St Augustine’s recently created a bit of basketball history by winning both the Under 14 and Under 17 DSO level tournaments on the 23rd of September 2024.The driving force behind this remarkable feat was undoubtedly the coaching provided by Br Ronnie.
He was previously stationed in St Augustine’s from 2006 to 2014 and did a lot to improve the sporting activities in school during his previous tenure. This is a photograph of an Under 14 basketball team he coached that won the DSO tournament in 2013. After his departure from SAS interest in the game waned and our teams didn’t do well anymore.
When Br Ronnie returned to SAS in 2024,due to monsoon related constraints,he only had about 2 weeks to get the teams ready.So he really did a marvellous job.
The journey to our current historical double victory however actually began in 2019.In an attempt to nurture basketball talent and regenerate love for the sport Inter House basket ball tournaments were started in 2019 and continued in 2020.
Mr Girish Shetty took a keen interest in promoting the sport and with his help we were able to get coaches from the Palghar Basketball Association to train our students. Br Lurshai also filled in as coach and basketball promoter during the years he was stationed here. He was also the one who supervised the conversion of the front field area into the two new basketball courts we have now.
Here’s is some long lost drone footage showing Br Lurshai marking the new basketball courts with the help of the watchman when the courts had just been made!!!
The two new courts gave impetus to the game as it gave more place for our students to practice their basketball skills.
And here are some long forgotten memories of inter house basketball games and happy prize winners when we had only one court in school….
2019
2020
The pandemic lockdown began in March 2020 – just after we had finished the tournament that year. Everything came to an abrupt halt for the next two years.
The foundation laid in 2019 and 2020 however bore fruit and our Under 17 team won the U 17 DSO level tournament in the Golden Jubilee Year (2022) Senior ex students Girish Shetty and Suresh Kurup helped to get our team ready that year.
So congratulations again to our two winning teams.May we keep improving and doing better as the years go by.
St Augustine's School 
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