STCJ Jubilee Community Champions Cup Football

With our parish jubilee year around the corner, our enthusiastic 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, Carrom, Table Tennis and Cricket; no trophies or medals, just pure community bonding and to enjoy together as a community. With the Jubilee team taking care of organizing this, the event was called - The STCJ Jubilee Community Champions Cup and we kicked off this event with football for boys and men at Hatrics Turf 2, Sector 19, Airoli on the 8th of February. Fr. Samuel inaugurated the event by encouraging all participants to play the game with the right spirit, to have fun together and to show our unity as a community.

With 7 participating teams (with maximum 6 players on the turf 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. Each team showed up with extreme energy and excitement & gave their best on the turf for their community. After the group stage was done, St. Anthony, St. John and Our Lady of Rosary communities were eliminated, however, they still left with 50 valuable points for their community with 5 more events to go. The first semi final saw St. Jude community go head to head with St. Dominic Savio community & St. Jude's ended up winning the game to reach the finals. The second semi final between St. Francis Xavier community and St. Vincent De Paul community went down to penalty shoot-outs with SFX winning with the final and deciding penalty. St. Dominic Savio community and St. Vincent De Paul community earned 75 precious points for their community by giving their all on the field. The final promised to be an exciting one and a goal festival as it was between 2 teams who had scored the most goals in the tournament & it ended in the favor of St. Jude Community who went home with 150 points in total whilst St. Francis Xavier settled for 100 points.

Although there were no trophies, medals or individual prizes; the best goalkeeper of the tournament was Mr. Savaryson Nadar from St. Jude Community who conceded only 1 goal in 4 matches whilst making some good saves throughout the tournament & Mr. Selwyn Santmajor from St. Jude Community was the top scorer of the tournament with 6 goals scored and was the only player to score a goal in every single game. All participants and other parishioners left the turf with a smile on their faces and with a promise of helping their community members with the next set of events which will be planned in March 2026.