By now, sports grounds in Mumbai would have witnessed a festive kind of atmosphere. The Mumbai Schools Sports Association’s (MSSA) season would have seen a number of finals in a few disciplines. Top school football teams would be leading the Division I and II groups and teams in the lower divisions would be preparing for their season to begin.

Last year, around 54,000 children participated in various sporting activities conducted by the MSSA. This year, not one has stepped out of home thanks to the coronavirus pandemic.

In all likelihood, this season of MSSA activities stands cancelled. But the office bearers led by president Fr Jude Rodrigues, hockey secretary Lawrence Bing and veteran MSSA administrator Esmero Figueiredo are not letting the year go waste.

Starting with hockey, which was conducted on September 12 and 13, the MSSA is organising an All Games Online Workshop for member schools.

“These digital workshops are being organised on weekends so as not to disturb the academics held on regular days. Our aim to involve as many students and teachers as possible,” Rodrigues told Mirror.

The capacity on Zoom meetings was fixed for 100 students and teachers. “By the end of the second day, there were 60-70 participants in waiting. Fr Jude himself could not gain entry as the room was full,” Bing said.

Besides the quiz which was held at the end of the second and final day of the hockey workshop, the MSSA had roped in Australia’s Jack Rolfe, founder of The Coaching Lab, to speak on various aspects of the game. The other expert in the workshop, Vinay Valmiki, also chipped in with his valuable inputs.

“MSSA has to go on digital platform. We need to conduct educational programs through Zoom for teachers and students. We cannot hold any event till Maharashtra government gives us a green signal,” Rodrigues said.

Bing is more than excited with the response he has received for hockey. He shared comments from teachers, parents and students on how happy they were to attend the webinar and were looking forward to attend forthcoming workshops in other sports.

“We had kept it simple. All member schools who had renewed their memberships would be given free access to these workshops. All they have to do is register.

“We received an overwhelming response for hockey. So, for the forthcoming webinars we have decided to increase the capacity to 500. We want more and more people attending,” Bing added.

Forthcoming Workshops


Badminton: September 19-20

Football: September 26-27

Boxing: October 3-4

Basketball: October 10-11

Chess: October 17-18

Athletics: October 23-24

Aquatics: October 31-November 1

Martial Arts: November 7-8

Indian Games: November 21-22

Carrom: November 28-29

Squash: December 5-6

Gymnastics: December 11-12-13

Tennis: December 19-20

Table Tennis: January 9-10 (2021)

Throwball: January 16-17

Volleyball: January 23-24

Cricket: January 30-31

Handball: February 6-7