By Ijaz Chaudhry
Pakistan Customs won the National Under 18 Hockey Championship at Islamabad's Naseer Bunda Stadium defeating Punjab 3-1 in the final.
The winning side included no less than eight players from Pakistan's premier hockey nursery, Dar Hockey Academy: Asam Haider & Hassan Akbar (Kot Radha Kishan, district Kasur), M.Hamza & Husnain Javed (Peer Mahal, district Toba Tek Singh), Adil & Bilal Latif (Chichawatni, district Sahiwal), Usman Yousuf (Sangla Hill, district Nankana Sahib), Abdullah Awan (Fort Abbas, dist Bahawalnagar).
The Lahore based academy scouts talent from all over the country. The academy provides free board and lodging to the outstation boys.
The team was in imperious form throughout, won all the six matches, scored 37 goal and conceded just seven.
The Customs team's support staff was also all Dar Hockey Academy.
Head Coach Danish Kaleem (World Cup Winner 1994), Manager Irfan Butt, Assistant Coach Nasir Shahzad and Video Analayst Sultan Ashraf have been associated with the Dar HA for several years.
Ijaz Chaudhry writes on hockey & other sports. For more about him & his work, visit http://www.sportscorrespondent.info