Being a part of the Sports Council is not an easy job. As the Sports Secretary Surakshit Soni tells us, the broader goal of the Sports Council is to promote the sporting culture on campus over their tenure. Coordinating with the captains of teams and ensuring that every team has complete inventories is a part of the work they do in the weeks leading up to BOSM. Appointed at the start of every odd semester, organizing outstation tours and iBOSM keeps the Sports Council on their feet all year round.

Surakshit, along with Harsh Bhoot—one of three Joint Sports Secretaries—were proud of the fact that this year’s Sports Council had managed the budget so efficiently that they would be able to fund even next semester’s outstation tournament. This is in stark contrast to last year’s Sports Council, whose tenure concluded with the finances in a deficit. Other changes include sports coaches brought on with contracts which last an entire month, as opposed to the 21-day contracts of last year. Also on the cards are a shift to a two-semester inventory system, which will allow teams to request items as per their requirements in both semesters.

Every second week, the Sports Council sits down with the 24 captains of all 16 sports teams to address their issues which can range from inventory requirements to improving sporting facilities. This year, requests to renovate the squash court and repair the volleyball court were entertained. Working to promote the sporting culture on campus, they introduced the Triathlon last semester – an event that involves swimming, cycling and running. “It could one day replace BITS Run, which happens every semester and is getting quite repetitive.” remarks Harsh.

With BOSM approaching, the Council has finalised the chief guest and decided on the prof shows. Surakshit was at liberty to reveal that professional skateboarding and frisbee workshops were to take place during BOSM. As the Sports Secretary, Surakshit enjoys working with the students and the institute, and is positive that things will continue to go on as smoothly as they have until now. Harsh is glad that his post has given him the expertise to handle administrative bottlenecks and taught him how to get things done. This year’s BOSM has been planned out in such a way that most of the events will be held in GYM-G, and both secretaries implore BITSians to come out of their rooms and support their teams – doing so, they feel, might just ignite the desire in the hearts of the sportsmen competing.