The BOSM English Press (BEP) spoke with Shreya Sinha, the Captain of the Girls’ Volleyball team, to learn about her and the team’s experience gearing up for BOSM.

Volleyball is a team sport, played between two teams of six players each at any given time and an additional substitute.  The primary objective of each team is to ground the ball on the opponent’s side and subsequently score a point. Matches consist of three or five sets, depending on the progression of the tournament, and are played on a best-of-three (or five) sets basis. Each position on the court is assigned a number, and players cycle through these positions clockwise during the course of the match. 

Shreya started playing volleyball initially because she was unable to learn tennis under a professional coach. She was intrigued by volleyball, since it requires spontaneity and one has to ‘calculate’ one’s every move. She elaborated on the work she had to put in as the captain. ‘Most of the girls, we have taught the sport from scratch,’ she said. ‘Most of them don’t have a sports background, or they were not very athletically inclined.’ She explained that they had joined the team primarily for fitness and health reasons. She also credited the captain of the Boys’ Volleyball team for providing the necessary help in training the newcomers. 

Of all the stakeholders organising BOSM, she said that she interacted the most with the Department of Publications and Correspondence (PCr). PCr relayed important details regarding the number of teams approached by them and those that finally registered. Barring a few delays in communication, she did not face any major issues with them. She added that there still remains uncertainty about the number of participating teams because of the cap set on registrations by the Department of Reception and Accommodation (RecNAcc). Apart from communication with PCr, she attended meetings with the Sports Council regularly.

Shreya mentioned that her social life took a backseat as a consequence of juggling between academics and sports. In addition to being regular with her classes, she tries to maintain a stringent sleep schedule and advises her juniors to follow the same.

She stated that this edition was especially important for the team since it would be the first for a majority of its members. Additionally, since this was the only BOSM she would ever witness, Shreya said that she was excited about it.