JFA U-14 National Women's Championship: Santal girls show Thakurgaon the way

Eight girls among the 18-member squad of Thakurgaon district U-14 women's football team hail from different Santal families and at least five of them are regular members in the starting XI who played key roles in their side's final outing in the U-14 National Women's Championship in Dhaka. The anchor of the team, head coach Suga Murmu is also himself a Santal and has been guiding these talented girls for the last three years. The eight Santal girls in the squad also include captain Hanna Hembrom. Left-back Shyamoli Maddi, right winger Juliana Kisku and midfielders Kohati Kisku and Bithika Kisku are regular faces in the playing XI. Among them, Bithika managed to ensure a place in the U-15 national girls' team along with Santal Shohagi. Their next assignment will be the Saff U-15 Championship next month.With confident gestures and words, Hanna, who reads in class eight at Balidara High School, told Dhaka Tribune that it was “difficult” to play football at the beginning in the face of some social resistance. "Girls like us do not usually play football. When we started off, we had to hear lot of discouraging words from the village people, for instance, many of them think the girls should not wear half pants and thus, cannot play football. But my parents stood by me and we continued our practice every day at the Rangatuli field. We are very happy to prove them wrong," said Hanna, who netted a hat-trick against Manikganj in the last match of the group stage.Like the rest of the members of the squad, all the Santal girls hail from the same village of Rangatuli, located in Ranisankail upazila. They also reached last edition's semi-final and won the Fair Play trophy but played the final for the first time Friday. Despite the loss, they looked more determined to do better in the following editions. Hanna's coach Suga, who played for different regional teams for 25 years as a player, said, "All the Santal girls come from very poor families. They have gone through many obstacles to come here. Their families do their living working in other peoples' lands. They would have done a lot better if they had more facilities."