HARFA 10th anniversary Rugby tournament today at Racecourse
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The HARFA coaching family -- seated at centre is Hisham Abdeen, the Managing Director of the academy
The Hisham Abdeen Rugby Football Academy (HARFA) intends to mark its 10th anniversary celebrations with its annual Inter-Academy 7s Rugby Tournament on a grand scale, today (25) at the Racecourse Grounds commencing at 8.30 am.
Also on the cards will be an Under-8 and Under-10 7-a-Side Open Rugby Tournament, as well as an Over-40 7-a-Side ‘Evergreens’ Tournament for the benefit of well-wishers.
“We are very proud to see many youngsters taking to Rugby through HARFA, to learn the basics of the sport, before representing their respective school teams. We started off with 27 youngsters and today, HARFA has many youngsters learning the game, as well as school and club players, who join the academy to better their skills,” said HARFA Managing Director Hisham Abeen.
Abdeen took to Rugby with passion for the sport from his schoolboy days. He went on to don the Sri Lanka Jersey and captain the National team in his heyday.
At the HARFA 10th anniversary tournament launch
A legend for his heroics, where he once ran down the mighty Japanese, Hisham will cap a 45-year long association with the game, serving a demanding chore of fine tuning latent talent from the tender age of 8 to top flight Rugby players.
“The most important cog in the wheel of Rugby is discipline. If we teach discipline to players and preserve it through them on the field, wonders could take place in Rugby. I seriously look into that aspect, before helping kids develop their Rugby skills. I had to take stern action against two teams which were involved in a fight in one of the finals. Apparently, one of the teams were from HARFA, but, when a mistake is committed, it should be rectified immediately and the correct lesson taught promptly,” Abdeen explained.
Ten years in the job illustrates Abdeen’s commitment to his task of manning HARFA in this academy coaching concept, which has been transformed into a premier entity of its kind. Sri Lanka ‘A’ and ‘B’ Division players will not be eligible for the Open Tournament.
The main sponsor of the tournament will be HARFA’s patron Jan C. Vlaskamp from France, who has had a distinguished coaching career, having coached the Sri Lanka Army team in 1977, and with roots to his own club in France – the Division 1 Rugby Club of Cantonal in Salignac, while Logistics Park (Pvt) Ltd, Malachi Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, Booso’s Dental and Laboratories and R&D Intertrades (Pvt) Ltd, will be the other sponsors.