The BB Cup

I was just reading Vineeth Krishnan's (ISC 2007 batch) blog on things that have changed in Loyola. And one thing which surely changed (for the worse unfortunately) and something which i had heard from many was the result of the Loyola Junior Basketball Tournament. The sport seems to be on a downhill as of now at Loyola School which once prided on having one of the best teams among the schools in the state.


Looks like my batch (1999 ISC) has been the last to see Loyola lifting the cup. The BB cup used to be one event (and the most famous) which bought all Loyolites together. I am not here to give an analysis of the various tournaments I had seen during my Loyola days. Those have already been beautifully penned down by Jiby in a really wonderful blog. My blog is just about a few memories which I have about this great spectacle at Loyola School.



Till the 4th standard our viewing of the basketball tournaments were confined to the steps near the school day stage. We just knew the side to which our team had to score the points and a loud cheer from our side would accompany each point being scored by our team heroes.



From 1986 to 1990 Loyola though not able to win every tournament had produced some great teams with one memorable one being the team of Andrew Danty Thomas . Danty (as we called him) was a superb athlete and an allrounder in almost every sport he played. But unfortunately when he headed the team we lost by a whisker at the finals. But i think all who knew him would admit that Danty was one of the best basketballers to have played for Loyola.I still remember seeing Danty at times ride his bicycle when coming by the school bus and let me tell you, i wonder whether I have seen someone ride a bike faster than that!!!!



But the best was yet to come.

The real involvement, thrill and ambience was experienced by our batch in the 5th Standard. Year:1991



It was the year , like Jiby said, which saw the emergence of two dream teams. One the American National team with all its NBA superstars (since the Olympics had allowed the entry of professional players into the national team) and the other our very own Loyola team spearheaded by Jayant, Tojo, Eapen and Randeep Hari.



It was almost as though the team just needed to make an appearance and everything was set for them. The basketballing prowess was at its peak in Loyola School. The finals saw a clash between Marthoma (if i am right?) and Loyola. Vinod (from Vipin's batch) started the cheering "Are you ready for the magic?"..and magic it was..for the next 1 hour one saw a display of basketball which was simply best described as outstanding. Tojo and Co ensured that the cup remained with Loyola for that year. Later in the school day speech i came to know that Eapen.T.Joseph had got a berth in the State team and Tojo had narrowly missed out on that.so much about the quality of that team



The next year the team was headed by the dynamic Vipin.K.Varkey and the team looked set to follow the footsteps of its predecessor. But then came the St.Joseph's team (facing accusations of fielding overaged players and among some who were supposed to have been at colleges) which showed why they were rated above the rest.



In the first match Loyola easily overcame the opponents ( I remember Deepak shooting a great 3 pointer in the beginning stages of the game) and at that time I am sure many would have felt that retaining the cup would be just a walk in the park for the team. But the finals proved otherwise. After 30 minutes all faces in the team and the crowd began to drop down. Frustration creeped in the faces of Vipin and Deepak. Few minuted after the first half Vipin scored a flurry of points through some amazing dribbling. But St.josephs was in mood to give up the trophy. They finally romped home deservingly and most of the Loyola team members were in tears. It was painful but one also had to understand that this team had to live up to the expectations set by a supremely talented 1991 team which in itself was a little far fetched from the beginning.



After the disappointing result in 1992, the next year saw a team which again featured an extremely talented player who was in the reserves in the 1991 team and who had made an appearnce for a few minutes in the tournament in the previous year. The late Vivek Rajendran

was rated highly by many. And one thing one could notice immediately when he took the field was his speed. The team comprised of the big 3: Vivek, Subin (the captain) and Vyasan. There was no St.Josephs team good enogh to stop our team this time. But the challenge came from the most unexpected quarters. "Christ Nagar". As ill luck wouold have it, Christ Nagar produced their best team ever at this year and the result of the finals again went against Loyola. At the day of the finals I just happened to pass by the junior basketball court and the team looked extremely confident at practice and gleefully took up suggestions from various excited Loyola students who believed that the trophy would come back to the school. But what happened at the finals was heartbreaking. And the fact that we were defeated by a team which till those years had been nowhere near contention for the title hurt us more.



The next year saw the strangest (I cant think of any other word at this moment to describe it) tournament of all . Rain for the first time destroyed any chances of hosting the first two days of the tournament and this was the most frustrating experience of all . I remember father Pulickal coming to class one day and telling that he saw the team practice and he didnt have any hopes this year either. These were not the exact words he used but then those words were the best when heard from him in his unimitable style uncensored :-)...



So the first day match was scheduled to be held at the indoor stadium at College of Engineering, Trivandrum. And then we being in the 8th standard had no chance of being taken there to see the match and remained in our classes :-(. I remember all of us being tense about the result and sighing a breath of relief when we knew that we had won the match. And this time too Loyola made it to the finals.



As a sign of some sort of Apocalypse the skies cleared up completely at the day of the finals. The team lead by Akhilesh and comprising of Bijoy, Vivek and Arun were welcomed by the usual raptous applause. None of them were big names or extremely gifted but as a team they were there to prove a point. And after 2 long (!!) years the cup was back in the shelves of loyola. It was not a very tough finals considering the fact that the margin of victory was huge but the Loyolites were ready to give anything for a victory that year..and when it came it was sweet :-) Since we won the cup after 2 years they had a sort of post match interview with Akhilesh. He said that the team wouldnt have cared even if they met a tougher team in the finals and many more things like that..I think he would have escaped with anything he said that day...





The subsequent tournaments saw our team narrowly losing to St.josephs team in 1996, then being beaten comprehensively in 1997 and then winning it in dramatic ctyle in 1998 thanks to some last minute heroics from Harish Haridas who shot some amazing 3 pointers and walked off coolly like it was just another normal day for him .

The 1997 finals saw a St.Josephs team comprehensively beating Loyola in the finals with rain interrupting most part of the match. However the best player award went to Fahim. I think that was not the best decision considering the fact that St.Jopseph's Rahul had played some brilliant basketball throughout the tournament and missed an award which deservedly should have gone to him.

Jiby has mentioned in his blog that the time from the release of the ball from his hand to the time it went inside the basket were the longest few seconds for the Loyolites during the 1998 finals . I will just tell one thing. After the basket was scored i just couldnt believe that Harish Haridas had the audacity to try a 3 pointer at that very crucial moment and then even manage to pull the rabbit out of the hat in scoring them!!! When that 3 pointer (and i think 2 more after that!!!) was scored we knew we would win the game. Those points scored were a hint of some good thing going t0 happen for the team. And fortunately we were proved right.



And that was it..Teams came after that but for me the most memorable tournaments were those from 1991 to 1996 (when Shenoy's team narrowly missed winning it). Recently i heard that Loyola had struggled to put up a team for the tournament!!! It seems that gone are the times when we only had to see whom Loyola would have had to face in the finals!!

At times like this it looks like retaining the BB cup is a distant dream. But we can always hope, can't we?