ARENA - 2018
Arena, the sports fest of BITS Pilani, Hyderabad Campus, is one of the three main fests the campus is known across India for, and, simultaneously, is one of the best, if not the best sports meets in the entire state of Telangana for students and youth. Arena, brilliantly named for a sports fest, has continued to up the expectations and set benchmarks for itself over the years since its inception. It has been growing and allowing each and every one of its participants grow in experience and mental strength. It’s not the zeal, the organizers, the students, nor the dedicated contender base that has made Arena one and only; the place “where legends are born”.
Arena had been born in a campus still young. Back then, in 2013, it was built from ground up by one Department, along with others like Dopy, Dove, Department of Arts and Deco, that was custom made for handling this, and only this fest. The Firewallz. They made Arena a resounding success for the first time it was organized. There were hundreds of participants from across various Institutions, and sports clubs. Since then, it has grown leaps and bounds to the brand that it is now.
How much exactly Arena has grown is apparent from the fact that earlier, turnout used to be in hundreds. Now, it’s in thousands. Earlier, our own grounds and facilities were enough for the participants. Now, facilities from outside have to be availed. Firewallz booked not one, but two outside Cricket Grounds for the players. Prize Money has increased by thousands, encouraging new players to try and win in the fest tournaments. We have attracted contingents not only from all over the state, but also all over India. There were 3,500 contenders, while many more came to watch. Among the players, needless to say, were people from colleges from the length and breadth of the country. We had NITs like NIT Warangal, NIT Trichy, etc, as well as participants from IIT Madras and IIT Kanpur among other reputed Colleges like JNTU, or Osmania University and many more others from throughout India from all major cities. All this has been possible because of the nationwide name Arena has become. Sponsors and participants this year tended to contact us, before we contacted them so that they can further themselves for being associated with the name of Arena, and that, in itself is quite commendable from a campus that is as young as ours.
In Arena 2018, Chief Guest was Mr. Henry Menezes, an ex-Goalkeeper for the Indian football team, currently the CEO of Western Indian Football Association. Pepsico, an international organization of insanely high reputation, was the title sponsor. Other main sponsors included the Zubi Academy, a Hyderabad based sports academy of National repute, and the Oval grounds. Oval Grounds sponsored the Cricket grounds booked outside campus. This year, the official Arena Pro show was by Candice Redding, who gave an awesome performance.
Most of all, the people for whom Arena is made of and for, the sports community of BPHC gave a commendable performance. The sheer dedication, due to which the athletes and other competitors were seen in any time of the day in the field, or in the sports rooms of the SAC, paid off, as BPHC emerged as the single team with the highest number of collective medals amongst any other college or association. In chess (Boys), Tennis (team), Table Tennis (boys and girls) and Football, our campus won Medals; Chess, Table Tennis team, and Tennis team winning Gold, and Table Tennis Girls and Football team winning silver medals.
One of the main attractions for Arena this year was the Inter BITS tournament. Other than the Pilani contingent not attending, the tournament was an overall success. Goa and Dubai sent their teams, each team winning a few medals. Hyderabad, of course, won the highest number of medals. The Goa contingent was huge, containing over 100 people.
In closing, Arena was a success, as always. New things were tried to improve the experience. An app was launched and maintained solely by the students on campus, in tandem with the website designed by the same students, which provided live feed and other news to the attending people. Participation was larger than ever. Organizing Committee became more organized and vigilant themselves (they were able to secure sports facilities, grounds with rates almost half of previous rates with their experience.) The entire event was flawless, with almost no major hiccups in sight. Most important of all, those who attended had nothing but nice things to say, that we, as a campus were able to gift them some beautiful memories and experiences.