News

Rajesh Patel, who has been coaching girls’ basketball teams at all levels for the state of Chhattisgarh for decades now is No More. He has led Chhattisgarh to extraordinary success, dominating the Sub-Junior (U14), Youth (U16), and Junior (U18) national tournaments, and most recently, winning back-to-back championships in India’s largest domestic basketball meet – the Senior Nationals – in 2014 and 2015. The girls’ in Patel’s programmes have overcome underprivileged backgrounds, a patriarchal society, and the case of 2015 national MVP 6 ft 11inches Poonam Chaturvedi, a brain tumour, with all her difficulty was made her to done the Indian Colour Under him the girls team have won more than 80 medals including 45 gold for Chhattisgarh

Kerala also lost a Great friend and remembers him With warm and heartfelt sympathy said P J sunny President Kerala Basketball Association who has associated with him in the federation for past several years

Patel (62) breathed basketball and died trying to steer the latest generation of hungry, driven hoopsters from Chhattisgarh. On his way to Ludhiana for the ongoing junior national championships, Patel suffered a cardiac arrest at Panipat—which proved to be fatal, a year after he’d been felled by a stroke. He had been suffering from kidney issues and was a diabetic. Chhattisgarh twice reached the Senior National finals, winning famously against Railways, and regularly contributed to the Indian squads, with players coached and mentored by Patel standing out for their speed and tight grasp of fundamentals.

Those in the basketball community in India already know that Patel’s magic has made Chhattisgarh into one of the true powerhouses of the sport in India. And for his unmatched collection of trophies and medals since the inception of Chhattisgarh in 2000, he has earned his way into the 2015 Limca Book of Records.

He also runs an academy, His wife, took over the responsibility of looking after two dozens of girls at the Bhilai residential academy (top floor of the Patel household),

Patel had been a player himself taken on sports quota at Bhilai Steel Plant in 1979 but held back by his 5’5” modest frame. When he started coaching —devoting 16 hours to the academy he helped build—he decided that he would build a strong team, never mind that it was tough to get parents on board. When he saw blitz speed in a player, he would go about convincing the parents to allow their daughters to get into the sport. Seema and Akanksha Singh’s father, a CISF constable, would be prevailed upon to let his daughters stay on in Bhilai while he was transferred.

According to Puspa an International he was Considerate and caring In the early days, he would pack chhole and chikki and nimbu paani for children who never were in the habit of breakfast, or any meal beyond the one at night. The training sessions lasted 8 hours – starting 5 am. “It was hard work. We’d shoot 500 baskets. We ran rounds even in Navtapaa (the nine hottest days of summer). We could last 40 minutes With the Bhilai Steel Plant behind him, helping with equipment and literally forging the uprights from their foundry, Patel got down to work. He’d be the first to switch on lights and last to turn the plug off. A hustler by nature, Patel would doggedly chase down any official who could help him aid the team, never complaining about what was missing in terms of facilities

Another International Anju Lakra was barely 5’2″, and hoping to take on India’s best basketball player almost a foot taller than her. Coach Rajesh Patel of Chhattisgarh told her what he was to drill into at least 100 other girls—tall, short, strong or frail. “He took the height out of the equation. He said you need only two things to win a fight —speed and defence. Run and shoot like a bullet, he would say,” Lakra recalls.

She’d been a fringe handball player in her school in Bhilai, when Patel, impressed with her natural speed, steered her towards basketball. “Most of us were tribal girls who suffered from malnutrition and didn’t look anything like athletes. I belong to a scheduled tribe, but Patel sir ensured that I became a high-ranking railway officer, a TT, on the basis of my basketball. He really saw no limitations in anyone—of physique or background,” says the former India international, known for her lightening runs taking on the tallest and mightiest even while driving in. “He helped us break free,” she added.