After three years, the college is all set to conduct football trials for admissions under sports quota

Shobhit Khurana (19), a second year student from Delhi University scored 92.3% in his class 12 CBSE results. He wanted to get admission in St. Stephen's college under the sports quota as he was a zonal level football player. But fortune didn't favour him; he was forced to get into a different college. Now, those aspiring to take admission in St Stephen's under the sports quota in football have a reason to smile. The college, after three years will now again conduct football trials.



Due to impediments caused by construction for Commonwealth Games that were held in 2010, the college had stopped considering any students playing football for the last three years. Consequently, a lot of candidates had to go home disappointed.

"I was so disheartened when I came to know that my event is not included in the trials. I did not even get a chance to show me performance," said Aman Ahuja, another second year student from Delhi University.
Things have changed. "The dates have not been finalised yet, but football trials may begin somewhere in the second week of June," said KM Mathew, tutor for admission, St Stephen's college.

"This year, we have incorporated football in our trials. The grounds are also finally ready. We will use the rugby ground for football. Till last year, a large number of students would come to us asking about football and sadly we could not help them. But this year, we will not let them go back disheartened," said S K Chakravorty, Associate Professor, Physical Education, St Stephen'.

Naturally, candidates have a reason to rejoice. Last year, many of my seniors could not take admission in Stephen's as there were no sport trials for football players. The cut-off here is always high, so for some sports quota is the only way of fulfilling their dream of studying in this celebrated institution," said Akshay Srivastava, one of the aspirants.

Old tricks
Delhi University has reverted to the old method for admitting students under the sports quota after holding centralised trials last year. DU has allowed colleges to conduct their own individual trials this year due to 'some problems'. However, colleges will have to give 75% weightage to the certificates of candidates and just 25% to their performance in the trials, as directed by the university last year. Though sources said the decision was taken after facing pressure from physical education teachers, DU officials insisted that it was only an interim decision which is likely to be reviewed next year. Centralised trials were introduced last year to make the admission process easier for students. Often candidates had to hop from one college to another to appear in trials for the same sport and the dates for different colleges clashed often. But amidst protests from physical education teachers, the new system failed to deliver, leaving the candidates high and dry. Many had to stand in queues for long hours only to get their admit cards. Poor planning marred the entire process.u00a0"The decision has been taken as all logistics had not been worked out. But this is just an interim measure. Next year, we will go back to centralised trials," said Khurana.