October 3, 2010

From Vasu Ram and the Massachusetts YCA:

"Grafton High School PE Service day went off as planned on September 25th 2010. It was attended by 4 PE Staff, Karrah Ellis, Jason, Kerry and Maureen. MYCA was ably supported by Vikram and Bhavith. We went through a 30 minute video to provide some background on the cricket history and its popularity in USA. Once done, we headed to the field to play the game. As Jamie said "fun starts when you actually play the game." This is so true, all of them started loving the game the moment they started playing the game. We split the team into 4 each and played a 10 over game taking time to explain the game. All of them got the hang of the game and stared getting involved."

"End of the game, all they said "Such a awesome game. A perfect team game and the kids would love it". Once the game was over, I also took time to explain some of the benefits - batsman trusting each other, leader of the team putting the right person at the right place, strategy behind the game. They all truly appreciated the benefits.

As Jason, one of the PE staff quoted as we were leaving the school "I never played this game before. All I can say it's physical but has lot of mental aspect to it. It is a thinking game and can't wait to introduce it as part of PE Curriculum."

Karrah Ellis, Director of Athletics, said that the next steps will be to present to the superintendent and get the approval from board which she see as no problem. Once done, which she anticipates within a month, game will be introduced in spring 2011 or earlier as part of the indoor activity.
Pretty encouraging and now we will be moving on to Shrewsbury!!"

Great job, Vasu! Keep up the momentum in Massachusetts!