Dakshinamoorthy, a great servant of Indian volleyball

Chennai

As many as 35 players have gone onto represent the country at the international level, with 80+ trainees securing jobs in various departments via sports quota. Having served the volleyball community for over 30 years, Dakshinamoorthy has thrown his name into the hat for the Dronacharya Award, thanks to the support from his wards.

“I never thought about applying for the award. As the deadline (for applications) was extended (by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports), some of my boys – M Ukkrapandian, C Jerome Vinith, R Kamaraj and S Sivarajan – urged me to apply. They wanted me to give it a try. As we are in lockdown currently, I had the time to prepare the application,” Dakshinamoorthy, an FIVB Level III coach, told DT Next.

“Earlier, only those who handled Indian teams and produced good results were eligible for the award. But now, even coaches who develop young talent at the grassroot level are being considered.”

Dakshinamoorthy, who has guided his current employer SRM Institute of Science and Technology (SRM IST) to eight gold and four silver medals at the All-India Inter-University level, felt that an award for him would be a source of motivation for budding coaches.

“It has been 13 years since a volleyball coach won the award [GE Sridharan bagged it in 2007]. Not everyone gets a chance to become the coach of the national team. With the government now recognising work at different levels, I feel more people will get into coaching,” said Dakshinamoorthy, whose application has been forwarded to the Ministry by both the Volleyball Federation of India (VFI) and Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT).

Dakshinamoorthy has been working (part or full-time) with SRM IST since 2007 and has made its volleyball team a force to reckon with. Talking about his stint there, he added: “It is tough to maintain such consistency for a period of time. Players come and go, but we will have to maintain the standard. I handpick the players and make them work hard. My team makes things difficult for sides from north India, who are always contenders for the top prize.”

Besides guiding SRM IST to a number of titles at the university level, Dakshinamoorthy has led it all the way at the Tamil Nadu Senior State Championship for Men twice.

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