STCJ Jubilee Community Champions Cup Dodgeball & Ball in the Bucket

With our parish jubilee year around the corner, our vibrant parish priest Fr. Samuel Ribeiro came up with an idea of organizing a points based sports event throughout the year for all parishioners of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Church, Airoli in the year 2026. These sports included Football, Dodgeball, Ball in the Bucket, Table Tennis and Cricket; no trophies or medals, just pure community bonding and to play together as a community. With the Jubilee team taking care of organizing this, the event was called - The STCJ Jubilee Community Champions Cup and with football for boys & men already completed, Dodgeball for girls & women and Ball in the Bucket for parishioners aged above 45 was organized on the 15th of March, 2026 at Phoenix International School Turf, Sector 3, Airoli. With 9 participating teams in Dodgeball (with maximum 9 players and 3 substitutes) and 8 teams participating in Ball in the Bucket (with maximum 8 players and 2 substitutes) guaranteed minimum 50 points for participation, there was also a chance for the winners to win 100 more points, for the runners up to win 50 more points and for both semi finalists to win 25 more points. We started with Dodgeball which saw the highest participation till date when it comes to Community level events with 9 communities and over 85 girls and women & every team was guaranteed a minimum of 2 matches & after the first 2 rounds St. Lawrence, St. Francis Xavier, St. Anthony, St. Dominic Savio and Our Lady of Rosary were eliminated. The first semi-final was between St. Vincent De Paul and St. John & St. John put on a show for everyone watching with their extremely high level of energy and excitement as they won to book a spot for themselves in the finals. The next semi-final saw St. Michael and St. Jude battle it out & St. Michael absolutely got their game plan right from the start till the end as they managed to secure a well deserving win to progress to the finals. Before the finals, we were extremely delighted to welcome Mrs. Rahel Khandagle - the Principal of Phoenix International School and also our very own parishioner. She was kind enough to give us her time and also spoke to the participants before doing the toss for the finals. The finals went down to the wire and it was St. John who came out on top with a performance that will be remembered for the ages.

We then moved on to Ball in the Bucket which was a game for parishioners aged 45 and above & with 8 communities and over 75 participants, this was definitely going to be interesting. Since there were 8 teams, the format was much easier with 2 groups and after some close matches in the group stages - Our Lady of Rosary, St. Dominic Savio, St. John and St. Francis Xavier were eliminated. The remaining 4 teams looked to be the strongest with all of them scoring for fun and at will. The first semi-final was a rematch of the dodgeball semi-final as St. Michael and St. Jude went head to head, after 6 minutes of intense action, St. Jude came out on top with a 45-35 victory. The next semi-final saw St. Lawrence take on St. Anthony and it was St. Anthony who won it with the last throw of the ball with the score of 41-40 after 6 minutes. The final was set to be the game of the night as St. Anthony were the winners of the first season of Ball in the Bucket and St. Jude were the champions of the second season. Their meeting in the group stage saw a record breaking score of 46-40 (beating the previous record of 36 each which was held by both communities) but all these were only numbers and stats from the past, the real test was the final and in those 6 minutes, it came down to speed, accuracy, determination and team work as both teams did not miss even one bucket & only missed a chance when the ball was dropped before reaching the respective shooter. At the end of 6 minutes, it was St. Anthony who won against St. Jude with the score of 47-45 with Mr. Arun Colaco and Mr. Edwin Gras scoring buckets after buckets right from game 1.

All participants and other parishioners left the turf after a quick photo session and a fun cricket session & with a promise of helping their community members with the next set of events which will be planned for the STCJ Jubilee Community Champions Cup with the current table after 3 sports looking closer and tighter than ever.