Har Maidaan Fateh

Children of Khalsa; The Surfers; played ‘California Cup 2006’ 3-day tournament during long weekend of Memorial Day. Moorpark College ;home of the 35th annual California Cup Field Hockey Tournament was especially pleasant with many colorful turbans, patkas amongst the most diverse environment. This is once a year event where so many Sikhs come together to play. Only other places where we see them together is at Gurdwaras or Gurpurb celebrations on large scale. It's just a fun event. Teams from Canada, China and all over the world come here to play. Every year we look forward to the Cal Cup. Young ‘Surfers’; beginning age 5 to 16; all played enthusiastically.

Though all other teams had hard luck; our U9 mixed won Silver Medal beating Ch inese Taipei who is known to be the ‘toughest’ to win.

‘Maidaan’ here was not battlefield but hockey grounds of Moorpark College and children had their ‘honsle bulland’ in spite of hard games that they played. Almost all families drove 150 miles a day while waking up in Amrit Vela and driving the young players to the Cal Cup; returning home at 7-9 pm daily. Hats off to doting Dads for their dedication!! The youngest player of Surfers team was a little girl, Mannat Kaur, who is barely 5 yr old. It was so funny to see her mom yelling loud; “Mannat hun saada paasa oudhar nu hai; ball os paase lai ke jaani aa”. Seerat(6) and Harjap Kaur (7) ran a lot; though barely having any clue who to pass or when to stop the ball. It was hilarious to see them ‘dancing’ after each goal they scored. Their play-time was bungee-jumping! Hockey was just a side chore. Thou gh it was a team effort, but I honestly believe that the silver medal belongs to Gurbir Singh (8); who played like a professionally trained player. I can see him following foot steps of Daraspreet Singh Kainth Besides him; the other Sikh children who made to Men's National Squad from Surfers are Koijan Kainth, Daljeet Sagoo, Arjan Reyatt and Amrit Ahluwalia. Information: http://www.calcup.net.