Priya Koravne (15)
Rajawadi Municipal Secondary School
Every time she goes home, Priya is greeted with cries of “Here comes the hockey champion!” But when she was picked up by the academy last year in October, the 15-year-old couldn’t help but be scared. “I thought they would scream at me, but no one did that,” she says. Priya’s father, a driver, was so happy to see his daughter’s name in the newspaper, that he even showed it to his boss, “I have kept that paper very carefully,” says Priya with a smile. Priya has quite a few interests up her sleeve. Besides taking part in sports and training for hockey, she likes dancing and films – her favourite Bollywood actress is Katrina Kaif and of course, she loved Chak De! India. She enjoys studying science, especially biology and wants to be a doctor when she grows up. When asked about how people react to her playing hockey, she says, “They ask me ‘Where are you going? What do you get by playing?’ I just tell them that this feels like a family, that’s why I go.”