Pradyut Voleti’s Dribble Academy Foundation was started in 2014 with just two bamboo sticks and a hoop.
“My father donated a small half-court, friends & family & basketball lovers from across the country gave us a little bit of support from their pocket money. We started with just 2 kids, now we have 400 kids in this village playing basketball. About 50% of them are girls,” says Voleti.
“They come around 3:30 pm after school. They study for an hour. I have an English teacher & a science teacher at the institute. So they have to do general studies as well, before they get on to the courts,” he adds.
A construction company was kind enough to donate a full-size basketball court. So now the academy has a court which is well equipped to conduct tournaments.
The girls from the academy have won the Junior NBA Championship. Three of them have been selected to represent Junior NBA at the national level for Delhi. Two boys were selected for the same tournament.
“We have been playing matches at the district level, going to different schools across the country,” he says.
“Pradyut Sir is like a parent, he has been training us for years now. We get milk, bananas & oats to eat so that we are healthy & play well,” says a student.
“We are not where we want to be, yet. But we are not going to stop. We are definitely going to go up the ladder & this is going to probably be India’s biggest revolution for sports,” he concludes.