Look up the winners list of a few recent girls’ football tournaments in India and it is likely that Choma Eagles is somewhere on the list. Don’t begin from below as they have continuously figured in the top three often.

 

In a national tournament in New Delhi recently held at the Frank Anthony Public School, they started out just as any other team but emerged as winners. They were merely repeating their achievement of the previous month when they won the Doon Cup held at Dehradun. Everyone loves a winner but Rahul, a gym instructor with a heart, Colonel Pradeep Kumar and his wife, nationalists and philanthropists, loved an idea.

 

That is where the story of Choma Eagles began.

Rahul, who worked at a gym as an instructor in Gurugram, had several hours of the day free as his clients worked out in the mornings and evenings. Most people would try to earn a little more during their free hours, but Rahul thought of a novel idea – coaching girls from a neighbourhood government school to play football.

 

There were many obstacles on the way – although the school had a small ground of its own, football was not considered to be a girls’ game. Moreover, the students of the school were mostly underprivileged children, many of them sons and daughters of casual workers and daily wage earners.

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​​However, in adversity lay the opportunity. The girls were eager to play a sport. They just didn’t have the opportunity. The after-school practices began with Rahul and continued until Colonel Pradeep Kumar, a national level footballer and an Army man, walked by and saw the girls at the practice. The colonel had played football for Haryana in the past and could still make the ball obey his command. He regarded the girls at play with great admiration. “They were doing their best. At that very moment, I decided to coach them,” he recalls.

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Rahul welcomed the idea as he was perceptive of the potential of the girls, and that it was time for an expert to step in. Without delay, Colonel Pradeep wiped dust off his football boots and was at the field, this time as a coach.
While the girls were keen to play football, they were battling many odds. It was mostly their extreme poverty. Most of them did not have enough to eat, leave alone money to buy football kits and shoes. “They were also facing the pressure (from their families) to supplement family income by working or taking care of younger siblings instead of playing football,” says Col. Pradeep.

 

Many of the girls didn’t have their fathers who had passed away early due to their adversities.
While the coaching continued, the girls persisted. “Some of them didn’t get two proper meals in a day, while all lived on the bare minimum of resources. But the girls were ready to overcome any obstacles that would come their way,” says Colonel Pradeep. The couple also opened their house to the girls where they ate and rested during their spare time.
After months of rigorous practice, a team was born.

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Choma Eagles, drawing their name from the village Choma Kheri, were itching to play tournaments. Their rigorous training, it seems, had already set them apart. The girls won one tournament after another in two age categories. The Doon Cup was one of the first victories, while the second tournament at Frank Anthony Public School was the next. Newspapers began reporting on the new phenomenon in the field of girls’ football, while philanthropists began to take notice.

 

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Dr SPS Bakshi, Padam Shree, the brain behind Baksons homoeopathy, offered to treat the girls free of cost across all Baksons’ clinics in India, while another Army man, Col Bhardwaj, Chairman, Colonel’s Public School had the girls enrolled in his school with only one precondition – they would play for the school. “My wife and I feel fulfilled that football has brought them this recognition,” says Col. Pradeep.

 

The transformation in the life of Col Pradeep and his wife is visible. They are much more prudent about using their resources than ever before. This writer met them before a paid dinner where Col Pradeep was invited. “It is very expensive for me to attend this dinner. It would be a waste of money as I could instead use the money for feeding the girls,” he said.
 
The adversities of Choma Eagles remain but there is a difference between a mere girl and a footballing girl. Footballers tend to kick their difficulties – the bigger the adversity the harder the kick.