12th January 2025 will forever be remembered in the history of the Navi Mumbai Deanery as the youth of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church, Airoli achieved something remarkable and something that may never be repeated by any other parish in the near future.
The Deanery Sports Day featured 5 sports (3 Outdoor and 2 Indoor) & the overall champions were decided by their performances in these 5 Sports via points (100, 75, 50, 25) & it was set to be a thrilling end to what is the biggest sporting event for every Navi Mumbai Deanery Youth.
Our girls put on a display of class and excellence by easily defeating every team in Cricket. They defeated Panvel, Nerul and Vashi in Round 1, Semi Finals and Finals respectively to win the Gold Medal and 100 points for us in Cricket. Led by the fantastic Elisha Gras, the team also had our stars Annie Nadar, Elita Lobo, Leeann Dcunha, Anaisha Fernandes, Amreena Thomas, Shanelle Sethi, Vanessa Joseph and Mansi Jelatin.
Our STCJ Table Tennis Doubles Champions - Ronald Menezes and Elita Lobo put on a show for everyone watching their games and finished the Table Tennis event with a Bronze Medal and 50 points.
Tug of War was next and our youngsters were determined to win this in style & they did exactly the same without even dropping a set against teams like Kalamboli, Belapur, Rasayani and Uran in Round 1, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals respectively. Led by the wonderful Shanelle Sethi, this super team consisted of Snehal Dsouza, Amreena Thomas, Annie Nadar, Ronald Menezes, Demin Monteiro, Clyde Fernandes and Lester Richard. Their display of strength, skill and endurance will be remembered by everyone for many years to come. They gave their all on the turf and gave us another well deserved Gold Medal and 100 points.
Football had been one sport that we had never won before despite reaching the finals on 6 different occasions, however, everything would change this time as our boys overcame a shaky start to show their passion and love for the game and for our Church by defeating every opponent whilst making the game look one sided for most of the match. Some phenomenal displays against Belapur (1-0 after Penalties), Sanpada (3-1), Uran (4-0) and Vashi (2-0) in Round 1, Quarter Finals, Semi Finals and Finals respectively earned us our first ever victory at Football along with 100 points. The team was led by the incredible Ronald Menezes who was selflessly assisted by Zion John, Zubin John, Sumeet Naik, Anlon Almeida, John Varghese, Darren Mascarenhas, Johnson Martins and Aryan Colaso.
Overall we finished the tournament in 2nd place with 350 points with 3 Gold and 1 Bronze with only Sacred Heart Vashi getting more points (375 with 2 Gold and 2 Silver) however, we created history by becoming the first ever team to win every single event on the turf and by being the first ever team to win the team sports for boys, girls and the mixed one too & by being the first ever team to win a trophy at 6 Deanery Sports Days in a row since 2018.
This day and team will be remembered for years to come, we came back home with another trophy and many more medals with a promise of winning new silverware in the next tournament.
