by Team Coach Tenzin Dondul

The Jhamtse Football program started on December 20th of 2018, with 24 students. This program was created with the help of an experienced Coach Michael Gonzalez from California. The football program had humble beginnings with only two footballs for equipment, a rocky field, and lots of student enthusiasm. 

Interest in the game was generated during the school sports hours, where students were given free rein to become comfortable with the game by initially playing without any structure. Initially, the game received most of its interest from the male students, which inspired me to construct a proper training regime that would begin at 5:00 AM with basic football drills and exercises for the boys. The training program was extremely successful, and the students' dedication led to a more formal program being created and established. Seeing the boys' success and enthusiasm, the girls too began to show consistent interest, which has led to beginning a girls training program. 

Coach Michael and I have constructed a program that included rigorous daily training to build resilience, stamina, and football skills. The program also had a component to teach the students how to play the game and inculcate sportsmanship spirit in the process. The program's other requirement was for the students to maintain a collectively agreed-upon academic goal to remain in the football. Each student had to sign a contract that held them accountable for their academic progress and responsible behavior. The students were included in creating the contract terms, which had to be signed and followed by them once collectively agreed upon. Failure to adhere to the terms would result in successive warnings and then termination of their membership from the team.

Ownership of the team was another critical aspect of this program. To encourage that, I organized a logo competition where the students created their version of a team logo and entered it into the contest. The logos were voted upon by the Jhamtse community members and an unbiased team formed by Coach Michael. The selection of a student made logo gave the students a sense of achievement, purpose, and ownership for the Club. 

The training sessions became more effective once basic but necessary equipment was donated to the team by Coach Michael at the program's start. Other equipment such as a goal post was created out of junk and the students' sheer creativity. We worked tirelessly to create a football field that was better equipped for the training sessions, even if it was half the size of a standard football field. 

The other significant development of the program was the creation of six, four-member teams that compete against each other every Saturday in the Jhamtse League Cup tournament. This tournament is a yearlong event that allows the students to work on their football skills and sportsmanship spirit in a real game-like environment. The emphasis in all these tournaments is the attitude with which the game is played, and not how many wins each team has. The points for the game are recorded, and person of the match recognitions are given in each game to the player that embodies the spirit of the game.

Recently, seeing the hard work being put in by the team, we had an opportunity to play an external tournament with other more experienced teams. They were excited and terrified at the same time. The team lost all its matches, but instead of feeling dejected, they displayed a sense of achievement at having gotten better with every subsequent game. This was the best win for the team. An added bonus was the team winning the cup for the most disciplined team, which added to their motivations for the future tournaments. 

The football program has given students a chance to deeply care about something and work hard to maintain it and see it grow. Football has become their reason to also try harder in other areas of their lives, such as academics, which was a challenge for many of them. They want to be better at whatever they do due to the same attitude taught in football. The program has proved to be more than just a game. For the students, it has become a reason to be a better version of themselves.