Manorama Sports Club Award 2022: The formidable legacy of St. George Volleyball Club

Six decades ago, a group of home-grown players representing the Vazhakulam-based St. George Volleyball Club came up with a mesmerising performance in front of their home fans by stunning a fancied Delhi side. They enthralled the local volleyball enthusiasts with their thunderous spikes and accurate serves in the match held on November 9, 1955.

The Delhi team was filled with some of the best players in the country, including the likes of Sat Prakash, N N Chadha, Sharma, Sikdar and Mohan Lal. However, they had no answer to the thunderous smashes and deft drops unleashed by St. George's star players like V J Joseph, T P Nair, and K C S Narayan. Their thrilling performance is still etched in the memory of the volleyball lovers in Vazhakulam.

Founded in 1942 by a group of volleyball enthusiasts at Vazhakulam near Muvattupuzha in Ernakulam district, St. George Volleyball Club has gained prominence over the years and become a force to reckon with.

One of the three finalists of the Manorama Sports Club Award 2022, the club has grown into a major force in Kerala's volleyball arena over the last eight decades, thanks to its visionary patrons and experienced coaches.

The club has constructed an indoor court, pooling money from its members, where volleyball enthusiasts from the locality could train for free. The club has been conducting summer coaching camps and volleyball tournaments every year without fail. As many as 160 children took part in the summer coaching camp organized by the club last April.

Since 1942, St. George Volleyball Club has been organizing tournaments involving top teams from across the country. The match against Delhi was from one of those tournaments.

In 1957, the club roped in eminent coach Gurudev Singh to head the coaching camp it organized in Vazhakulam. Many of the children nurtured by the club went on to become national-level players and successful coaches.

There are as many as eight coaches at the club, who underwent training at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala.