There are hundreds, indeed thousands, of highly successful and accomplished Vincentians all over the world. Francis Santan D’Souza is one amongst them. Upon hearing about the St. Vincents Sports Vision, he made a magnanimous contribution of USD 100,000 towards the renovation of the Fr. Oesch Hall.
Acquiescing to his request, the SVSV teams decided to take up this project on a war footing and pledged to develop the finest NBA and FIBA standards indoor basketball court in Pune.
The various teams - design and technical - comprising of qualified ex-Vincentians got down to the design and planning. Experts were called in for the flooring, the acoustics, scoreboards, ventilation, lighting, graphics, etc.
The actual work on the project began in December 2018 and was completed in time for the inauguration held on March 16, 2019 at the Gulati Hall followed by the tape cutting by Francis D’Souza, who had flown down from Portugal especially for the occasion.
The first-grade maple wood flooring is imported from the USA and is standard fare for all NBA and FIBA quality courts. The walls have been acoustically treated to absorb sound and minimise reverb and echo. The first thing you see as you enter the hall is a huge portrait of Rev. Fr. Oesch, flanked by the school emblem and ‘Vincenti Dabitur’ and ‘Do. Dare. And Win.’ which are the school’s clarion calls.
One entire wall is covered with nostalgic black and white images of young Vincentians. These photos were gleaned from various archives showing star sportsmen and athletes of the prevailing eras. These include a Runner -up at the Asian Games, winners of various track and field events at the inter-school, city and state levels.
The wall opposite depicts current legends of the Basketball world who inspire our young and budding champions.
The fourth wall is covered with awe-inspiring visuals of the school sports colors that were used over the past few decades.
A big THANK YOU goes out to Francis for his magnanimous contribution and a clarion call to other Vincentians to give back to the school in good measure for the implementation of the next phase of the SVSV project.
Talks are already on with NBA in Pune who are looking to make the Fr. Oesch Hall as their home court in Pune and to also impart professional basketball training to our boys, in our quest to propel them to national and international levels.
With this succsessful accomplishment, we now look forward to implementing the next Phase of our project - a world class track and field infrastructure.
It’s the time for all good Vincentians to come to the aid of the party. We request you to come forward and contribute generously towards building this new sports infrastructure.
Click here for more information about how you can contribute.
