The English Press Club sat down with Ayush Agha, the founder of the Skating Club, to discuss his experience of forming the club. Ayush belongs to the MBA batch of 2020-2022. He is a national level Roll Ball gold medalist. He is also the founder of Skating and Roll ball in Integral University, Lucknow—his alma mater. 

In February, Ayush Agha talked to Siddhart Malik, the Sports Secretary (2021-2022), about the creation of the Skating club and hosting a Skating Camp before BITS Premier League (BPL). According to him, this initiative took a back seat and nothing was done.

He then went on to mention that he chanced upon Harsh Lamba and Harsh Shukla, representatives of the Student Union, who recommended him to directly approach Navin Singh, the Chief Warden. The Chief Warden approved of the initiative and also directed the Sports Council to help Ayush with the same. However, his proposal for the camp was rejected by the Sports Union due to closely approaching midsems. Following this setback, he decided to approach Navin Singh again, who approved the proposal and the venue for the Skating Camp, which was subsequently conducted on March 3, 2022. As for the inventory arrangement, he approached the manager of BITS-COOP for the same, who arranged the inventory requested by him. He also designed the jersey with the help of his friends, who were designing the same for the basketball team and finally submitted all the required lists within the extended deadline.

According to Ayush, another challenge that he encountered was designing and ordering the jerseys. He claimed that even though he had submitted the design with all the required specifications, the final jersey that arrived was not up to the mark and differed greatly from the proposed design. After this, he had to directly convey the jersey specifications to the vendor and eventually received them, with the expected designs. 

Since InterBITS got cancelled, Ayush conducted a ‘Skating Meet’ where the club’s members showcased their talent. He claimed to have faced a lot of hurdles in organising this as well. He contacted Ekansh, the newly elected Sports Secretary (2022-2023), to whom he pitched the idea of the meet. He also explained his troubles with the venue .The LTC parking area was used for speed skating and the SAC Entrance was used for rollball. He stated that the LTC road was underdeveloped and thus, the Estate Management Unit (EMU) had to furnish it. EMU also helped place nets all around the SAC entrance. Boxing and gym mats were placed on the pillars to ensure safety. Ayush claimed that the entire set-up took about five to six days.

Next, he went on to speak about his plans of expanding the reach of the club. He stated that he has suggested skateboarding, roller hockey, artistic skating, and skate dancing be included into the club. The club also plans on representing BITS in various competitions at district, state and national levels. Ayush is also compiling a database of various university-level competitions.

As for the recruitment process, the club welcomes both enthusiastic beginners as well as trained professionals. Through the trials, the experienced members were inducted into the team while the beginners joined as trainees. He stated that he had created multiple social media handles for the publicity of the club. They will be holding trials again, for the upcoming edition of BOSM.

In conclusion, he said that his experience while founding the club had been ‘adventurous’. All in all, he felt that it was a great learning experience for him. He went on to state that he has now handed over the reins of the club to his juniors and wishes to see the club achieve new heights.