THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: St Joseph’s HSS emerged victors of the 23rd Fr Ephrem Trophy, an All-Kerala Inter-school basketball tournament, which concluded on Friday. The St Joseph’s team has been winning the tournament for the last 17 times.
The team had also won the inter-school basketball tournament held last month at St Joseph’s School, Mundakayam, Kottayam.
After their triumph over their rivals St Joseph’s Pulinkunnu, Vinil Kailas S V, who has played in state and district basketball tournaments, said, “We were confident of the win as we had trounced them in the previous five encounters. Though it was a tight match, we managed to get the lead”.
According to coach Manoj Xavier, the players in the team receive medals regularly in the state basketball tournaments. “The 12 players who played for the team were selected for the tournament from a group of 150 students who play basketball,” Manoj said. Out of the aforesaid 150 players, about 35-40 players are playing in district-level tournaments.
Deepak S Vettikattil, Akshay B, Charley VS and Athul Augustin are some of the national level players in the squad.