Colombo Synergy Rugby & Football Academy (CSR&FA) is planning to stage a gala Awards Night on the 26th of July 2018 at Sasakawa Reception Hall, Col -03 to celebrate its 5th anniversary felicitating the performance of its players, rewarding the best outstanding school boy rugby player of year 2018.
CSR&FA was founded in 2013 with the sole objective of developing Junior Rugby in Sri Lanka with 20 youngsters and by today it has grown to be a haven for 80 kids, mainly from lesser known and international schools that are not engaged in Rugby. Including Ghaffoor, who is also a well-read analyst and coach who produced several national players in the past, there are seven members in the coaching staff.
Nominations has been called from top 8 schools namely Royal, St. Peters, St. Joseph’s, Trinity, Isipathana, Kingswood, Wesley and Zahira who contested the cup category in the second round of the schools’ league this year.
An independent panel consisting experienced members of different professions in Rugby and Media has been appointed to choose the best outstanding school boy rugby player of the year 2018. The best player will walk away with a grand trophy, full scholarship for a higher education degree and many more.
“We strove hard to introduce the game at junior level, mainly to those schools where rugby was a total stranger. By today, we are glad that our efforts have paid off. We were able to open doors to many talented young boys who have taken up this beautiful game of rugby. We believe in values and ethics together with learning the game. We hope this event will take our academy to the next level and players and invitees will witness an unforgettable experience” stated Nazeem Ghaffoor, the Founder and Director of CSR&FA.
The CSR&FA has been conducting its training sessions at the Prison Grounds in Borella since the inception and they are planning to grow bigger in time to come.
“One of our biggest achievements was that CSR&FA had been able to reach players of schools that rugby is not part of their extra-curricular activities. Our exercise in introducing rugby to players of these schools through our academy has turned out to be a great success. One of our major achievements was to get the players from International Schools into rugby. International Schools very seldom show interest on rugby as their main sports are either football or basketball. But CSR&FA has a good number of players from this sector. Another of our efforts is to highlight players from schools that are not into rugby, to the mercantile sector, so they can be supported in the future. We plan to grow and help the children in our academy too grow simultaneously, through events like these. Ramzeen Slamath the Project Chairman and Irfan Lye the Director Administration are spear heading the project” Ghaffoor explained.
The Awards night will be sponsored by Arpico Finance (Al- Jabal) Finance Ltd, who has come forward to support the event and the game with great enthusiasm. Amana Takaful and ICBT Campus will be Silver sponsors of the event. Mr. MYM Mashar in remembrance of late ARM Yousuf will be our bronze sponsor for the event.
Mr. Nilfer Ibrahim, head coach for National under 20 team will grace the awards ceremony as the Chief Guest. Top contributors to and former great in Rugby – Ibrahim ‘Tanker’ Hamid, Tony Amit and Hisham Abdeen will mark their presence at the event as special invitees.
