Kavita Akula, an Indian basketball player aged 21, has become the first Indian-born female basketball player to get a full scholarship to a Division 1 (D1) college — Grand Canyon University — in the United States.D1 is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association in the US.
Akula is born in Bhilai, Chhattisgarh, India and comes from a family of basketball players with her aunt and stepbrother being two of them.She was just 10 years when she made the winning shot for her state defeating Kerala and was then tutored by Rajesh Patel, India’s leading basketball coach making her one of the best female players in the country.
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“I want her to stand on her own feet and lead a great life and that would be hard in this small hometown,” her mother said, hinting at the educational opportunities that her daughter wouldn’t receive in their hometown.
At the age of 14, Akula was one of the eight Indian recipients of a basketball scholarship to the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida where she received the opportunity to be in one of the best sports training programs in the world and received an exceptional education.
Under the coaching of WNBA player Shell Dailey at IMG, Akula has learned that in the United States there are many more opportunities for female basketball players than back home.
Dailey said that she was impressed by Akula’s outside shooting skills and after a game of H-O-R-S-E, a shooting game in which participants earn a letter for each shot made, she appointed Akula from point guard to shooting guard.
“I could see why [her coaches in India] would want her to play point guard, because she has excellent leadership skills and she is very clear in her directions,” Dailey said.
Akula in her first year at IMG, let out her frustration as she addressed the team saying “I want you to understand that if I get better, I am able to live a little better in India. My parents are able to live in a better house and our life is just a little bit better. Whereas here these things are given to you, so you think these things are normal. If you take practice seriously, then I am going to become a better player and then I can help my family live a little bit better back in India.”
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“She looked like a tough and talented player when she got to Kansas, but the school was a ‘reality check’ and an opportunity for her to get ‘a little dirt under her fingers,’” the coach at Garden City JC, Nick Salazarsaid. “She’s been playing basketball in Disneyland her whole life,” he added referring to the chances she got earlier playing for Team India and at IMG.
“She is not flashy, but she does stuff that if you don’t have as a basketball team, you will fail,” he said.
Akula wants to go back to India as she has a chance to play for Team India again at the FIBA tournament in the summer. She will start her stint with Grand Canyon University in September.
“I can’t wait to go eat gol gappes with my brothers and sisters, and spend time with my family,” she said, as this would be her first visit back after two years.
By Premji
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