Why Arn't Thier More Sikh Athletes

[1santkhalsa]

i blame pronthe

[dalsingh101]

Come on. Most parents want a safe bet lawyer, solicitor, engineer etc. Sports is very cut throat and if you don't make it you could have ended up wasting many years with no alternative prospects. BUT, as we become more settled and affluent we should see more and more people coming through.

It is quite a risk to invest so much time and effort if no success proceeds it.

I'm just surprised their are no international standard Sikh boxers.

[Matheen]

Come on. Most parents want a safe bet lawyer, solicitor, engineer etc. Sports is very cut throat and if you don't make it you could have ended up wasting many years with no alternative prospects. BUT, as we become more settled and affluent we should see more and more people coming through.

It is quite a risk to invest so much time and effort if no success proceeds it.

I'm just surprised their are no international standard Sikh boxers.

You're right about the parental issue - most professional athletes have and need the full support of their parents.

As for boxing - professional rules forbid beards beyond a certain length for alleged safety reasons.

I think the main reason is cultural - sports are seen as a hobby, not career, amongst most 'aapney'. Look at India - such a huge population, yet only a handful of worldclass athletes (and even that's only in cricket, hockey and shooting).

I know of quite a few Singhs who could have made it in weightlifting, wrestling, cycling and football but in all cases parental pressure held them back.

[mandeep99]

bs when it comes to boxing the beard isn't an issue, that one singh boxer already changed the rules for that. To say sports gets in the way of school is <admin-profanity filter activated> you can do sports and school at the same time, so many athletes are educated and u can use sports to get college scholorships, to go to the nba or nfl you have to go through college football and baskitball first. nba Thats another benifit of sports it helps the kid score a scholorship into college and uni. Playing sports helps kids develop skills in other areas of life which will help them. Sports teaches goal setting time management team work leadership skills.

Here's a sikh going to the NHL and honour role at school

http://www.bchockey.com/story.aspx?c=8&id=96

BY ANDREW CHONG

Burnaby Winter Club forward Kevin Sundher is the winner of the 2007 Minor Hockey Player Achievement Award.

Every year, Hockey Now and the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame honour a B.C. Amateur Hockey Association player who shows exceptional sportsmanship, leadership, hockey skill, and community involvement.

The 15-year-old is too young to drive but he's already doing interviews, meeting with agents, and signing autographs.

"It's a pretty weird feeling, all these little kids coming up to you and asking for your autograph, but I could get used to it," he joked. "To tell you the truth, there were a couple guys in my grade that came up to me and were like, 'can I have your autograph?' They want to sell it and make some money."

Sundher has an exceptional list of hockey credentials and has been on a winning team basically every year he's been at the Burnaby Winter Club.

The Surrey-native's most recent accomplishments include captaining the 2007 BWC Bantam AAA team to a Western Canadian championship, being named the MVP in the gold medal game, and winning the award for the tourney's top forward.

In 66 games this season, Sundher had 77 goals and 173 points—more than 2.6 points per game.

Perhaps his most gamebreaking moment came in the third period of the Western Canadian championship final where he had two goals and an assist in one shift to carry his team to a comeback victory.

"It was actually funny. I was sitting on the bench and they had just scored to make it 3-2 and my dad was up in the stands and he was pacing back and forth and he was scared and I just laughed for a second. I could change the way so many people feel. It was weird. It was weird."

The 5-11, 170 pounder was selected seventh overall by the Chilliwack Bruins in this year's WHL Bantam Draft.

Many rumblings had Sundher going as high as number one, but Sundher had made his intentions clear that he wanted to stay close to home, and that only a select few teams would fit his plans.

Chilliwack head coach Jim Hiller was ecstatic to make Sundher a Bruin, especially since Hiller thought the centreman would be taken in the top three.

"[Hiller's] a guy who's watched hockey for years and he knows his talent," said Sundher. "To be ranked as high as I was was unbelievable, let alone ranked 1, 2, or 3. There's so many good players in that top ten of the first ten that I could've ranked anywhere. But I was pretty excited when I heard [what Hiller thought of me], that I could be that kind of a player, be a 1, 2, 3 overall player – a franchise player, basically."

Off the ice, Sundher has achieved excellent academic standing. Despite being a grade ahead of where he should be because he skipped Grade 3, Sundher has been on the honour roll every year and just finished Grade 10 with 'A' and 'B' grades at Fraser Heights Secondary in Surrey.

In the community, Sundher has volunteered at Surrey-Tynehead MLA Dave Hayer's office for the federal election and hopes to become a junior Liberal next year. He has also served meals at his Sikh temple, collected used clothing for Big Brothers and the Cancer Society, and helped teach martial arts to young students.

Despite all the praise and accolades Sundher receives from coaches, parents, teachers, and friends, he still gets ribbed about a few things.

"I get a hard time being a Leafs fan. Everyone hates the Leafs," he said. "My dream is to be wearing a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey and hopefully be competing for a Stanley Cup. They haven't won a cup in a long time. It'd be pretty sweet wearing the 'C' for the Toronto Maple Leafs, but I'm still a long ways away."

Sunder will formally receive his award next month at the BC Hockey Hall of Fame awards ceremony in Penticton alongside the Hall's 2007 inductees: Stanley Cup-winning general manager, Brian Burke; 741-goal scorer, Brett Hull; long-time Vancouver Canuck defenceman, Dennis Kearns; and NHL officiating manager, Bob Hall.

The Hockey Now Minor Hockey Player Achievement Award was established in 2000 when it was won by Colin Fraser from the AHL Norfolk Admirals. This season, Fraser played his first NHL game with the Chicago Blackhawks.

A committee established by Hockey Now reviews applications and selects the winner.

Other past winners include Tyler Burton from Colgate University of the NCAA (2001), Boston Bruins seventh round draft pick Brock Bradford from Boston College of the NCAA (co-winner 2002), Gilbert Brule from the NHL Columbus Blue Jackets (co-winner 2002), Washington Capitals first round draft pick Karl Alzner from the WHL Calgary Hitmen (2003), Dustin Sylvester from the WHL Kootenay Ice (2004), Geordie Wudrick from the WHL Swift Current Broncos (2005), and Stefan Elliot from the Major Midget Vancouver North West Giants (2006).

[AvnitK]

I want to become an athlete but thing is that parents are forcing me to become a doctor or engineer of some kind

[mandeep99]

I want to become an athlete but thing is that parents are forcing me to become a doctor or engineer of some kind

how old are you and tell them to put you into sports, it brings good benifits, like i put down it will teach you hard work goal setting time management team work skills leadership skills

[AvnitK]

I want to become an athlete but thing is that parents are forcing me to become a doctor or engineer of some kind

how old are you and tell them to put you into sports, it brings good benifits, like i put down it will teach you hard work goal setting time management team work skills leadership skills

ok I'm 15 and in the basketball team at school I told my parents I wanna be a pro athlete but they saay no ur going to become a doctor or engineer

[mandeep99]

I want to become an athlete but thing is that parents are forcing me to become a doctor or engineer of some kind

how old are you and tell them to put you into sports, it brings good benifits, like i put down it will teach you hard work goal setting time management team work skills leadership skills

ok I'm 15 and in the basketball team at school I told my parents I wanna be a pro athlete but they saay no ur going to become a doctor or engineer

Do what you want to do, take that to empower you in baskitball, so many great leaders in history have gone against what ppl told them and used it to empower them to reach their goals, train hard and go for it plus how does working on going pro get in the way of your study's. Focus on going pro with a back up plan but right now just train hard and go for it.

another sikh pasha bains he's probably the closest a sikh has come to the NBA, two time canadian univirsity baskitball scoring champion and one time canadian univirsity baskitball mvp.

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=gLzaBMCxWu0

But we need sikhs to make it professionally and dominate in sports like baskitball hockey football.

Sikhs are spose to be strong and sports helps build that.

[mandeep99]

two proffesional sikh boxers already but we should have more

andrew kooner whose 2 time olympic boxer for canada.

http://www.hennessysports.com/Article.asp?art=275

akash bhatia undefeated and rising fast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akash_Bhatia

http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=NUaM_5McC74

three time world kick boxing champ kash gill

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kash_Gill

he's doing youth alot of good by giving them something to do to keep them out of trouble and hopefully can get troubled sikhs into his school

http://www.birminghammail.net/news/black-c...97319-20152701/

[dalsingh101]

Come on. Most parents want a safe bet lawyer, solicitor, engineer etc. Sports is very cut throat and if you don't make it you could have ended up wasting many years with no alternative prospects. BUT, as we become more settled and affluent we should see more and more people coming through.

It is quite a risk to invest so much time and effort if no success proceeds it.

I'm just surprised their are no international standard Sikh boxers.

You're right about the parental issue - most professional athletes have and need the full support of their parents.

As for boxing - professional rules forbid beards beyond a certain length for alleged safety reasons.

I think the main reason is cultural - sports are seen as a hobby, not career, amongst most 'aapney'. Look at India - such a huge population, yet only a handful of worldclass athletes (and even that's only in cricket, hockey and shooting).

I know of quite a few Singhs who could have made it in weightlifting, wrestling, cycling and football but in all cases parental pressure held them back.

I'm not limiting it to keshdharis. I'm surprised that there are no monay world class heavy weight boxers.