Harry, as Harendra is understood in hockey circles, arrived from Bengaluru to be a part of Hockey India’s ceremony in honour of Sreejesh on Wednesday and shared a heat hug with the veteran Indian goalkeeper earlier than becoming a member of the distinguished friends a part of the ceremony.
Harendra, who’s at the moment the chief coach of the Indian ladies’s hockey crew, was known as upon stage to share his ideas on Sreejesh’s 18-year profession, which included 4 Olympic appearances and ended on a excessive of back-to-back bronze medals in Tokyo and Paris.
Taking place reminiscence lane, Harendra mentioned, “From 2002 to 2009, besides the SAF Video games, this man was working day and evening; and he did not look again since then.”
Choked with feelings, Harendra took a pause earlier than persevering with and concluded with a chunk of poetry he had penned in honour of Sreejesh.
Speaking to Timesofindia.com later, Harendra, who has additionally coached the US males’s nationwide crew, defined what makes his affiliation with Sreejesh since 2003 so particular.
“My relation with Sreejesh is like two brothers, a mentor and a mentee, a pal,” mentioned Harendra. “Once I was mentoring him as a junior from 2003 to 2010, he got here out as an excellent listener, eager learner. Throughout that interval, I bought to grasp him in several conditions and circumstances.”
Sreejesh went on to win two Asian Video games gold medals and two Champions Trophy silver medals over time earlier than ending his profession with two consecutive podium finishes on the Olympics.
“His speciality is willpower and starvation. And the perfect half is he by no means needed to show, he all the time needed to enhance. There’s a huge distinction in that,” mentioned Harendra earlier than explaining it additional.
“Every time he steps onto the pitch, he would not carry the previous in his head, stays within the current. It really is an enormous asset for a goalkeeper if he can keep within the current. For instance, if a goalkeeper concedes a aim and retains enthusiastic about that, then there are probabilities that he’ll concede one other one.”
In 2016, when Harendra was the pinnacle coach of the junior Indian crew that went on to win the World Cup in Lucknow, he introduced Sreejesh in to mentor goalkeepers Vikas Dahiya and Krishan Pathak.
“He all the time needs to serve the nation, whether or not he’s within the crew or not. That is one of many causes I introduced him on as a goalkeeping coach through the 2016 Junior World Cup,” mentioned Harendra.
Now, after placing his goalkeeping package down after an 18-year profession, Sreejesh will step into his mentor Harendra’s footwear as he begins working in his new position because the coach of the junior Indian males’s crew.
In the meantime, Sreejesh’s iconic No. 16 jersey stands retired for the senior Indian crew in his honour.
