing partnership.
As the matches end, Kerala emerges as the only team with two medals in the event — a sparkling gold and a bronze. If someone had spoken of such a comprehensive win a week ago, coach M.K. Prajisha would have laughed heartily.
The women’s beach volleyball team was born a month-and-a-half ago. The game has never been taken seriously in Kerala. Interventions have been stray, and coaches, exposure, jobs and money rare.
So, when Prajisha brought together six volleyball players who didn’t make the cut for the Games team for trials, a medal was nowhere in sight. They started from zero at the Calicut beach on December 22. “It was another chance to play in the National Games,” says Jisha. The coach, a Kerala player for seven years, calls her two team’s outing an “arangetram.” “Bonus” is a word she banks on often. “Every match has been an extended training session and each win a bonus,” she says. “When we called for open trials, 10 applied but only six turned up,” says Prajisha. The coach’s task was not easy. A regular volleyball player, she did not know much about beach volleyball or its rules. “We hardly have beach volley coaches,” she says. The teacher became her own coach and guide first. “The first thing I did was download the rule book.”
Of course, the overbearing resemblance to the mother game was a big relief. “The set of skills are the same but a few rules are different. There were occasions when I struggled to clear their doubts,” she says.
Before starting practice, Prajisha decided to work on the mind. With international matches played in two-piece, the attire on court was a cause of worry. “I brought down the length of the shorts from 17 cm to 14 cm and made the jersey sleeveless,” she says. Apprehension gave way to quiet confidence. “Soon they told me they were okay with the jersey.” A request to pose in their jersey off-court may still draw suppressed giggles, but on court it hasn’t mattered, the medals are proof.
The four girls and their coach got down to the game quickly. The sand and the wind played havoc. “Spectators tuned to volleyball may wonder about our sloppy movements. But it simply isn’t easy to play on sand,” says Jisha who has been a national-level player. An hour’s play in the sand can easily match three hours on normal surface, pitches in Prajisha. Playing barefoot was another. The medals in their bag are testimony to the hours of labour.
For the girls, the first matches they watched at the tournament were the first experience in live, competitive beach volleyball. They watched, learnt and improvised on court. “We knew the theory, but practicals happened during the competition,” says Aswathy.” They made enough errors to learn from it. The biggest transition, though, was in moving from a court taken up by six to one managed by two. “We all have our specific tasks in volleyball. Aswathy is a setter, Sonia and I are liberos and Shahana, the blocker,” says Jisha. On the beach ball court they learnt to multi-task. Camaraderie was never an issue. Jisha, Aswathy and Shahana are colleagues at the Kerala State Electricity Board. Twenty-year-old Sonia, a university player, is one the rest are keen to take care of. Sonia smiles through her tale of getting into volleyball for the first time at the Kendriya Vidyalaya in Kozhikode. “She is like that,” pitches in Aswathy.
Among the four, the beach was a part of life only for Shahana. A fisherman’s daughter who grew up in Kodungallur, she started off with high and long jump. “I am used to running on the beach. I was put in the volleyball team thanks to my height,” she says. “Even on the beach there is no dearth of jumps and smashes from Shahana chechi,” teases Aswathy. Aswathy and Jisha recall with gratitude the pioneering work of Ashokan sir who introduced them to volleyball at the school in Kalloor in Wayanad.
On the eve of the quarter-final matches, sitting in the hotel, Prajisha knows a month-and-a-half is no time for any tournament. Strong teams like Andhra and Tamil Nadu have regular beach volley players. But she sees an opportunity worth seizing here. “With regular practice and tournaments they can really make a mark, particularly, with our supremacy in volleyball.” The players vouch they have begun to like the game. But give them a choice between beach and regular volley ball, a quiet smile is the answer.
A team is born, but should it live and thrive is in the hands of many others, including the players.
